CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

83 Alexandra
80 Band's Visit, The
76 Beauty in Trouble
47 Bella
80 Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
59 Blind Mountain
55 Bra Boys
60 Brick Lane
70 Caramel
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
83 Chop Shop
83 Chris & Don. A Love Story
78 Counterfeiters, The
52 Diminished Capacity
64 Dreams with Sharp Teeth
73 Duchess of Langeais, The
84 Edge of Heaven, The
52 Elsa & Fred
79 Encounters at the End of the World
62 Expired
64 Fall, The
51 Finding Amanda
57 Flawless
86 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
63 Foot Fist Way, The
60 Fugitive Pieces
45 Full Grown Men
55 Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
69 Go-Getter, The
74 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
63 Gunnin for that #1 Spot
68 Heartbeat Detector
34 Holding Trevor
68 Honeydripper
55 Irina Palm
69 Jellyfish
60 Jihad for Love, A
68 Kabluey
62 Kiss the Bride
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
82 Last Mistress, The
38 Life Before Her Eyes, The
70 Love Songs
64 Married Life
30 Meet Bill
33 Miss Conception
53 Mister Lonely
75 Mongol
52 Mother of Tears, The
52 My Blueberry Nights
71 My Brother Is an Only Child
84 My Winnipeg
61 On the Rumba River
69 Operation Filmmaker
61 OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83 Paranoid Park
72 Priceless
51 Promotion, The
55 Quid Pro Quo
29 Red Roses and Petrol
79 Reprise
71 Roman de gare
56 Sangre de mi sangre
51 Savage Grace
76 Shotgun Stories
66 Son of Rambow
70 Standard Operating Procedure
62 Stuck
72 Surfwise
81 Tell No One
56 Then She Found Me
xx Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
71 To the Limit
54 Tracey Fragments, The
70 Trumbo
72 Tuya's Marriage
83 U2 3D
56 Unknown Woman
86 Up the Yangtze
79 Visitor, The
62 Wackness, The
37 War, Inc.
64 Water Lilies
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?
55 Without the King
72 Woman on the Beach
64 XXY
67 Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75 Young@Heart

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Arctic Tale
Paramount Vantage

Arctic Tale reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 64 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.0 out of 10
based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: G

Starring Queen Latifah

From National Geographic Films, the people who brought you March of the Penguins and Paramount Classics, the studio that brought you An Inconvenient Truth, Arctic Tale is an epic adventure that explores the vast world of the Great North. The film follows the walrus, Seela and the polar bear, Nanu, on their journey from birth to adolescence to maturity and parenthood in the frozen Arctic wilderness. Once a perpetual winter wonderland of snow and ice, the walrus and the polar bear are losing their beautiful icebound world as it melts from underneath them. (Paramount Vantage)


GENRE(S): Documentary  
WRITTEN BY: Kristin Gore
Mose Richards
Linda Woolverton
 
DIRECTED BY: Sarah Robertson  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: December 4, 2007 
Theatrical: July 25, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Positioned to be the environmental documentary of the year.
Read Full Review
75
The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
For all the inevitable comparisons to March Of The Penguins, Arctic Tale isn't quite a nature documentary.
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
The best reason to see this documentary is for the stunning shots of polar bears and walruses in the Arctic Circle. If the filmmakers had just left it at that, they would have accomplished a lot.
Read Full Review
75
USA Today Claudia Puig
Whatever problems some might have with its execution, it's hard to argue against a film whose intent is to kindle youthful compassion for living things and inspire action to protect Earth and its creatures.
Read Full Review
75
TV Guide Ken Fox
For all the impending doom, the film remains suitable for kids of all ages (the filmmakers even end on a happily reassuring note that is at odds with the film's overall message).
Read Full Review
75
Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling
It's a respectable attempt to get kids who like cuddly animals thinking about death and destruction on a global scale.
Read Full Review
75
Premiere Deborah Day
It’s a playful study of Arctic life, starring a polar bear cub, its prey, and a tagalong fox -- with the inevitable dramatic moments when bear meets walrus.
Read Full Review
75
Boston Globe Ty Burr
Arctic Tale has a very precise audience in mind: Young children who aren't yet ready for the graphs and sociopolitical alarm bells of "An Inconvenient Truth."
Read Full Review
75
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
It plucks ceaselessly at our heartstrings to play a sad song indeed.
Read Full Review
75
Miami Herald Peter Debruge
Make no mistake, Arctic Tale is a stunning film, full of all the astonishing, even breathtaking nature photography we've come to expect from the folks at National Geographic.
Read Full Review
70
Washington Post Desson Thomson
As charming as it is instructive.
Read Full Review
70
The Hollywood Reporter Stephen Farber
Spectacular photography of the frigid domain of polar bears, walruses and seals is the chief attraction of Arctic Tale.
Read Full Review
70
Variety Ken Eisner
Queen Latifah proves an amiably authoritative narrator, and is allowed more personality than most script readers.
Read Full Review
70
Village Voice Ella Taylor
A smarmy score, some orgiastic farting from a herd of walruses, and a modicum of cutesy anthropomorphism from narrator Queen Latifah prove a small price to pay for this stunningly photographed narrative documentary about a year in the endangered life of Arctic ice floe.
Read Full Review
67
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Sometimes a little too pat, a little too cute.
Read Full Review
63
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Watching bear cubs and walrus pups struggling to survive against increasingly tough odds, and on ever-slushier ice shelves, has both its shamelessly manipulative side and its dramatically necessary side, as handled here. This proves one thing: Unlike global warming, some stories really do have two sides.
Read Full Review
63
New York Post Kyle Smith
The script, narrated by Queen Latifah, is so embarrassingly dorky (it was co-written by Kristin Gore) that it's like Fred Rogers gone hip-hop.
Read Full Review
63
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The flat narration by Queen Latifah doesn't help, but Adam Ravetch and his wife Sarah Robertson's nature film, Arctic Tale, fails to inspire the kind of rapturous response we felt for "March of the Penguins" for other reasons.
Read Full Review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter
Icy landscapes, the cozy tones of Queen Latifah and a walrus-farting scene that rivals the campfire bean-fuelled explosions of "Blazing Saddles" help make Arctic Tale, a new wildlife documentary, a fun family indoor excursion.
Read Full Review
60
Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman
The impact of Arctic Tale is blunted by its length (it feels long at 85 minutes) and by its script.
Read Full Review
60
The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
The movie’s stunning underwater photography (fearlessly captured by Mr. Ravetch) effectively dilutes the saccharine tone.
Read Full Review
50
Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
Reinforcing the adage that looks aren't everything, the live-action animal drama Arctic Tale arrives in an impressive visual package and even boasts a timely message, but its undistinguished storytelling is a big letdown.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Watching these endangered species evolve new approaches to hunting and shelter is fascinating, but the movie is seriously marred by a cloying screenplay and such kid-pleasing touches as shots of walruses belching and farting.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
In the end, I'm conflicted about the film. As an accessible family film, it delivers the goods. But it lives in the shadow of "March of the Penguins." Despite its sad scenes, it sentimentalizes.
Read Full Review
50
San Francisco Chronicle Justin Berton
Makes an unpersuasive case that humans are to blame for the shrinking ice caps.
Read Full Review
50
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The movie is edited and, worse, narrated in ways that sabotage the magic and even undercut the movie's message.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

A.J. J gave it a10:
Fantastic footage - of course I love Polar bears so I'm biased. But this is the best - wish there were more movies like this!

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: World News | Fantasy Football | Amy Winehouse | Baseball | E3 | Batman | Firefox 3 | iPhone 3G

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use