February 18, 2006 -- “Eight Below” is a standard Disney dog movie about sled dogs trapped for months in the Antarctic wilderness. The story is similar to the old Disney film “The Incredible Journey.” You know what you are going to get with this kind of movie. There is the typical Disney mastery of animals with a great team of trainers and animals (provided by the Hollywood firm of Birds & Animals) combining for some amazing stunts. That, indeed, is the film's strong suit. The dogs are the best actors in the film.

The story is based on the 1983 Japanese film “Nankyoku Monogatari” (the English title is “Antarctica”) which, in turn, was based on the famed 1958 Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in which 15 sakhalin huskies were abandoned for one year in Antarctica. Two of them, named Taro and Jiro, incredibly managed to survive, despite having been tied up!

Paul Walker (“The Fast and the Furious”) heads up the human cast. Walker plays Jerry Shepard, an expedition guide for an Antarctic research station. Against his better judgement he takes a meteorite researcher, Davis “Doc” McLaren (played by Bruce Greenwood of “Capote”) to a remote area just before the beginning of the winter storm season. The research station has to be evacuated after the expedition goes south and big storms are spotted, but the dogs have to be left behind. If the dogs are to survive the coming winter, they will have to do it on their own.

Shepard tries to rescue the dogs, but can't get the financial support for a rescue operation, even from the scientist whose life the dogs repeatedly saved. How's that for gratitude? Shepard finally decides to go back to Antarctica six months later, by any means necessary, even though he probably won't find the dogs alive. Jason Biggs plays the role of Cooper, a cartographer who is also Shepard's sidekick and comic relief. The comedy in the film is mainly slapstick aimed at kids. Another sad lack in the film: it should have included “Who Let the Dogs Out?” on the soundtrack.

It is a pretty good yarn, even if it isn't very believable. The film was “inspired by a true story,” but it is not too close to the truth. Perhaps by necessity, the film depicts canines as meat-eating predators. They kill and eat birds. This is the sort of thing seldom seen in movies made for children. Usually these kinds of movies are too timid to show how the world really works. At the other end of the spectrum, the dogs feed on the carcass of a killer whale that died and ended up on top of the ice by some unknown means. They also do battle with a large leopard seal. The dogs give good performances, showing how they survive like a wolf pack, and how the leadership of the pack changes over time. The film shows how domestic dogs can quickly change back to a pack of wild animals. This same behavior was observed in dogs left behind by Hurricane Katrina last year.

In the real story upon which the film is loosely based, the dogs do not survive as a pack. Thirteen of the 15 dogs left behind at Japan's Syowa Station on East Ongul Island in 1958 died. The two that survived did so largely by hunting and eating penguins. After the success of the penguin movie last year, there is no way this film is going to show dogs eating cute little anthropomorphic penguins, even though they would be a lot easier to catch than seagulls, and much more abundant in Antarctica during the winter. Another fact not mentioned in the movie is that dogs are no longer allowed in Antarctica because they spread distemper to seals. The film is set in the year 1993, the last year that dogs were allowed on the continent. The film provides passable entertainment, but may be a bit too intense for some smaller children (the Leopard seal is scary). It rates a C+.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2006 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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