God-awful adaption of a really good book

tord-1

Robert Franklin Leslie's book The bears and I has continued to be a favourite of mine for over a quarter of a century, together with books like Nevil Shute's Trustee from the Toolroom, Hugh Lewin's Bandiet, Mark Vonnegut's The Eden Express and Maclean's HMS Ulysses, all stories about unusual people doing unusual deeds, two of them fictional and three autobiographical. The two fictional stories have a true ring to them, Maclean even writes that his book is based on his brother's experiences during WWII!

But this Disney film version turns a true story into a Keystone Cops event, where the original deals with the magic of nature and the coming rape of the virgin BC wilderness,an exploitation that Leslie and his Indian friends try to stop.

The Disney version is just a film about three cuddly bear cubs, where the Indians naturally are evil and the white men oh so nice, clean-shaven; naturally 100% Politically Correct (even before the expression was coined) and very, very Disney!

Happily, Disney has later made great things, like Tron, A Bug's Life and Lilo & Stitch (Lilo & Stitch: the movie is, on the other hand, awful)!

score 2/10

tord-1 9 February 2004

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0133632/