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Just wondered what everyone thought of the movie? I went to it this weekend with my fiance and it was funny how much of our sibe's we ssaw in the ones in the movie. I found it kinda sad at times but i'm a sap, when i started thinking of my dogs it was sad but over all i think a great movie and a good image for our dogs.

I really enjoyed it.

I think they gave the dogs a few too many human qualities, and while Sibes are one of the smartest dogs, creating diversions may be pushing it a bit (leopard seal; Orca carcass).

Also, a couple times it was pretty obvious the dogs were responding to trainer commands, like when the one dropped a bird and then backed up.

A little more human presence onscreen and more dog would've been better... lol. It was definitely better than "Snow Dogs".

Maiya looked a lot like my Nikki, which was cool...

My kids really liked it. I yelled and nearly jumped out of my seat at the "surprise" scene.

Walt

I really enjoyed the movie because of the dogs. I thought the human acting was mediocre at best, but I fell in love with dogs and found myself caring about them, despite the fact I knew it was just a movie. Today, when I took my dog to her training class, the instructor made some comment about how my dog could be a sled dog, and I asked her if she saw 8 Below and if she enjoyed it. She paused and said that she was very disturbed by some of the information it promoted about dog training (biting ears to show dominance was the example she cited, but I couldn't remember that from the movie), but that she thought it was entertaining. I just thought the dogs were great, so sympathetic. (I jumped, too, when the leopard seal surprised us--and the dogs! And I cried plenty too.) Now I want to see the Japanese film 8 Below was based on, though I bet it was even sadder than 8 Below.

The ear-biting she was referring to was in "Snow Dogs", with Cuba Gooding Jr. A lot of people are getting that movie confused with this one.

Walt

I enjoyed the movie although it definitely was a bit unrealistc at times, and yea the human acting was pretty sub-par. I wish they had the dogs doing the sibey talk instead of barking all the time. I hope this movie doesn't have the same effect as snow dogs dd on sibe rescue. So many people buying these pups they've seen in the movie and then once they realize they can't handle them the dogs get dumped. Such a shame, I guess we'll just have to try and educate people on the breed to avoid this and open our homes to rescues when needed!

Actually it's not just based on a Japanese film.

Japanese researchers were forced to leave there research station(or there time was up and the next shift was due to arrive).

Anyways they were forced to leave there research station, but left the dogs chained(They used Akita's btw) at the camp believeing that people would be returning in the next day or two.

Weather conditions prevented the researchers from returning. Inside the window of operations and they were forced to abandon there equipment and unfortunately the dogs as well.

One year later when the time frame in which they could safely work in this region again a japanese research team returned and found two of the dogs roaming free, very healthy and apparently very happy to see them.
Although the other dogs had perished, they found no markings on them to suggest that the two surviving dogs had attempted to eat, or even bitten them.
The two taht survived were praised as heros and both eventually succumbed to natural causes of death... one in the late 50's and the other in the 60's.

Thats the shortened version of the story anyways.

Tim

Why is the movie sad? I hate to cry in public, and my fam will probably be going to see it.
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Anne Elizabeth
aetrainer@msn.com

Well if it's anything like the actual story it's based on, or the Japanese version... not all the dogs survive the ordeal.

Knowing disney and the fact that they seem to regularly kill off characters in there movies to make them more emotionally stirring and leave a much larger impression on people's minds(After all... who doesn't remember when Bambi's mom got shot.) I'd hazzard a guess that they don't all return.

I'd read about the real story and the Japanese film, and the Disney version is different (isn't it always. . .). But as is true in all versions, not all the dogs survive, and I found myself very frustrated with the humans through much of the movie.

It has a mostly happy ending, but the dogs have to go through a lot during the movie. If you cry, you certainly won't be the only one crying. Plus, the theater will be dark, and everyone else will probably be crying too, so no one will notice.