......if you're into the "lost critter" genre. This film was created during a period when nature footage was gaining popularity. This film has a narrator that tells the story of two misplaced critters, a bear and a raccoon. This is much different than later films where the animals talk for themselves. For this reason the film plays out like a nature documentary. There's some nice scenes that are very interesting. The overall nostalgic atmosphere does ignite that childlike wonder in the wild. I think it is worth a watch......at least once.
5 Reviews
Critters.
morrison-dylan-fan29 August 2020
After seeing The Black Hole (1979-also reviewed) I decided to check for more obscure titles on Disney+. Checking the 70's flicks on the site,I spotted one I had never heard of before! Leading to me follow the tail of these two critters.
View on the film:
Released as the B-Movie to The Rescuers, writer/director Jack Speirs scratches a pleasant atmosphere, where the staged bonding between the animals is sweetened by Mayf Nutter's cheerful narration and Buddy Baker's jaunty score.
Whilst a large amount of this "Nature Documentary" is clearly fake, (footage of a second bear appears to have been filmed in a completely different location!) Speirs still claws real moments of nature,swimming with zoom-ins towards a wolverine, bear cub and raccoon fighting with each other over nabbing a fish, as the two tails shake upstream.
View on the film:
Released as the B-Movie to The Rescuers, writer/director Jack Speirs scratches a pleasant atmosphere, where the staged bonding between the animals is sweetened by Mayf Nutter's cheerful narration and Buddy Baker's jaunty score.
Whilst a large amount of this "Nature Documentary" is clearly fake, (footage of a second bear appears to have been filmed in a completely different location!) Speirs still claws real moments of nature,swimming with zoom-ins towards a wolverine, bear cub and raccoon fighting with each other over nabbing a fish, as the two tails shake upstream.
Nothing original or interesting about this film
r96sk28 August 2020
Even at just 48 minutes, 'A Tale of Two Critters' is an utter bore.
There is nothing original or interesting about this film, it's something Disney have done numerous times before - it's 1961's 'Nikki, Wild Dog of the North' mixed with 1969's 'Rascal'. The amount of bear cubs in this studio's work is quite something!
Like that '61 production, and releases like 'The Legend of Lobo' and 'King of the Grizzlies' for that matter, this is very bad. There is nothing to latch onto and enjoy, it's just a number of different animals thrown (almost literally) together for a would-be documentary.
Mayf Nutter does an alright job as narrator, but is barely any different to the narrators from other similar productions. Like most, if not all, of Disney's nature/documentary/adventure films, this isn't worth a watch - at least in my opinion.
There is nothing original or interesting about this film, it's something Disney have done numerous times before - it's 1961's 'Nikki, Wild Dog of the North' mixed with 1969's 'Rascal'. The amount of bear cubs in this studio's work is quite something!
Like that '61 production, and releases like 'The Legend of Lobo' and 'King of the Grizzlies' for that matter, this is very bad. There is nothing to latch onto and enjoy, it's just a number of different animals thrown (almost literally) together for a would-be documentary.
Mayf Nutter does an alright job as narrator, but is barely any different to the narrators from other similar productions. Like most, if not all, of Disney's nature/documentary/adventure films, this isn't worth a watch - at least in my opinion.
Don't listen to muamba_eats_toast
zgirkin26 June 2020
More than I could bear, or reccoon with.
southdavid23 November 2020
An alphabetical run through Disney Plus leads me to "A Tale of Two Critters" one of a number of docu-dramas that Disney produced that pushes a story, told in voice over, onto footage of real animals interacting in the wild. Originally the film went out as part of a double header along with "The Rescuers".
Narrated by Mayf Nutter, the film tells the story of a bear cub and a young raccoon who are separated from their families by an accident. They band together, initially to try and get back to their kin, but later just to survive. As Winter comes, they stay nearby to each other until the years and their natures push them apart.
I really didn't like this. Maybe it's just that tastes have moved on since 1977, but I didn't find the narrative thrust onto rather generic animal footage particularly interesting. Mayf Nutter's narration is fine, in fact I quite liked the timbre of his voice, but a connection between his story and the footage didn't materialise for me.
Maybe it's just a level of audience sophistication nowadays but, though some shots are surprising, it's easy to see when the animals aren't actually interacting - rather than it's footage from somewhere else entirely. The footage of the tree, where the animals live "together" for example is clearly not the same place. I know that it was a couple of decades earlier, but Disney doesn't have the best track record when it comes to the welfare of animals in their documentaries, after the "White Wilderness" controversy. I can't find anything online about issues with this film but the footage of the bear cub and racoon floating down river on a log together seems really specific to have been gotten by accident.
Despite my uneasy feelings about some of the footage, ultimately, even at just 48 minutes my primary feelings about this film was that I was bored.
Narrated by Mayf Nutter, the film tells the story of a bear cub and a young raccoon who are separated from their families by an accident. They band together, initially to try and get back to their kin, but later just to survive. As Winter comes, they stay nearby to each other until the years and their natures push them apart.
I really didn't like this. Maybe it's just that tastes have moved on since 1977, but I didn't find the narrative thrust onto rather generic animal footage particularly interesting. Mayf Nutter's narration is fine, in fact I quite liked the timbre of his voice, but a connection between his story and the footage didn't materialise for me.
Maybe it's just a level of audience sophistication nowadays but, though some shots are surprising, it's easy to see when the animals aren't actually interacting - rather than it's footage from somewhere else entirely. The footage of the tree, where the animals live "together" for example is clearly not the same place. I know that it was a couple of decades earlier, but Disney doesn't have the best track record when it comes to the welfare of animals in their documentaries, after the "White Wilderness" controversy. I can't find anything online about issues with this film but the footage of the bear cub and racoon floating down river on a log together seems really specific to have been gotten by accident.
Despite my uneasy feelings about some of the footage, ultimately, even at just 48 minutes my primary feelings about this film was that I was bored.
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