Eight Below review

Never work with children or animals, they say. But did anyone tell the doggy stars of this Disney survival yarn they should never work with Paul Walker? Guess not. At least his surname suits this otherwise gripping tale of eight huskies forced to fend for themselves after being stranded at the South Pole.

Between March Of The Penguins and Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, young audiences might have had their fill of glacial escapades. Which is a shame because there's an old-fashioned charm to director Frank Marshall's heartfelt tribute to canine courage (which thankfully has none of the coy cannibalism that made his 1993 flick Alive so hard to swallow). But that still leaves Walker, who feels so darn bad about leaving his pooches to freeze he spends his time trying to rescue them. His emoting at the demise of one beloved mutt will have you howling.