Eight Below is rated PG: for some peril and brief mild language.

A guy who's a bit of a loner, a pack of dogs, and Disney. It's the perfect combination for a film that harks back to the studio's early days when its founder, Walt Disney, gloried in creating fine movies involving animals with human emotions, and humans with animal instincts.

Set on the remote continent of Antarctica, Jerry Shepherd (Paul Walker) acts as a tour guide for scientists who visit the ice desert. He inhabits a small research station with cartographer Charlie Cooper (Jason Biggs). As their "summer" season ends, the pair prepare to pack up. They just have one last visitor to take care of-- a geologist named Davis McClaren (Bruce Greenwood) who was delivered by bush pilot Katie (Moon Bloodgood).

We sense things are going to be difficult the moment the rock hound announces he wants to take an unexpected trip to a remote location so he can search for a suspected meteorite. Jerry is unimpressed with making such a long trek so late in the season--but his boss encourages him to do it anyway.

Pulling his dog team together--arguably the true stars of this film--Jerry introduces Davis (and us) to their eight divergent pooch personalities, which range from the leader Maya (Koda Bear -- the dog's real name), to youngster Max (D.J.) and experienced pup Old Jack (Apache).

The tough sledding starts early, after Davis finds himself dangling in a crevice and the dogs have to be summoned to pull him out. Yet Jerry's repeated orders to stay close at hand go unheeded, and Davis again tumbles down an ice cliff--this time the grave results include a fractured leg and plunging up to his shoulders in frigid water. The situation gets worse when the predicted bad weather rolls in faster than expected. A hurried trip back to the station leaves both men frostbitten and in serious condition.

Requiring emergency transportation to a hospital and civilization, Katie's plane has room for the men, but not the dogs. That leaves the huskies alone for the winter on a part of the planet that is anything but hospitable to its inhabitants. Throughout the upcoming months, Jerry's love and admiration for the faithful canines weighs heavily and drives him to seek any possible means of return to discover their fate.

Eight Below runs a full two hours, but audiences aren't likely to find the pace lagging, despite the many moments with no dialogue. Precise editing drives a script that contains no sexual content and only two very minor expletives.

Anyone still assuming this is a "kid movie" will be missing out on a captivating story. Because it is doesn't shy away from making some tough choices, parents who accompany their children should be forewarned not all of the dogs survive. The scenes of pups in peril do however help to create a believable and satisfying conclusion that won't drown viewers in mushy sentimentality, even though it is sure to cause tears from young and old alike.

Studio: 2006 Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

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Dogs in peril are what your kids will remember most about this film. The pups are left to fend for themselves over the winter, and their initial situation has them tied to a post and unable to escape. During the course of events, they fall from cliffs, and deal with freezing temperatures and storms. The most dramatic moment involves a surprise meeting with an aggressive seal, which bites one of the dogs. Other content concerns involve a man who falls down a crevice and later a cliff and breaks his leg. Two mild expletives are heard. In one scene, a man chews on an unlit cigar. A man and woman kiss a couple of times.

Life is full of tough decisions when determining priorities. Parents may want to discuss the choices made in Eight Below regarding the need to evacuate humans at the cost of leaving the dogs behind.

One scene in the movie depicts some incredibly bright Northern Lights playing across the Antarctic sky… a highly unlikely event as the Aurora Borealis are contained to the Northern Hemisphere. For more information on this natural phenomenon, check this Norwegian site.

***Late breaking news!*** After publishing this review, we have had many letters from readers informing us of the Southern Lights, often referred to as Aurora Austalis. Check this page for more info (submitted by Tony in Florida): http://www.ast.leeds.ac.uk/haverah/spaseman/aurora.shtml

Even though this film was shot in northern British Columbia, Canada and Greenland, you may still want to find out more about Antarctica. Some good Internet points of interest include: CIA World Factbook
Australian Antarctic Division
University of Chicago Virtual Tour

Also based on a real story, Iron Will follows the courage of a young man who enters a 522-mile-long dog sledding race in hopes of winning enough money to save the family farm. On a more comical note, Snow Dogs is a fish-out-of-water tale about a Miami resident that has to travel to Alaska after he inherits a team of Huskies.

The heartwarming film Eight Below comes to DVD with commentary by director Frank Marshall and producer Pat Crowley, as well actor Paul Walker and director of photography Don Burgess. Get cuddly with the four-legged stars in the featurette, Running with the Dogs: The Making of Eight Below, and dig through the deleted scenes with the aid of an audio commentary by the director. Audio tracks are available in English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1) and French (Dolby Digital 5.1), with subtitles in English, Spanish and French.