The Little Polar Bear
{{short description|Franchise}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{more citations needed|date=December 2017}}
The Little Polar Bear (in {{langx|nl|Lars de kleine ijsbeer}}) 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).{{cite web|title=Little Polar Bear: Where Are You Going, Shirokuma-kun?|url=http://www.productionig.com/contents/works/02_/000043.html|publisher=Production I.G|accessdate=August 28, 2017}}
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 ({{langx|de|Der kleine Eisbär 2: Die geheimnisvolle Insel}}) 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.{{cite web | url=https://utaten.com/lyric/ym16010409/ | title=謝んなさいよ 歌詞 種ともこ ふりがな付 - うたてん }}
Original BBC TV series adaptation
{{Infobox television
| image =
| caption =
| genre = Animation
| creator = Hans de Beer (novel)
| writer = Birgit Quastenberg
Josef Schelle
Hans de Beer
| director = Theo Kerp
| starring =
| voices = Susan Sheridan
Jimmy Hibbert
Vanessa Feltz
| theme_music_composer = Manfred Schoof
| composer =
| country = Germany, United Kingdom
| language = German
English
| num_episodes = 26
| list_episodes =
| executive_producer = Siegmund Grewenig
| producer = Theresa Plummer Andrews
| runtime = 5-6 minutes
| company = Rothkirch/Kringel Cartoon Films
| channel = BBC One (UK)
Das Erste (Germany)
| first_aired = {{Start date|1992}}
| last_aired = {{End date|1995}}
| related =
}}
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=
class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="width:100%; background:#fff;"
!style="background:#81D8D0; width:4%"|No. !style="background:#81D8D0"|Cartoons !style="background:#81D8D0; width:20%"|Original airdate {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=1 |Title=The Ice Floe |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars is carried across the sea on a drifting sheet of ice, until he reaches an island. There he makes friends with Hippo and is given a lift home by Orca. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=2 |Title=The Snow Storm |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994|02|08|df=yes}} (production) |ShortSummary=While playing in the snow, Lars meets Lena. They both get trapped in a snow storm, but Lars manages to find his way home. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=3 |Title=The Egg |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars stumbles across a goose egg and warms it, till out hatches a gosling he names Peeps. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=4 |Title=The Polar Station |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars ventures into the Polar Station. Lena is almost caught by a man, but Lena and Lars make their escape back to the safety of their home. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=5 |Title=The Net |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=While swimming, Lars is caught in a fish net and loaded onto a fishing freighter. He is met by the ship's cat Nemo, who helps him off the ship. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=6 |Title=The Trap |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=In a game of hide n' seek, Lena and Peeps get caught in a cage trap. Lars manages to release them and take them to safety from the hunting dogs. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=7 |Title=The Mission |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars goes to the forest to get some honey medicine for his ill parents. Daddy Brown Bear provides the medicine and Brownie accompanies Lars back home. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=8 |Title=The Hunter |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars and Brownie are captured by a hunter. Lars releases himself and Brownie, then they release all the other captured animals, before making their way home. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=9 |Title=The Ice Cave |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=While exploring, Lars, Lena and Peeps plunge deep into an ice grotto. They make a hasty exit as the cave collapses and Orca takes them to safety. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=10 |Title=The Labyrinth |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lena and Peeps are carried off into an ice labyrinth surrounded by thick fog. As Lars finds them, the fog disperses. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=11 |Title=The Weather Balloon |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=As Lars examines a weather balloon, Peeps gets carried off in it. The seagulls save Peeps, while Lars recovers the seagull's bell clapper. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=12 |Title=The Boat |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lena finds a deserted boat and with Lars and Peeps on board, she sails the sea. After fighting over a life belt, Lars jumps overboard with it and then saves Lena and Peeps from being crushed between two icebergs. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=13 |Title=The Barrel |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=On a journey to find fish, Lars comes across a wooden barrel full of dried herrings. Lena helps Lars to move it, to provide food for Daddy and Mummy Polar Bear. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=14 |Title=The Book |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars, Lena and Peeps find a Treasure Chest hidden beneath a thick layer of snow. Inside the chest they see a scrapbook which contains various pictures of themselves. Lars and Lena start fighting over who the treasure belongs to, but eventually manage to share the contains with each other, then bury them once again. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=15 |Title=The Honeycomb |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars' friend the Brown Bear Brownie shows Lars a towering tree where the two friends try to gather honey from inside the comb, then escape as the angry bees chase them down. Lars and Brownie hide in a cave behind a waterfall. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=16 |Title=The Flower |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars stumbles across a rare flower and patiently waits for it to grow. Lena and Peeps help Lars protect the flower. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=17 |Title=The Teddy Bear |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=In the icy land of the North Pole, Lars, Lena and Peeps come across a box, and find a teddy bear. Then they start playing house with it, but Peeps feels left out when trying to join in the fun. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=18 |Title=The White Bear |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Brownie introduces Lars to his two younger siblings, but they aren't nice to Lars and tease him to the point where the poor Lars breaks down in tears. Brownie spanks his two brothers, but then Lars, Brownie and his brothers are being chased by a hunter on a snow mobile. They hide in the snow in order to camouflage themselves. One of the two little Brown Bears comments that being a white bear isn't so bad after all. