Jackson Booth-Millard
If you liked The Snowman or Father Christmas, then here is another Christmas film from Raymond Briggs. It doesn't have any dialogue, but the music just makes it just as good as The Snowman, it even appears a tiny bit from it. Basically a little girl really loves bear's, especially polar bears. When she loses her teddy bear in the polar bear sanctuary, she is one night visited by a polar bear that returns it. Together that night they go through the snow, follow a large ghost polar bear, have a bath and much more. The animation is just quality, the music is perfect and the end theme sung by young Charlotte Church makes this one of the essentials for Christmas television. Very good!
orliorliorli
I love this film and i thought it had so much charm and was delightful to watch. I almost felt obliged to like before i saw it not only because it was my godmother who worked with the producers and animation team to create the film, but also because i had photo's taken of me to model Tilly, but when i saw it i was delighted and was over the moon to have contributed to it. The music is lovely and the atmosphere is simply gorgeous. congratulations to the producers and to Charlotte Church who sang at the end. Well done all! I hope to see many more films of the sort and i am sure they will live up to the same standard at films like The Snowman and of course the Bear.
liftin
The Bear and the other animated Raymond Briggs (based on his books), The Snowman, are examples of how drawings and music, without dialog, can give a sublime narrative experience. This film is romantic and fantastic, about imaginative power. Anyone with young kids knows it is rare to find a movie equally enjoyable for adults 6-year-olds and 2-year-olds, but these films are as close to universal as it gets. The music is wonderful -- it reminds me of George Enescu's Octet.The drawings are simple in style, but the animation is actually sophisticated and quite beautiful - although I've only seen it on VHS with its low quality. I"m sure that on film these films look even better.
Ron Oliver
THE BEAR, huge and gentle - which makes its way from the London Zoo into the bedroom of a lonely little girl - takes her on a magical journey across the Wintertime landscape.Haunting & evocative, this lovely little animated film - told entirely without narration or dialogue, is a most fitting successor to author Raymond Briggs' earlier triumph The Snowman, to which, at one point, it pays subtle homage. After enjoying the broad comedy of the Polar Visitor trying to hide in the proper English home, the viewer is swept into the Northern sojourn which fulfills the Bear's quest.Howard Blake's score propels the fanciful images onward; the final song is sung by Charlotte Church.
AD
