The Little Polar Bear

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates The Little Polar Bear (in Template:Langx) is a franchise about a polar bear cub named Lars who first starred in a number of books written by Dutch author, Hans de Beer.

The first of several animated adaptations of the books is a Japanese original video animation, released on April 28, 1990, with animation production by I.G Tatsunoko (now known as Production I.G).

It later became an animated TV series for BBC TV and WDR Lars, der kleine Eisbär, in the 1990s. The show proved to be popular in Germany.

The show was later revived between 2001 and 2003. For its first film, subtitled Der Kinofilm, Warner Bros. and animation studio Rothkirch Cartoon Film bought the rights to adapt the children's books into a feature-length film, released in 2001.

Following the success of the feature, several direct-to-video features were released, one of the new characters included was a tiger cub. In 2005, another film, The Little Polar Bear 2: The Mysterious Island (Template:Langx) was released and also proved successful.

The score to The Little Polar Bear was composed by Nigel Clarke & Michael Csanyi-Wills and recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and was nominated for several awards.

The Japanese version uses Tomoko Tane's "Rainbow Song" as the ending theme.

Original BBC TV series adaptation

In the mid-1990s there was a German-British TV adaptation for the BBC and WDR, featuring the voice talents of Susan Sheridan and Jimmy Hibbert. The animation of the series was provided by Sinan Gungor.

Voices

• Susan Sheridan - Lars, Lena, Peeps, Mummy Polar Bear,
• Jimmy Hibbert - Daddy Polar Bear, various male voices
• Vanessa Feltz - Brownie Brown Bear

Characters

• Lars - the little polar bear, main character of the show
• Frieda, Lars' mother
• Mika, Lars' father
• Lena - the Arctic hare
• Peeps - the snow goose
• Brownie - the little brown Bear

Episodes

No.	Cartoons	Original airdate

Film

Template:Infobox film/short descriptionTemplate:Template other The Little Polar Bear is a 2001 German film directed by Piet De Rycker and Thilo Graf Rothkirch and produced by Willi Geike, based on the books of the same name. The film was distributed in Germany by Warner Bros. Pictures through their Family Entertainment label on 4 October 2001.

Warner Bros. also produced an English dub of the film that was released in the United States and United Kingdom in 2003.

Plot

Lars is a little polar bear who lived in the North Artic with his parents. One day, Lars was rescued by a young seal named Robby and they became close friends. They witnessed three polar bears, Brutus, Bert and Boris about to attack Robby's herd so Lars and Robby saved them by falling down an avalanche.

The adult polar bears chased Lars and Robby and hid in an old shipwreck. Knowing that Mika's son is friends with a seal, they demanded Mika to talk to him and punish him but the walrus, Sophocles refused and tells him to talk with Lars and let the others get rest.

Lars overhead and refused to listen to his father that polar bears and seals cannot be friends so they resumed on being friends with Robby. Understanding that they cannot be separated. Brutus held up a meeting telling that everything went upside down because of them. Nina argued that they cannot be separated because of their bond. However, their argument was interrupted when the four lemmings commented that the world is glum and one of the lemmings with a red nose started to fall and was rescued by a penguin named Caruso. Sophocles admitted that if he can find a way to cheer the lemmings, they can settle their differences. Lars suggested that the seals can gather fish for the bears so they can be protected. With the new rules settled, Robby and Lars can be together.

Later that night, Lars has gotten separated from his father when a piece of the ice broke, leaving him alone at sea. He was taken to the south where he meets Henry the hippo who takes him home with the help up Marcus, the eagle, and Samson the whale.

Upon returning, Lars and his friends learned that the fish have disappeared and they knew they needed to head to the human village to see if the humans had any. Lars was rescued by a girl named Lena, who recognized him when she saw him and Robby playing the other day. He also began to learn that a ship, which the humans call the Black Mouth has been eating everyone's fish. After he returned home, Lars was scolded by Mika for going to the human settlement. He tried to explain his father that the Black Mouth was stealing the fish but he refused. To prove his father wrong, he runs away.

Meanwhile, Brutus, Bert and Boris has not eaten any fish and Brutus suggested they should stick with the old rules. However, their plans are interrupted when they saw the Black Mouth heading this way and devoured all the seals, including Robby, and the polar bears. Lars, realizing that he needs to save them, has to lure the ship to the rock so it can be damaged. While he lead the ship to the rock, Gretta and Anna are alerted by Peeps, telling that Lars is in trouble. Caruso is also warned by the Lemmings.

They quickly rescued Lars from being devoured by the Black Mouth and successfully destroyed it, freeing the seals, polar bears and fish. Lena realized that her dream came true and visits Lars, thanking him for everything to save the artic.

Voice cast

Character	German version	English version
Lars	Mijail Verona	Wesley Singerman
Robby	Maximilian Artajo	Brianne Siddall
Kalle	Jochen Busse	Daran Norris as Brutus
Nalle	Mike Krüger	Neil Kaplan as Bert
Palle	Bernd Stelter	Tom Fahn as Boris
Mika	Ingolf Lück	Michael McConnohie
Greta	Jeanette Biedermann	RuDee Sade
Caruso	Dirk Bach	Joe Ochman
Pieps	Sandro Blümel	Sandy Fox
Lena	Adak Azdasht	Rebecca Forstadt as Anna
Henry	Harry Rowohlt	Steve Blum
Manili	Vanessa Petruo	Kimberly J. Brown as Lena
Sopho / Sophocles	Wolfgang Völz	Ralph Votrian
Großmutter	Barbara Adolph	Edie Mirman as Grandmother
Mutter Eisbär	Anke Engelke	Mari Devon as Nina
Lemmings	Hans Werner Olm Johann König Thomas Hackenberger Roberto Capitoni	Joshua Seth R. Martin Klein Edie Mirman Peter Lurie
Seagulls / Möwe	Santiago Ziesmer Hans Werner Olm Frank Schaff	Steve Kramer Jason Spisak Robert Axelrod

Additional English voices

• Steve Bulen
• Richard Cansino
• Melora Harte

Sequels

• The Little Polar Bear: Lars and the Little Tiger (2002)
• The Little Polar Bear: The Dream of Flying (2003)
• The Little Polar Bear: Nanouk's Rescue (2003)
• The Little Polar Bear: A Visitor from the South Pole (2004)
• The Little Polar Bear: The Mysterious Island (2005)

External links

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• Original score: Nigel Clarke & Michael Csanyi Wills