By: Mariah Thomas
Snow Bear is a short film filled with lessons of friendship and pre judgments. It also gives an honest small glimpse at global warming by showing the negative effects of it for the lead polar bear you grow to love. As part of Tribeca’s 2025 Film Festival, it specifically is one of the shorts featured in “Whoopi’s Wonderful World of Animation.” This is a segment crafted to be family friendly shorts for all ages. When it comes to Snow Bear, the best animated stories also break your heart and teach a life lesson.
Snow Bear tells the story of a polar bear who finds a friend in an unlikely place. After many unsuccessful attempts at befriending other creatures such as a fox and a group of whales, the bear feels lonely. That is until he sees what he thinks is another polar bear in the distance. He races off to discover that it was actually lumps of snow that resembled a bear. Feeling defeated, he molds the lump into a figure more accurate to a polar bear. He adds two ears and digs in the snow to find a rock for the nose. This snow bear becomes his friend that he takes with him everywhere. He even molds her into different poses and expressions. After some time together, the unforgiving climate begins to melt the snow and his snow bear friend along with it. On a large block of ice, he is forced to set off once more in order to find a new friend.
In an animated world that has mostly moved away from hand drawn work and a two dimensional style, Snow Bear offered such a beautiful nostalgia for me. I instantly felt like a kid again seeing the animation. There is such a beauty that has been captured in this style as our lead polar bear sets off to find a friend. There is a mixed media approach that was another incredible factor to this short.
From the creative mind of Aaron Blaise, this short beautifully captures nostalgia while telling a new story. On my initial watch I wasn’t familiar with who directed this short. The above paragraph about nostalgia was also written before putting the pieces together. Without context, I instantly had the movie Brother Bear in my mind and felt a sense of happiness. With context, I realize how much of an Aaron Blaise fan I have been my entire life without realizing it. In addition to directing Snow Bear and Brother Bear, he also directed How to Haunt A House – a short part of “Mickey’s House of Villains” – Another beloved piece of work for me. I think this is a wonderful example of a director having such a specific style that it speaks for them. Without knowing the connection, I have deeply loved every project he worked on as a director for the style and stories themselves.
I think it’s safe to assume that I highly recommend people check out this short film. Not only do you get to live in a world of nostalgia for ten minutes, but there is a great story and underlying message to be discovered, too.