Based loosely on real events — the 1957 Japanese Antarctic expedition — and technically a remake of Koreyoshi Kurahara’s 1983 film Antarctica, this is the kind of courageous canine adventure that has been a Disney staple for years. Charting the fight for survival of a team of sled dogs reluctantly abandoned in the icy wilderness, it’s a terrific story proficiently, if prosaically, told, mercifully free of the ruthless tear-jerking that was standard operating procedure in Uncle Walt’s day.
The dogs, whose individual personalities shine through without recourse to crass anthropomorphism, are superstars. Inevitably, though, things sag when the narrative cuts back to civilisation and their trainer (Paul Walker) tediously fretting about their plight.