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=19 |Title=The Concert |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars invites Lena and Peeps to play along with his musical number. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=20 |Title=The Competition |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=One day when Lars arrives home, he meets a younger Polar Bear, Björn, who starts bullying him. Daddy Polar Bear interrupts their fighting and starts a competition to see who is stronger. Björn swims down a chasm into a shipwreck to recover an anchor, but gets stuck inside a hole in the wreckage. Lars saves Björn from suffocation and the two become friends. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=21 |Title=The Camp Fire |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars and Brownie catch some fish in the forest. Brownie shows Lars how to make a campfire, but Lars is a little clumsy with it and hurts his paw. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=22 |Title=The Polar Night |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars tells his friends about an old legend in which a very rare ray of sunlight would shine down upon an old igloo. Lars, Lena and Peeps follow him to the igloo, and after scaring away a large group of noisy birds, the discover the igloo, where the ray of sunlight shines down on them through a hole in the igloo remains. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=23 |Title=Playing Tricks |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars awakens his friends at midnight to pull various pranks on the seagulls, who are sleeping on top of the floating buoy. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=24 |Title=Stomach Ache |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=When Lena and Peeps visit Lars to play, they discover him lying in his secret playing den, groaning. After Lars tells them he has stomach ache, Lena and Peeps try to cure and distract him. However, later Lena starts to suspect that Lars is simply pretending to be sick in order to get his friends' attention. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=25 |Title=In Love |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=While watching a herd of travelling Polar Bears, Lars meets the love of his life, an adorable Polar Bear girl named Oxana. They play together and fall in love with each other. The next day, Lars is shocked to discover that Oxana is part of the very same travelling herd he watched the day prior, and watches her disappear while she sits on the back of one of the elder bears. Oxana promises Lars she will return once the winter season arrives, but the poor Lars is still saddened by their unexpected divorce. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber=26 |Title=The Sled Dog |OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1994}} |ShortSummary=Lars, Lena and Peeps discover a big sled dog race, and help out a small Husky when his sled gets stuck in an ice crack. |LineColor=81D8D0 }} |
Film
{{Infobox film
| image = The Little Polar Bear.jpg
| caption = German theatrical release poster
| director = Piet De Rycker
Thilo Graf Rothkirch
| producer = Willi Geike
| writer = Piet De Rycker
Bert Schrickel
Thomas Wittenburg
| starring =
| music = Nigel Clarke
Michael Csányi-Wills
| cinematography =
| editing = Bettina Behrens
Nadia Hennrich
| studio = {{Plainlist|
- Rothkirch Cartoon-Film{{cite web|title=Der kleine Eisbär|website=filmportal.de|language=de|access-date=13 February 2025|url=http://filmportal.de/film/der-kleine-eisbaer_f3cc3734d37e46ffae550c2ba835b8f8}}
- Warner Bros. Filmproduktion
}}
| distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
| released = {{Film date|2001|10|04|df=y}}
| runtime = 77 minutes{{Cite web |date=11 February 2003|title=The Little Polar Bear (U) |url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-little-polar-bear-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zndg4nji|access-date=13 February 2025|website=BBFC}}
| country = Germany
| language = German
| budget =
| gross = $14.8 million{{Cite Box Office Mojo|id=0293849|title=The Little Polar Bear (2001)|access-date=13 February 2025}}
}}
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=
{{no plot|date=February 2025}}
=Voice cast=
class="wikitable" | ||
Character | German version | English version |
---|---|---|
Lars
|Mijail Verona | ||
Robby
|Maximilian Artajo | ||
Kalle
|Daran Norris as Brutus | ||
Nalle
|Neil Kaplan as Bert | ||
Palle
|Bernd Stelter |Tom Fahn as Boris | ||
Mika | ||
Greta
|RuDee Sade | ||
Caruso | ||
Pieps
|Sandro Blümel | ||
Lena
|Adak Azdasht |Rebecca Forstadt as Anna | ||
Henry | ||
Manili
|Kimberly J. Brown as Lena | ||
Sopho / Sophocles
|Wolfgang Völz | ||
Großmutter
|Barbara Adolph |Edie Mirman as Grandmother | ||
Mutter Eisbär
|Mari Devon as Nina | ||
Lemmings
|Hans Werner Olm | ||
Seagulls / Möwe
|Santiago Ziesmer |
Additional English voices
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)
References
External links
{{Portal|Children's literature}}
- {{anime News Network|anime|22248|Little Polar Bear: Shirokuma-kun, Doko e?}}
- {{anime News Network|anime|22249|Little Polar Bear: Shirokuma-kun, Fune ni Noru}}
- {{IMDb title|qid=Q57586339|title=The Little Polar Bear}}
- {{IMDb title|qid=Q467695|title=Der Kleine Eisbär}}
- {{IMDb title|qid=Q127871329|title=Der Kleine Eisbär (2002)}}
- {{IMDb title|qid=Q127871369|title=Der kleine Eisbär - Neue Abenteuer, neue Freunde}}
- {{IMDb title|qid=Q127871393|title=Der kleine Eisbär - Neue Abenteuer, neue Freunde 2}}
- {{IMDb title|qid=Q127871415|title=Der kleine Eisbär - Besuch vom Südpol}}
- {{IMDb title|qid=Q127871432|title=Der kleine Eisbär - Nanouks Rettung}}
- [http://www.moviefonics.com Original score: Nigel Clarke & Michael Csanyi Wills]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Polar Bear, The}}
Category:1992 German television series debuts
Category:2000s German television series
Category:German children's animated adventure television series
Category:German-language television shows
Category:British television shows based on children's books
Category:Television shows set in the Arctic
Category:Das Erste original programming
Category:1994 British television series debuts
Category:1994 British television series endings
Category:1990s British children's television series
Category:Dutch children's books
Category:Children's books about bears
Category:German animated feature films
Category:British animated feature films
Category:German children's films
Category:2000s German-language films
Category:Warner Bros. animated films
Category:Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios
Category:Animated films set in the Arctic
Category:Animated films based on children's books
Category:Animated films about polar bears
Category:Animated films set in Alaska
Category:Animated films set in Canada
Category:Animated television series about bears
Category:2000s English-language films