Review of The Bears and I

When a likable young white man (Patrick Wayne) moves up to the Canadian outback, he finds the natives not so welcoming and wonders why. He makes easier friends of the three abandoned bear cubs after one of the nastier Indians kills the mother. The cubs stick to him like oatmeal on a newly painted wall, even though he has every intention of releasing them into the wild once they are old enough and trained to take care of themselves. He falls in love with them as if they were household pets. But baby bears aren't really puppies, and the Indian leader (Chief Dan George) warns him that their land will be plagued with tragedy until all the bears are released into the wild.

It takes a couple of misadventures for Wayne and the bears (mostly quite harmless and entertaining) until he is able to make them ready to accept living as bears should. The sight of one of the poor cubs being pushed down the snowy mountain (by another one of the cubs) in a sled as Wayne chases after him on skis unfortunately without poles is a comedy delight. The conflict explodes when Wayne learns that the parks department (lead by veteran character actor Andrew Duggan) wants the Indians to move off the land so they can develop it for a tourist attraction. The Indians, lead by George, hold fast, and tragedy as he predicted does break out. This is pleasant family fair, as Disney succeeded in adventure stories more than comedies.