If you're the sensitive type and found yourself fighting back tears during Bambi, you'll let them flow freely during The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear.

This touching, thoughtful family film from Les Armateurs, the French studio behind the Academy Award nominated Triplets of Belleville, is based on an Inuit legend about a boy torn between the human and animal worlds.

The same day a polar bear gives birth to a stillborn cub, an Inuit family gives birth to a new son. The humans name their son Bear after hearing the anguished cries of the mother polar bear. When the father Inuit leaves one day to hunt bear for clothes for his son, the father bear wanders into the Inuit's home, takes the child, and brings him to his grieving mate.

The mother bear warms up to this screaming, furless creature, and teaches him the ways of the cruel and unforgiving Arctic. Meanwhile, the Inuit father vows to hunt the bears down and retrieve his son.

When the boy is reintroduced to human society, he finds the way of the bear much less confusing and more appealing. He decides to seek out a mountain spirit, who may be able to change his body to match what's in his heart.

Other than a few very well-placed spots of 3D, the animation of The Boy Who Wanted to be a Bear is very simplistic, with canvas-like backgrounds setting the backdrop for our characters. But the characters feel so alive and charismatic, the soft, Monet-like splotches they're set in front of fit. It's a cold, desolate environment, but the characters bring warmth to it.

The animation direction is excellent at several points: From the bears' POV, we're lower to the ground, with slight weaving. When the father Eskimo is in his canoe, the picture bobs up and down. The shots and pans aren't breathtaking, but aren't overly simplistic either.

The story is geared straight at children, with its moments of slapstick humor, but it won't cause adults to completely zone out. This film manages to appeal to the children with funny creatures doing funny things, and also keeps their parents involved with its powerful take on two very different families longing for the same thing. Adults may nitpick some obvious dialogue and plot discrepancies, but these are easily looked over.

Before you can mark The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear off as The Jungle Book with ice and polar bears instead of vines and wolves (and an excitable raven instead of Baloo), you're confronted with issues of death and the realities of living in a harsh environment, not Disney fluff consisting of cute dance numbers. The polar bears kill their prey, wolves stalk the bears, and the Inuit father does what a hunter does best.

Yet with a little parental guidance, The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Bear is not a frightening animation, but rather a fun, dramatic journey through an Arctic wonderland, with equal parts humor and sadness.

A few spots, but all in all a solid looking DVD from Central Park Media. The company swears this is a widescreen feature, though the copy I reviewed was full screen. You get what you'd expect from an animation set in the Artic: lots of bright whites and sprawling landscapes. Very little in the way of color bleeding, but there is also very little use of color overall. The blacks are nearly nonexistent.

The score is beautiful, with lots of strings, piano and soulful singing. Done by Bruno Coulais, the French composer who did the score to Winged Migration, the music of this animation is catchy and fits with the setting. Both voice casts in the 2.0 French and English language tracks are solid, though the English voice of the raven is grating, and is intended as comic relief with a jester-like tone. Very minimal use of the soundstage, with a lot of howling winds, splashes, and soft footfalls of paws on snow.

Lots of good stuff in the extras on the Collector's Series version of this DVD. The moving art gallery is a fun watch, the French and U.S. previews differ greatly, and there's an entertaining, if simple polar bear trivia Q&A. An "Arctic Viewpoint" message screen tells how man is still causing havoc in the Arctic, a "Movie Cards" art gallery is similar to the other art gallery, but shorter, there are extensive character descriptions, and a filmography of Director Jannik Hastrup.

The real treat in the extras is the interview featurette with the English voice actors (it includes a spoiler warning at the beginning, and I suggest you follow it). With such a small cast of English voice actors, it was a pleasant surprise to find this short bit so interesting. The older actors talk about how being parents made this film so much more intense to work on, while Rena Taylor, the young girl who voices the young girl cub, is nothing short of adorable. The only disappointment is that not all the English voice actors contributed.

Extras also include several previews of Central Park Media's anime, including its No. 1 title, Grave of the Fireflies, and its other excellent children's title, Doggy Poo. CPM also includes very well-done graphic novel previews, the type other anime companies selling manga can learn from and should emulate.

If you're a very (boring) conservative parent who doesn't want your child exposed to tales of mysticism or the harsh realities of the animal world, then go rent something with Bugs Bunny in it. If you want a good story for the whole family, one that's racked up several children's movie awards, then The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear is easily Recommended.