Yellowstone Cubs (1963)

Best movie of this year hands down!

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Although there are a few select scenes that, to an adult, clearly indicate that this movie is fiction, please note that the film is presented more as a documentary than a fictitious story, similar to those old Wild America or National Geographic television programs.The concern with this is that there are many scenes that depict the general public interacting with these wild animals in a far too casual and inappropriate manner. For example, families feed the bears up-close and personally, out in the open, and not even from within their vehicles. There is also a scene in which, after the narrator states that the mother bear is "dangerous", a man who encounters her calls the Ranger for assistance, and then proceeds to attempt shooing this dangerous mother bear away with a chair like some kind of circus lion tamer! The boundaries between human beings and nature are definitely blurred for young minds. If you rent this movie you will no doubt have to re-educate your children on the do's & don'ts of wildlife safety.This movie was made in 1963.I don't think they'd get away with producing something this irresponsible today... Last year ago a woman visiting Banff put some honey on her son's hand so she could get a picture of him with the bear. The bear starting chewing on her son's hand. This past summer a man was mauled to death in Yellowstone because a mother bear was protecting her cubs and some hikers got too close.

I rated it pretty high, because I remember it as an episode of Wonderful World of Disney from the early 1960s, and *I have not seen it since.* So I last saw the show about 45 years ago as a teenager. I do recall that, like most Disney shows, it was well produced, cleverly written, and the narration by Rex Allen was the perfect complement to the rest of the production.My family had bought a color television in 1958, and this was a color production. In fact, the Wonderful World Of Disney was one of the early color productions on NBC. Sunday evening was quite a treat.I still vividly remember the scene of the two little bears breaking into a cabin *and wrecking the place.* I especially the scene in which one of the bears climbed up to the cabinets and pulled the container of flour onto himself. Too Funny!

I was in this movie, it was interesting to see how it was developed. Many of the scenes were shot at Old Faithful Inn and in the surrounding areas. A long piano playing scene in the Inn was not used. One of my scenes showed me putting up a tent at the bottom of a hill and at the edge of a lake. This site was not far from the Old Faithful Inn. Two different hills were used for the filming. Sometimes the trailer was towed down a trail and the crew would pitch a log under the trailer to make it bounce, and the girls would throw things after the trailer. I did not like the 2nd site as it was steeper, and the loose trailer came at me very fast. I had to jump out of the way. On the last filming I dived in the water. I lost the hammer. I did not know that I could dive like that until I saw the movie when it played in Pocatello, Idaho. The grass had been sprayed green and there was ice on the water. The cast would go to a rangers cabin where a nearby hot pool could be used for bathing. The last time we went, I said, "We must be crazy, we're taking our clothes off in a blizzard." Many Yellowstone park savages (employees) were in the movie. I bought Chuck Draper a cowboy hat. [email protected] The scene noted by another reviewer where the bears tear up the kitchen was a re-shoot for more footage of destruction. A total of eight cubs was used to get the cub scenes. I think the Old Faithful employee kitchen area was used for filming.

I bought this video off eBay, because it combines two of my favorite things in the world – Disney and Yellowstone National Park. I also bought it because I've heard great stories from my father and aunt of what Yellowstone was like when they were kids. Well, this video is the perfect way to remember those times. The roads were different, the cars were different, picnic areas would also serve as camping spots, and most significantly, bears were very abundant as tourists fed them Pop Tarts, marshmallows, and other snacks. Go to Yellowstone now and you will be extremely lucky to see a bear from a far distance.In the movie, it's almost scary to see the tourists get so close to the bears. These are wild, unpredictable animals, not pets!! The movie's narrator notes this, but nothing too serious really happens. The story is kind of nice and a little bit dopey, but that's all good. A mother bear is separated from her two cubs when they crawl into a family's food box and are accidentally taken to a campground. The mother bear tracks down the family only to have missed her kids, but she refuses to leave. The rangers have to take her in and put a large splotch of yellow paint on her forehead, and if she is in trouble again, she will be destroyed.So it's kind of surprising to actually feel concern in this story. You just don't expect that. You feel sad for the mother bear and the cubs, but they do all right as they try to tack each other down over a few months. Some hijinks ensue as the cubs drive a boat (you have to see it to believe it) and enjoy a smorgasbord of goodies at Old Faithful Inn. These are all real bears doing this, but you can tell the camerawork gets a little iffy. For example, if you want a cub to struggle getting a pot off its head, simply just play, rewind, play, rewind, and so on. It's pretty funny to see.Nevertheless, this is just a nice little story. It's perfect for my family and I, and also for those who've enjoyed vacations to Yellowstone and/or people that just enjoy Disney's storytelling.My IMDb Rating: 9/10