White Tuft: The Little Beaver. Or, La Riviere Aux Castors. Out today. (******6/10)
White Tuft: The Little Beaver is a Canadian film about White Tuft. Who is a little beaver. As The Little Beaver in English, and La Riviere Aux Castors in French, it’s a family-friendly film that comes to DVD August 19th from Alliance Films. White Tuft is a beaver with an odd white tuft of fur on top of his head. He lives in the Canadian woods, and has to deal with all kinds of wildlife around him. In the tradition of The Bear and Born Free, cameras follow this little beaver around as he makes his way through the world, and then voices are added afterward to make the story appear more like a traditional narrative. In this case the voice belongs to Colm Feore, the consummate Canadian actor.
And while The Little Beaver is certainly entertaining, and a pretty cool movie for nature lovers and families, it doesn’t quite live up to the quality of, say, The Bear. Near the beginning of the film, White Tuft’s dam is destroyed by bears, and he has to make his way through the world, a journey which includes several high-intensity encounters with a pack of wolves, and some charming moments as he befriends a young lynx. But the narrative is what lets this movie down. I like the idea of a narrator taking us through this interesting story. And I like the idea of telling it like it IS a story, and not just a nature documentary. But don’t start attributing emotions to the beaver. Don’t start telling me that the wolf attack is bringing back painful memories of his own father’s demise. This story has enough drama already, without human characteristics being overtly inserted into it. Why not just tell us how White Tuft has never been able to approach girl-beavers since Brown Belly ditched him at senior prom? Come on.
That being said, I really did enjoy The Little Beaver. It really is well-filmed and interesting and remarkably family-friendly. But you may as well watch with the sound off. It’s the only way to thoroughly enjoy it.