1st March 2006

Since it was first previewed in December 2005, Eight Below has been condemned by online communities of dog lovers and rescue groups from London to Los Angeles, up in arms about yet another unrealistic warm and fuzzy dog movie, and fearful of a rash of Siberian Husky and Alaskan Malamute puppies being dumped by irresponsible owners who couldn’t see past the romantic notion of dog in the perfect, selfless and loyal Lassie image.

Walt Disney Pictures has been made a pariah of the entertainment world with unfriendly rhetoric ranging from abusive to threatening, and yet the inevitable commercial tide moves forward and the movie continues to do well in box office sales, reaching number one in the U.S. over the long Presidents Day weekend.  And now it’s gearing up to mush Down Under.

So what really will happen when this prophesied apocalypse hits our theaters in April?  Will pounds be overrun by pet store puppies run wild in the backyards of suburbia, and turned over to animal welfare once negligent owners finish turning them into social monsters?  It happened before with 101 Dalmations and Snow Dogs!  Or did it?

No, the world is not about to come to an end.

In Easter 2006 Buena Vista Australia will release its latest family action adventure film set against the stark backdrop of an American Antarctic research station, and tracing the story of a team of eight working sled dogs, left to fend for themselves in the barren Antarctic wastelands bordering the Ross Sea, when weather forces them to be abandoned before a rapidly approaching winter freeze.  Although not a documentary, the movie was inspired by the real life story of a 1958 Japanese scientific expedition to the Antarctic where several marooned dogs miraculously survived for six months alone until their handlers returned.  The colorful Disney remake is only a reflection of these events however and has more to do with tugging the heartstrings than teaching the hard truths.

Having seen the movie in February, it’s not the rescue disaster it promised to be.  And it should come as no surprise that on reflection some of the most vocal opposition to its release had come from people who had not yet seen it.

If you love dogs, and which of us here does not, it could be the movie you’ve been waiting for.  At last a dog film that’s more about dogs than people – and the stunningly beautiful canine stars get an equal share screen of time to tell their story, with extended visual sequences and intricately crafted action devoid of the normal editing tricks that make you cringe.  For once the dogs are more than part of the story, they are the story, and as much the stars as the people. It’s pleasing to see Buena Vista’s tribute to the canine actors in cast credits too.

The final forgotten member of the cast is the unforgiving landscape of Antarctica itself.  The direction and photography appears to be intentionally simple but is highly effective and doesn’t try to overshadow the story with artificial notions of natural beauty.  The scenery speaks for itself and is both magnificent and merciless, as it is in real life.

The dog trainers among us will marvel at the feats these amazing animals perform on camera, and although the Hollywood version of canine obedience is clearly at work in much of the action, it doesn’t detract from the storyline, which is less about the ‘why’s of their predicament and more about tracing a line of events through this impossible survival story.  In fact if you didn’t know the real-life parallel of Eight Below, you’d be well forgiven for not believing a single frame, and the jaw dropping impossibility of the tale will leave you amazed as it unfolds in stages throughout the film.

Although the four-legged stars steal the show, the human performances are credible although less inspired than they might have been.  The interwoven romantic and scientific sub plots were also not as weak as this kind of movie normally delivers and overall the story holds together till the end.   Perhaps the only flaw for which the film must be forgiven is the CG leopard seal that makes several key appearances throughout the plot.  From personal experience they’re neither that big nor that dangerous, but then Disney did need to find a villain more animated than frozen ice.

Yes, it’s a tearjerker and you can’t help your heart going out to these dogs whether you mean it to or not.  All of us know the graceful beauty and bearing of these amazing creatures and have experienced their infectious personality and love in our lives, and why else would such a film be made if not to play our emotions like a fiddle and draw us in for as much sympathy as can be mustered.  You’ll wish for sure you had your own dogs with you when you see it.

As for rescue, the outcry is perhaps undeserved.  Was 101 Dalmations the event that sealed the fate of that uniquely spotted breed?  Animal People research showed that based on registry statistics the number of breeding Dalmatian females was not sufficient to produce a discernable blip in the overall dog reproduction or shelter intakes in the U.S.  And today the story is likely to be the same for the Siberian Husky.

That people worry about the consequences of portraying dogs in the media indicates more clearly than ever we have a latent issue in our society, an issue of back yard breeding, homeless dogs and institutionalized euthanasia.  The problem was there before the film and the problem will be there long after it.  The kind of furor this film generates is a symptom not a cause and if more dogs do end up in the pound because of it, it will have simply been the catalyst not the reason.

More than anything the advent of breed publicity in films like Eight Below is an opportunity to inform people about the marvelous nature of the Siberian Husky (and Malamute) breed, the folly of pet store puppies and the plight of pound dogs everywhere.  Of course SHCNSW aims to work actively with Buena Vista in raising the profile of these dogs and providing breed education at every opportunity.  Indeed what better outcome could there be.

So see and enjoy the film for what it is, a poignant family adventure in the Disney tradition.  It’s one for my DVD shelf for sure!

Images reproduced by permission.

Internet links of interest:

Official web site:
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/8below/

A heartwarming story of two Eight Below cast members:
http://www.sleddogrescuetn.com/hollywood.htm