Bears

Following in the footsteps of Earth, Oceans, African Cats and Chimpanzee, Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey's Bears is the latest Disneynature documentary released to coincide with Earth Day. The film follows a trying year in the life of Sky, a female brown bear in a protected portion of the Alaskan wilderness, as she tries to lead her two ridiculously adorable plush-doll bear cubs to the salmon run. John C. Reilly narrates with the child-skewing doofiness of a fun uncle, and while the story is a little tacky and forced at times, darn it if my heart didn't race, sink, leap and break upon the filmmakers' every cue. Bears has been scrubbed clean of any “discomforting” eco-political messages beyond a generalized celebration of nature's power and beauty, but it does become a touching ode to the fierceness and determination of single mothers.