We're Going On A Bear Hunt (2016)-
I don't remember the book from my own childhood and that might be because it's a really boring story or because I never owned it. Either way there is no sense of nostalgia here for me and so this review is purely based on my thoughts of the film today.
It is a lot weaker than the others of the same type. For me 'The Snowman' (1982) will always reign supreme as the best short cartoon film, but that one does hold a lot of memories for me. However, even held up against the more recent films like 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' (2019) or The Snail And The Whale' (2019), Bear Hunt just doesn't work for me. It is missing a key ingredient that I can't quite put my finger on.
It seems to try to include various facts about bears in an educational way, but would a bear really live in a cave on a beach? Or is that bit not one of the real facts and is the Bear in actual fact a metaphor for the recently deceased Grandad? Or is the cave just where the youngest child has lost his own Teddy bear? It's not altogether clear and I'm not sure what we are supposed to take away from it unless we are just supposed to enjoy it for the bright colours that might appeal to a very young audience, even then they aren't that bright (The colours, not the audience, necessarily?).
It was also odd that it was snowing at one point and they were wearing shorts. It didn't seem to know what season it was or where it was set and again it was unclear whether this was all just part of the imagined adventure or not.
Artistically, it was pretty and it wasn't overly cast with huge celebrity names, which made no difference as I've always said, but I do have to wonder if it is literature like this that might be giving us generations of youth with no real idea what a good story is. People that might buy 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' and actually enjoy reading it when they're older?
I wouldn't watch it again in any hurry and probably only when I've forgotten that I've seen it before.
346.76/1000.
