Arctic Tale (2007)

[bunniefuu]

Far beyond the world we humans know,

there is a remote and ancient kingdom.

To most of us,

it seems a frozen wasteland.

But to creatures designed

for astonishing cold,

it's always been a paradise on Earth.

Snuggled deep in this protective ice,

one little life is just beginning.

For weeks she's lived in darkness.

Staring at the circle of light above her.

What lies beyond it?

Curiosity leads her

to peek into the light for the first time.

- Nanu, - she might be called in the north.

- Little polar bear. -

The world outside is a blanket of white

unfolding before her.

It is a majestic place

unlike any other on Earth.

A vast kingdom

at the very top of our world.

A kingdom of ice.

There's another youngster

exploring for the first time.

She sees a blue world of ice water.

Seela is a walrus pup, only hours old,

but like the young bear,

eager to discover the world around her.

Like all newborns,

they have much to learn.

They're children of the Arctic,

their lives cradled

by the ice around them.

But their world is changing.

And they will face challenges never

before encountered by their species.

Their adventures begin today.

It all begins one spring

on this snow-covered mountain.

Nanu's mother has had enough

of her cramped cave.

She's remained in the birthing den for

six months without eating or drinking.

In the dark of winter,

she produced twins,

Nanu and her brother.

It's 20 degrees below zero today.

Piercing cold.

Perfect for a polar bear.

Nanu's a little hesitant to leave the den.

But when your mother is a polar bear

and she calls you, you'd best be going.

Nanu is feisty.

Her brother, a little timid.

She's ready to play anytime.

Hey! Hole in one!

There are more serious days to come.

Survival is so demanding here

that Nanu and her brother

will need three years of basic training.

But just waking up

is enough for one day.

Polar bear boot camp starts tomorrow.

From Snow Mountain, the ocean

surface for 30 miles out is frozen

into a hard sheet of ice.

Just beyond lies

the world of Seela's birth.

A maze of ice floes

that serves as a protected nursery.

Here, a walrus mother

can lavish care on her newborn pup.

Using their sensitive whiskers,

they memorize each other's face for life.

That's right.

Those sweet 'staches

aren't just for style.

But Seela has a second face to learn.

Another female has been waiting

to hear those first barks.

She'll act as an aunt

and fierce protector

until Seela is old enough

to face the world on her own.

It's a three-year commitment,

starting now.

The first skill to master

is getting out of the water.

If Seela fails,

she'll get too cold and drown.

As Auntie keeps watch for predators,

Seela's mother

patiently shows her how.

Problem is,

practicing somersaults

is much more fun.

Her mother can urge

her 80-pound infant along.

But Seela's got to master

the heavy lifting on her own.

It's gonna be a long three years

with this little handful.

Auntie must wonder

what she signed up for.

On Snow Mountain, Nanu's brother

is delaying the start of a family trip.

He still hasn't quite mastered that hole.

Nanu's mother can't wait any longer.

She's starving.

Her only hope for finding food is to

venture down onto the frozen ocean,

her age-old hunting grounds.

And so they begin

the wandering life of polar bears,

leaving behind their birthplace

for unknown adventures ahead.

They soon pick up a little tagalong.

Nanu's mother finds a worrisome sign,

tracks left by the only animal in

the ice kingdom that can threaten her.

A male polar bear.

She knows that, given the chance,

he might attack her cubs.

But the male bear

is more interested in something else.

He's caught a scent on the wind,

miles away.

Newborn walrus.

At first glance,

Seela looks like easy pickings.

Auntie senses danger.

As the bear gains on them,

Auntie races to block him.

The bear is powerful, all right,

but he weighs half as much as Auntie

and he has no leverage in the water.

He withdraws, for now.

Seela is luckier than she'll ever know.

A female walrus

doesn't give birth very often.

So Seela is treasured,

not only by her mother and aunt,

but by the whole herd.

And they're not just a group,

but a close family.

A really close family.

All on top of each other,

all up in each other's business.

Cousins, grandmothers, grandfathers.

And what family doesn't have

a scary uncle?

Not far off, a distant cousin

of the walrus heads for the surface.

A ringed seal maintains several

breathing holes throughout the ice field.

Her private portals between sea and air.

Trouble is, she never knows

what ferocious predator

might be waiting at the surface.

She can handle a gull stare-down,

but the ringed seal

is the favorite food of polar bears.

In fact, that's what Nanu's mother

is hunting right now,

followed by Nanu and her little brother,

and their foxy little friend.

The ringed seal has one great ally

against the bear, the ice.

She can sneak into a cave

hidden under the hard surface snow

and hope that the bear can't find her.

Unluckily for the seal,

Nanu's mother can smell

through three feet of snow.

It's like playing hide-and-seek

with someone with x-ray vision.

