good concept...
...but not enough explanation of some events. i'll spare a re-telling of the story since other reviewers have provided that information. the "black mouth", an apparently computer-driven unmanned fishing vessel,is not explained at all. we are left to ponder it's sudden appearance in the story.

i wondered to myself why lena and her grandmother had a refridgerator until my wife pointed out that the movie is depicting the native inuit people in a modern setting. so why not have a fridge in the arctic? keeps food away from animals outside. the fishsticks that lena offers lars was a bit odd...unless the inuit prepare fish in a way that they call fishsticks...again, not explained.

when the tribe is chanting they keep repeating the same phrase again and again, "the black mouth is eating all our fish", but they do nothing about it. lena apparently stays in a trance until lars, with help from caruso, the penguin. he must be the strongest non-flying bird ever since he alone is able to keep the mechanical "black mouth" open long enoug for the trapped seals, fish and bears (oh my!) to escape.

lars unintentional trip to the south is also left to interpretation. there is a hippo, a parrot and an eagle but never is it understood where they are other than the nebulus "south". this caused my five year old to ponder if they were in hawaii.

she also wanted to know why, when lars was about to be overtaken by the "black mouth" he couldn't just swim under it to avoid it altogether.

sure, it's okay to leave some things up in the air to let people use their imaginations but the little polar bear leaves too many gaps. we can only assume that the beached (iced?) ship is connected to the abandoned igloo that the animals play in.

all in all the story is told without violence-excellent, with imaginative animation-the under water scenes with lars and mika, his dad, are wonderful, and with humor. the story could have been condensed in some places to add a bit of continuity in other places.

Review this book