Eight Below (2006) (Full Frame)

Doesn't Shy Away From Harsh Realities

By Collectonian  Jul 8, 2006

Pros: The dogs are awesome, breathtaking scenery

Cons: Seal scene not for young kids, romance aspects unnecessary

The basic story line of Eight Below is that eight sled dogs have to be left behind when an Antarctic Research team has to evacuate suddenly, and they then spend almost six months alone in a harsh winter alone. It's based on a Japanese film called... Nankyoku Monogatari (also called Antarctica), which I haven't seen cause it isn't available on DVD and the prices on the VHS are just plain stupid. On its own Eight Below is a pretty good movie, in spite of it being a Disney release. The eight dogs have distinct personalities and great screen personalities. The human actors do fairly well, though they can occasionally be a little cheesy or clichéd. There is some great camaraderie between the dogs and the humans, particular with the dogs' owner who obviously loves his "kids." While we watch the dogs try to survive we also see his life practically fall apart in his grief when he can't go back for the dogs until spring. When I first heard about this film, I honestly expected it to be fun fluff, a Disneyfied film that cutsies up tragic circumstances. So I was pleasantly surprised that Disney didn't completely go into the "everything is perfect" is world. Eight dogs are left, but not all of them survive the adventure. Parents should be warned, I wouldn't show this to young kids because there is death and at least one fight scene is likely to scare them. That said, Disney did tone down the story some (and for obvious reasons, made it light even though for that time of year the dogs should have spent almost all of their time in darkness). Although I couldn't find a lot of details about it, in the Japanese version had around seventeen dogs left behind, but only two survived. The original Japanese movie is based on a true story about one of their research teams, purportedly from the 50s. As for complaints, the big one is plot holes and missing details. It's never explained how the dogs ate most of the time (I figured out immediately that they ate ice to get water). Also, from the little we see of them eating by the end of the movie the dogs should have lost weight, but they looked fat and healthy and amazingly clean! It's also not explained why they were not left with any food when the team pulled out and left them behind. My only other major complaint is that the leopard seal was obviously computer generated. The whole scene seemed a little unrealistic in terms of how the dogs reacted (considering the intelligence shown throughout the film, the rather stupid actions here seem improbable, though I guess one could say hunger made them a little careless). Despite those complaints, though, I highly recommend this film to dog lovers as long as you can handle seeing the dogs go through a few harsh times. I kinda wish it had focused more on the dogs and less on the people (and the romance issue was totally unnecessary and just wasted film time). Still, it's fun, exciting, and definitely plays on the emotions as I laughed and cried, sometimes with in the same scene. And, of course, we get to see 8 pretty dogs (6 Siberian Huskies and 2 Malamutes) running around on screen for over an hour against the backdrop of some amazing scenery (filmed in Canada and Norway). Now here's hoping all the hype about it will get the studios to release the original Japanese movie on DVD as well. Read more Less