This is one of my all time favorites!
“Eight Below” is a PG movie presented by Walt Disney Pictures. The movie revolves around Jerry, who has made his life guiding researchers through the icy continent of Antarctica. To help him with his work are his faithful sled dogs. With very little interaction with the world, Jerry is on the continent with his friends and coworkers, Katie (ex girlfriend and the pilot) and Cooper (cartographer).
Jerry’s latest assignment is to take out a geologist, Dr. McLaren, in search of a rare meteorite. The catch is that the adventure is almost too late in the summer for the ice to be strong enough to cross. Despite Jerry’s hesitation, his carries out his job as instructed.
It appears that McLaren will let nothing get in his way of finding the stone that he is in search of finding. The two men encounter many troubles along the way and are at the salvation of the sled dogs, mainly Maya the lead dog.
After a close encounter, the two men find the stone, suffer icy waters and make it back to the camp. McLaren is near freezing with a broken leg and Jerry has major frostbite on his fingers. The two need to be rushed to a hospital. However, with the two injured men, there is no room to take the sled dogs along on the flight. Katie promises to return for them.
Unforeseen conditions will not permit Katie to go back and pick up the dogs. My favorite thing about the movie is that two stories are actually happening at one time. We see the dogs and their survival on their own in Antarctica as well as Jerry and his struggles with leaving the dogs behind.
This movie had a few words of inappropriate language and a bar scene where one could see some alcohol. The only violence was nature scenes which occurred during the dogs’ survival.
I think any dog lover should see this movie. While it is not inappropriate for younger children to watch, I think that they may not understand the true concept of the story and the struggle that Jerry faces. However children over 8 would probably enjoy watching the dogs and gain something from the movie.