This is a film told mostly from the aspect of the bears in the film. It takes place in the late 1800s in British Columbia. A bear cub is orphaned when its mother is killed in a landslide. The cub goes along on his way. Meanwhile, hunters are on the trail of bear skins. They already have a few and are on the trail of a large male in the area. The male is spotted and is shot by one of the hunters (Tcheky Karyo, the other hunter is played by Jack Wallace) but the wound doesn't stop the bear. It runs away and tries to find comfort in a mudhole, where the cub sees it and they ally themselves to each other.
The two bears continue travelling together, while the hunters continue on their trail. The film shows the cub dreaming of bearlike things, watching as the male bear has sex, and imitates behaviors like knocking down a tree to find food. The hunters are joined by a third man with a pack of hunting dogs, who do a better job of finding the bear.
The film was kind of cutesy in how it showed the bear behavior, overly anthromorphizing them and I think even the bear cub made sounds that were done by human voices (whimpering, grunting, etc.) That aspect of I didn't really like; it probably would be fine for a junior audience, but I would have preferred more natural "acting" by the bears.
The ending where one of the hunters changes his mind was also a bit unbelieveable for an old audience member like me, although I guess it offers a moral for a young audience. This particular hunter throughout the film did things like tie up the cub and taunt it, notched his bullets so they would cause more severe injury, too eager to shoot soon--so his change of thinking was not supported by his previous behavior. Also at the end, which seems tacked on, is an encounter with a cougar.
Although there is of course violence due to the hunting aspect, this is an okay family film for slightly older children.
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