Nanu will soon learn

it's not that easy to get a meal

in the ice kingdom.

The prey escapes 19 times

for every one success.

But you can't give up

when you've got babies to feed.

A first meal in six months

sustains the mother

and becomes milk for her cubs.

And for the clever tagalong, leftovers.

Unlike the mother bear,

a walrus seldom hunts alone.

When one gets hungry,

the whole herd does.

That's just how they roll.

This is Seela's first hunt,

and she'll need stamina, because

it will last for three straight days.

They work as a team

looking for remembered landmarks.

You'd think something as large

and in charge as a walrus

would take on something fierce.

This is the battleground.

And the prey?

A clam.

Each walrus can eat

4,000 clams per meal.

It'll take Seela years

to master the walrus way of clamming.

Snuffling them out with whiskers,

blasting them open with a snort,

and sucking the meat out.

But first, you've got to catch

the slippery little suckers!

In the chaos, some neighbors run.

Some even fly.

The herd never gets every clam.

Those left behind

will replenish the clam bed

for the herd's return in five years.

After three days of feasting on clams,

the herd's tendency to do everything

together extends even to digestion.

Someone starts a game

of pull-my-flipper,

and before you know it...

By the end of spring,

Nanu's family and other bears

in the ice kingdom have also feasted.

Seal hunts have filled their bellies.

In the Arctic,

a time of plenty is reason to celebrate.

In the ancient rhythms of the north,

the days of abundance

for Nanu and her family

end with the approach of summer.

A time of fasting for bears,

whose hunting grounds crack open

in a brief season of warmth.

The 24-hour sun

penetrates long-dark waters

and works its magic.

An expl*si*n of life draws

hungry sea creatures to the far north.

Across the ages,

summer has always shrunk

the ice fields for a short time.

But cold returns with autumn,

and the ice quickly reclaims the coast,

then grows slowly seaward.

Ready to break their summer fast,

Nanu and her family waited

for their hunting grounds to reform

out on the frozen ocean,

practicing for the seal hunts to come.

Their mother coaches them

on technique.

And something else as well.

Pressing Nanu,

she tries to instill a kind of toughness.

A determination not to give in.

Nanu seems to have what it takes.

Her brother lacks focus.

Finally, a sign.

Darker days herald the return of winter,

and with it,

sea ice frozen solid enough to hunt on.

Just in time.

Nanu and her family are hungry.

But something is different this year.

The ice isn't hard at all.

This is not like any winter

Mother Bear has seen before.

They'll have to go back

and wait for the ice to thicken.

And until it does, they'll remain hungry.

Seela's family is also looking

for ice strong enough to hold them.

Weeks pass.

What the animals of the ice kingdom

can't know

is that their ancient ways of surviving

are about to be tested.

The sea, and the air above it,

are warmer than in the past.

The ice struggles to reform.

Finally, the ice returns here,

but three months late.

All seems normal again

in the ice kingdom.

But there's been too little snow

to create a birthing cave,

so the ringed seal's pup

is exposed on the ice,

in plain sight of her greatest enemy.

It's a challenge as well

for Nanu's mother,

who specializes

in catching hidden prey.

How is she going to surprise a seal

that can see her coming?

Her charge is a complete failure.

Nanu reminds her mom how it's done.

"Yeah, thanks for the pointers, kiddo! -

Mother Bear knows

that birds flock to food,

so they follow the birds.

There's a meal somewhere nearby.

But the only way to reach it

is to pass right by its owner,

a male bear.

Driven by hunger,

they take a tremendous risk.

They escape, but their hunger grows.

And now a fresh danger gathers.

An Arctic blizzard.

Storm winds seem to blast

with more fury than in the past,

slamming harder into coastal seas

once shielded by solid ice.

The herd heads to deeper waters

to ride out the storm.

But at sea,

they struggle to keep together,

battered by 15-foot swells.

A strong one separates Seela

from the others.

Her mother and aunt

search desperately,

but she's nowhere in sight.

On land,

the temperature drops to -40.

The wind reaches 80 miles per hour.

The storm is taking a toll.

Brother Bear is suffering.

For the first time in Nanu's life,

he's not right at her back.

Their mother pleads with him

to press on.

He tries to obey,

but hunger has made him too weak.

Nanu and her mother snuggle with him,

sharing their warmth.

But as time passes,

he drifts further away.

And then, he's gone.

Nanu and her mother stay at his side.

But finally, they must move on.

At sea, Mother and Auntie

are still looking for Seela.

Beyond their range of vision,

she barely clings to life.

She can't last much longer.

Her strength fades,

along with the herd's hopes

of finding her.

But mother and Auntie refuse to give up.

Following a strong current,

they go farther than before,

and manage to find

what seemed lost forever.

A youngster who held out,

waiting for the two adults

who always come for her.

