Movie Description
An orphaned cub and a wounded giant grizzly join together to begin a desperate quest to escape their most feared enemy - man. They travel across the unspoiled wilderness in their search for safety, until the hunted and the hunter come face-to-face with each other and their own survival.
| Credits | | Cast: | Andre Lacombe, Tcheky Karyo |
| Details | | Sound: | Stereo Sound |
Notes
DVD Features
Region 1
Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Dolby Digital 2.0 - French, Spanish
Subtitles - English, French, Spanish - Optional
Additional Release Material:
Featurette - 1. Making Of
Documentary - 1. Behind the Scenes
Bonus Trailers
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Selections
Text/Photo Galleries:
Biographies
Production Notes, Estimated budget $25 million. The film grossed more than $100 million in its theatrical release.
Doug Seus was the Biological and Storyboard Consultant; Doug Seus, Lynne Seus and Clint Younreen were the Behavioral Trainers for the kodiak "Bart" and the cub "Youk;" Mark Wiener, Keith Bauer and Madeleine Klein were the Bear Trainers for "Doc" and "Grizz" (stand-in bears).
The animatronic bears used in some scenes were created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Animatronics is a technique that permits the remote-control animation of objects and characters.
Director Jean-Jacques Annaud described the film's story to producer Claude Berri in four lines: "An orphan bear cub. A big solitary bear. Two hunters in the forest. The animals' point of view."
Prior to this film Annaud directed "Quest for Fire", in which the actors spoke little, and only in an invented "primitive" language. Here, the script contains only 657 words for three human actors.
Shot-by-shot storyboard drawings were created for the film and then given to the animal trainers so that they could coach the bears to perform every specific action called for by the story. The training of the bears took nearly four years.
Although set in British Columbia, the film was shot on location in the national parks of Northern Italy and the Austrian Tyrol (settings in the heart of the Dolomite Mountains). The last scene, however, was shot in the Canadian Arctic wilderness (the Polar Circle near the MacKenzie delta), because Annaud wanted the beauty of that vast, wild territory.
During a publicity shoot, Annaud was attacked by Bart, the full-grown Kodiak, who perceived a quick, sharp movement by the director as an attack. Annaud only escaped serious injury by curling up and playing dead.
Shot in Panavision.
Editorial Reviews
"...Sympathetically imagined, meticulously organized and grandly executed....These movie makers want you to feel the thrill of life, of all life..."
Los Angeles Times - Michael Wilmington (10/26/1989)
"...It's part slasher flick, part nature film. Plenty of pretty pictures, too..."
Total Film - Daniel Webb (12/01/2003)
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