''The Little Bear Movie'' is a 2001

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

adventure film An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, an ...

based on the television series '' Little Bear'', which in turn is based on the book series of the same name which was written by

Else Holmelund Minarik Else Holmelund Minarik (née Holmelund; September 13, 1920 – July 12, 2012) was an American author of more than 40 children's books. She was most commonly associated with her '' Little Bear'' series of children's books, which were adapted for t ...

and illustrated by

Maurice Sendak Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book ''Where the Wild Things Are'', first published in 1963.Turan, Kenneth (October 16, 200 ...

. It was produced by

Nelvana Limited Nelvana Enterprises, Inc. (; previously known as Nelvana Limited, sometimes known as Nelvana Animation and simply Nelvana or Nelvana Communications) is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment company owned by Corus Entertainment. Founded ...

and Wild Things Productions. The film was released direct-to-video on August 7, 2001 by

Paramount Home Entertainment Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Media Distribution, and originally Paramount Home Video) is the home video distribution arm of Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global. The division oversees PPC's home entertainme ...

in the United States and Canada. It stars

Kristin Fairlie Kristin Louise Fairlie (born April 22, 1985) is a Canadian actress. In 1998, she won a Young Artist Award for Best Ensemble for her lead role in the Showtime original movie ''The Sweetest Gift''. As a voice actress, Fairlie has voiced the roles ...

as the voice of Little Bear and her brother Kyle Fairlie as the voice of Cub.

Plot

Little Bear and Father Bear set out on a

camping Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays away from home, either without shelter or using basic shelter such as a tent, or a recreational vehicle. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors in more nat ...

trip. While camping on a hill Father Bear talks about the

wilderness Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

and the time he met an

eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

. The next day Little Bear meets another bear in the wilderness called Cub. They both wrestle around in a river, Cub then chases after a moose leaving Little Bear all alone when he is met with a villainous

mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. I ...

named Trouble, but Cub comes back and saves him from getting eaten. They then enjoy a grilled

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

breakfast together with Father Bear before they decide it’s time to start heading home. Little Bear asks Cub if he wants to come with them, Cub agrees. Back at the house Cub tries to get used to living in a house. The whole family then makes

Pancake A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a Starch, starch-based batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or fryi ...

s for lunch. Little Bear then wants Cub to meet his friends Cat, Owl, Duck, and Hen. When they learn that Cub got separated from his parents during a bad

storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmos ...

, they decide to go on a journey to search for them. They make missing person posters for Cub's parents and then head back into the wilderness to hang them up. While doing so they meet their friend Moose, he shows them that

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

s have used a poster to make a dam. Little Bear and Cub try to recover the banner, but

beavers Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...

, angry with the raccoons break the dam and in the process Little Bear and Cub are washed away in a flood, straight over a waterfall getting separated from the rest of the group. They find Duck has wandered downstream as well, looking for Cub's parents. The three become lost in the dark wilderness and are unable to find the rest of the gang. They then run into Cub's best friends Poppy and Pete, two silly

red foxes The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, p ...

who took care of Cub when he lost his parents. They spend the night in the foxes den and the next day they keep looking and head towards a

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

. There they meet Trouble again and he tries to eat Duck, but Poppy and Pete save Duck's life. Little Bear manages to scare off the mountain lion with some help from Cub's parents. Cub and his parents are reunited and Little Bear is found by his family and friends. After saying goodbye to Cub, Little Bear heads home and on the way back to the house it starts snowing.

Characters

* Little Bear (voiced by

) * Cub (voiced by Kyle Fairlie) *

Owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

(voiced by Amos Crawley) *

Duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

(voiced by Tracy Ryan) *

Cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

(voiced by

Andrew Sabiston Andrew Sabiston is a multi-award nominated Canadian children's television series developer, story editor, writer and actor with over 1100 episodes to his credit. His mother is artist Carole Sabiston. Early career An early start as a stage actor ...

) *

Hen Hen commonly refers to a female animal: a female chicken, other gallinaceous bird, any type of bird in general, or a lobster. It is also a slang term for a woman. Hen or Hens may also refer to: Places Norway *Hen, Buskerud, a village in Ringer ...

(voiced by

Elizabeth Hanna Elizabeth Hanna is a Canadian film and television actress, most notable for her voice acting work in animated films. She later complemented her voice acting skills by becoming a speech-language pathologist. She is also the voice of Miss Biscuit ...

) * Trouble (voiced by Wayne Best) *

Moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

(voiced by Ray Landry) * Mother Bear (voiced by

Janet Laine-Green Janet-Laine Green (born December 31, 1951) is a Canadian actress, film director, director, film producer, producer and teacher, active for over 25 years. Best known for her roles in ''She's the Mayor'', ''Seeing Things (TV series), Seeing Things'' ...

) * Father Bear (voiced by

Dan Hennessey Dan Hennessey (born August 25)https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Dan-Hennessey/ is a Canadian voice director and voice actor who, early on in his career, performed with a children's comedy troupe The Zoo Factory (with John Stocker, Bruce Gord ...

) * Little Moose (voiced by

Max Morrow Max Morrow is a Canadian former actor. He is best known for his roles in '' Connor Undercover'' as the title character, ''Monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices reli ...

) * Mother Moose (voiced by

Catherine Disher Catherine Disher is a British-born Canadian actress. She has won two Gemini Awards: in 2005 for Best Actress for her role in the Canadian mini-series '' Snakes and Ladders'', and in 2010 for her role in '' The Border''. She was also nominated for ...

) * Poppy (voiced by Cole Caplan) and Pete (voiced by Asa Perlman) * Cub's Father (voiced by

Maurice Dean Wint Maurice Dean Wint is a British-born Canadian actor who has starred in several films and television shows. Life and career Wint was born in Leicestershire, England, and moved to Canada in 1967 with his family. He began to act in Toronto on stag ...

) * Cub's Mother (voiced by

Alison Sealy-Smith Alison Sealy-Smith (born 1959) is a Barbados-born Canadian actress best known for her role as Storm in various Marvel animated TV series. Early life and education Sealy-Smith was born in Bridgetown, Barbados and raised in Toronto. She attended ...

)

Music

''The Little Bear Movie'' never had its launched soundtrack. The film contains two pieces of unknown music and the instrumental soundtrack of the

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...

. (1) Great Big World and (2) Everybody Wants To Paint My Picture:
''Composed by'':

Marc Jordan Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system of ...

and Antony Vanderberg
''Performed by'':

Shawn Colvin Shawn Colvin (born Shawna Lee Colvin, January 10, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. While Colvin has been a solo recording artist for decades, she is best known for her 1998 Grammy Award-winning song "Sunny Came Home". Early ...

(3) The '' Little Bear'' Instrumental

Release and response

The film was released on VHS and DVD by

(performer) and Marc Jordan/Antony Vanderburgh (composers) were nominated for Best Original Song at the 2001 Video Premiere Awards for the song "Great Big World".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Little Bear Movie, The 2001 films 2001 animated films 2001 direct-to-video films 2000s Canadian films 2000s children's animated films 2000s educational films 2000s English-language films Canadian children's animated films Canadian animated feature films Canadian educational films Canadian direct-to-video films Animal adventure films English-language Canadian films Animated films based on children's books Animated films based on animated television series Grizzly bears in popular culture Animated films about bears Animated films about chickens Animated films about ducks Films about owls Animated films about cats Animated films about foxes Films about cougars Animated films about families Animated films about friendship Films set in North America Films set in forests Films set in the 19th century Films scored by Lesley Barber Paramount Pictures animated films Paramount Pictures direct-to-video films Nelvana films Alliance Atlantis films