Two springs pass in the ice kingdom,

and through each, a strange music

rises from below the ice.

In her second year,

now showing off little tusks,

Seela's begun to notice the odd sounds.

They're walrus love songs,

produced in the throats of young males,

and so complex in structure

it takes years to perfect them.

Until they're worth listening to,

the ladies have got

better things to do with their time.

Nanu has grown as well.

At two years old,

she's still dependent on her mother.

But a morning comes

when her mother remains distant.

Changing conditions

are forcing her mother

to do something earlier than usual.

Nanu sees something in her mother's

eyes that she's never seen before.

One look tells her

that life with her mother is over.

Mother Bear can no longer

provide for them both.

In order for them to survive,

she must drive Nanu away.

Leaving is the hardest thing

Nanu has ever done.

But it's also hard for her mother.

She can't protect

her young one anymore,

nor even see how she fares.

She may never see her again.

And so, only in her second year,

Nanu embarks on a life all alone.

Well, not all alone.

Earlier than expected,

spring warmth envelops the Arctic.

The hunting grounds are flooded.

There aren't any seals here.

So Nanu heads out

beyond the ice she knows,

hoping to find something to eat.

Anything.

Thick-billed murres are new to her.

Hardly a mouthful apiece,

but under the circumstances,

worth investigating.

But as Nanu is about to discover,

there's something fishy

about these birds.

Nanu hasn't got a chance.

What kind of bird flies through

the ocean instead of the sky?

Then, something even more bizarre.

Creatures she's never seen before.

Nanu has come upon

a herd of narwhals,

the unicorns of the sea.

Their ivory tusks, laced

with nerve endings, are so sensitive

they're able to taste the air and the sea,

reading the temperature and weather.

Like a lost tribe of the Arctic,

the narwhals roam the sea,

bearing silent witness

to the changing times.

Never before has the Arctic ice

broken up so early and so abruptly.

Hunting is impossible.

Unlike Nanu, Foxy can't swim.

Stymied by the melting ice,

he'll have to say goodbye to his bear.

Nanu faces her own crisis.

She's never been stranded

on shattered ice.

Never been so hungry.

Never been in circumstances

where her mother's training

was no help at all.

Farther at sea,

the walrus herd clings

to the few remaining ice rafts.

In the cramped conditions,

tempers flare.

Seela has never experienced

a bad ice year.

The adults have,

though never one this severe.

Finally, one walrus triggers a collective

decision to abandon the shrinking ice.

They'll have to search for a new home.

They'll have to search for a new home.

They can't go to the shore

near Snow Mountain,

because of the bears there.

So they take their chances

in the open sea,

aiming for a distant island

where they'll be safe.

They'll have to travel day and night

on a week-long, 200-mile swim.

Back on the broken ice field,

Nanu's whole world seems

to be turning upside down.

Should she stay on the remnants of ice,

where she can't find food?

Or follow the scent of prey

out into the unknown sea?

Now is the time to be bold.

But not hasty.

Driven by a fierce will to survive,

she risks everything.

Finally, they reach a refuge far at sea,

Rock Island.

The herd is exhausted.

But before they can rest,

they must find a place to haul out.

Seela is too tired to swim another inch.

But getting out could be a problem.

Climbing up steep rocks is even harder

than crawling onto an ice floe.

They'll have to lift

2,000 pounds of blubber,

using only the strength of their flippers.

Maybe they should have laid off

some of those clams.

The herd's slumber

might not be so deep

if they knew who had reached

the island before them.

The male bear.

And where there's a bear...

He's a local fox,

dressed in summer camouflage.

On Rock Island,

he doesn't really need leftovers.

There are more murre chicks

than he can possibly eat.

There's nowhere to run.

And they're still too young to fly.

Caught between a fox and a hard place,

a murre father

makes a remarkable request.

The leap of faith

inspires the entire flock.

One youngster finds refuge in the sea.

Another, in the nick of time,

on a rare raft of ice.

Nanu has paddled for days,

and grown so exhausted

that she nearly drowned.

This tiny place to rest

has saved her life.

On Rock Island,

the summer sun generates a heat wave.

The temperature climbs

well above freezing.

The warmth triggers

an exasperating itch,

and an itch must be scratched,

no matter where, no matter how.

Seela has an itch of her own,

to escape the crush of her family,

if only for a while.

Walruses aren't designed

for mountain-climbing,

but she pushes on.

Auntie sees Seela

wandering off on her own

and starts after her

as fast as her blubber will allow.

Suddenly, Seela disappears.

When Auntie calls,

she gets no response.

Seela is strangely silent.

Her adventure has taken

a terrifying turn.

A stumble has left her trapped

on a narrow ledge.

And someone has spotted her.

The male polar bear

moves closer to attack,

and Seela takes desperate action.

She'll be sore,

but alive.

