POLAR BEAR review: A joyous and handsome family documentary

In this handsome family documentary, Catherine Keener voices a momma “ice bear” who is fretting about the grim life awaiting her cuddly cub.

While the film doesn’t flinch from the coming ursine apocalypse, its cameras keep a distance from the blood-letting as Keener’s narration takes us on a trip down memory lane.

Our unnamed heroine remembers rolling around in the snow with her brother as her own mum went after penguins floating on the ice.

But, while her first two years were idyllic, her third winter was grim as the ice melted early and Mum was forced to go inland for food.

There’s a slightly upsetting sequence featuring a soon-to-be-scoffed walrus pup, and disturbing scenes showing a hungry and very dirty bear wading through a muddy wasteland that was once an icy home to seals.

But there are joyous moments too. A marvellous sequence shows the narrator, who’s now a young adult, coming across a male bear while trekking through a rather desolate landscape.

As parents fear an adult-only encounter, the hairy strangers roll back the years to play a game of hide and seek in a half-frozen lake.

The future may be bleak but sometimes bears just want to have fun.

• POLAR BEAR: On Disney+ now.