Now she races to warn the others.

Auntie is the last one off the island.

Seela's mother finds her,

and Auntie joins them.

The bear bides his time.

Seela and family retreat

to another part of Rock Island.

They join the other herds driven here

by the vanishing Arctic ice.

The changing conditions

have left many stranded and vulnerable,

and others desperate and hungry.

Nanu reaches

the shallows of Rock Island,

after a long week at sea.

For a day now, she's been spurred on

by the scent of prey on the wind.

But now that she's gotten

a look at them,

she's not so confident.

These are no ringed seals.

Nothing in Nanu's experience tells her

how to take on these big walruses.

The adults are three times her weight,

armed with teeth like daggers.

Maybe she can find one weak enough

or small enough to handle.

Hunger compels her forward,

despite the odds.

But she's too young, and too small,

and they're being

completely unaccommodating.

Her last chance seems to be no chance.

Nanu may have come all this way

only to starve.

The old male bear, however,

plans an attack from the sea,

and makes his move

while the unsuspecting herd is napping.

The male bear approaches downwind.

He slips in undetected.

Seela makes for the water behind

her Auntie, but the bear grabs her.

Auntie doesn't hesitate.

She races back to save the youngster.

Her courage allows Seela

to escape to the sea.

In an act of devotion, Auntie

makes the ultimate sacrifice.

Seela waits,

but Auntie will not return.

Meanwhile, Nanu is growing weak.

Without food,

she can't last much longer.

She knows the male is not

in the habit of sharing,

and that he could easily k*ll her.

But now is the time to call on

the toughness her mother taught her.

She refuses to give in.

He must share his k*ll or she will die.

And so she stands,

and keeps standing,

until he allows her to take

what she needs.

A single death

preserves the lives of many.

For the next four years, Nanu and Seela

are driven to this rocky outpost

as the sea ice melts earlier and earlier.

The increasing warmth has

made a demanding world more difficult,

disrupting the ancient rhythm

of the seasons,

gradually dissolving the ice kingdom,

turning its rightful masters

into refugees.

All over the Arctic,

animals wait longer and longer

for signs that the ice is returning.

At long last,

an old walrus in the herd catches

the far-off scent of sea ice and cold.

It's time to go home.

Nanu also returns

to the ice kingdom of her birth.

In the spring of her eighth year,

there's an added excitement

to being home.

Most of her life,

she avoided male bears.

Now she finds herself drawn to one.

And so begins a communion

as old as time,

but is of special importance

in a disappearing world.

Later that year,

driven by instinct and memory,

Nanu climbs Snow Mountain.

For the first time since she was a cub,

she interrupts her life of roaming

and seeks out the warmth

of a hidden den.

She disappears for the winter

beneath a blanket of ice and snow.

Meanwhile, Seela's tusks

have filled out nicely,

and the boys are taking notice.

She knows what they're after.

But Seela's got no time

for just any old male.

She has standards,

unlike some other females she knows.

Seela is holding out

for something special.

When a male is, well, motivated,

he can sing for 50 hours straight.

And one of these Romeos

is still trying for Seela.

Something about the pitch

of his song finally moves her.

On Snow Mountain,

where she was born,

Nanu produces a miracle of the north.

And she's got a brother.

With the arrival of spring,

Seela delivers a miracle of her own.

A new pup, a new mother.

A new Auntie.

All across this special place,

children of the Arctic

make their way into the world

as they have for thousands of years.

Their fates are forever tied

to the shifting rhythms of the ice

that defines them,

their lives wrapped

in the blanket of cold

that keeps this kingdom theirs.

What will their children do

if it disappears?

What will ours?

If we change the way we live,

we can help save the lives of lots of

people and animals all over the world.

If you turn off the lights

every time you leave a room,

it'll give all the animals

in the Arctic a brighter future.

If everyone replaced one regular

light bulb with a compact fluorescent,

it would be like

taking one million cars off the road.

If your mom and dad buy a hybrid car,

it'll make it easier

for polar bears to get around.

If you wash your clothes in cold water,

you use 80 percent less energy

which keeps the water where the

polar bears live from getting warmer.

If you turn down

the temperature in your home a little,

you can keep the temperature

from rising where the Walruses live.

Drive less, carpool more. Take the bus.

When you don't have far to go,

you can walk, bike, skate,

or if you're a walrus, you can swim.

If you take two minutes less

in the shower,

you can save enough water

to fill up a swimming pool in a year.

If you tell your parents

to buy fresh food instead of frozen,

you'll help save energy and animals.

If you can figure out

how to make cheap, renewable energy,

you'll be saving the world.

That would be awesome.

Plant a tree.

Plant trees everywhere.

Plants lots of trees.

Plant millions of trees.

Ask your teachers

about global warming.

What we do in our homes affects theirs.

We have to change the way we live.