Little Wonder Bear

Story

Little bear Milagros (voice of Melany Segura) and her brother Yana Yana (voice of Nicole Valera) live a simple life with their mother in the middle of the Peruvian forest. They have all they need and are deeply loved. When a plane crashes into the jungle and the cubs’ mother is killed saving their lives, Milagros finds herself alone.

Following her brother’s trail, Milagros soon discovers a type of track she has never seen before. She follows the track towards the outskirts of the forest and eventually comes across a creepy circus tent where she’s captured and locked in a cage. Here she discovers Yana Yana has been taken by poachers and is to be sold near a town called Chaparri. Befriended by Fox (voice of Ann Giraldo), Milagros escapes and sets off to find her brother.

The journey of Milagros and Fox through the forest is filled with danger and has many twists and turns. Milagros must rely on her instincts, her new friend, and the lessons her mother taught her to survive, find her brother, save the forest and ultimately fulfil her destiny.

Themes

Animal cruelty; abusive relationships; death of a parent; loneliness; greed; deforestation and the destruction of habitats

Violence

Little Wonder Bear has some violence. For example:

An orangutan scares Milagros and she falls off a tree, crashing to the ground.
Milagros and Yana Yana get revenge by scaring the orangutan so that he falls out of the tree too. They laugh as he falls down, saying, ‘The monkey could not fly’.
A puma hunts the little bear family while they hide in the undergrowth and try to evade him.
Yana Yana is captured by poachers and taken away in a cage to be sold.
Fox tells Milagros that she’s going to lose so much weight that she’ll be able to go in and out through the bars of her cage whenever she wants.
Fox describes how anyone who tries to escape from the circus is punished and never seen again. When asked if she has ever tried to escape, Fox responds, ‘He would kill me if he caught me’.
A clown hits and whips Fox and then throws her in her cage where she’s barely able to move. She blames herself for the clown’s actions.
Yana Yana translates what a clown has said and tells Fox, ‘He plans to marinate you and have a BBQ. You will be his dinner tomorrow night’.
Two poachers crash their car over the edge of a cliff, and Yana Yana falls out of his cage when it bursts open on impact. His leg is hurt, but he manages to escape.
Milagros and Fox find newspaper clippings about a ‘Bad Clown’ who eats his animals after horrific grilling sessions.
A clown grabs Milagros by her legs and roughly throws her down. In doing so, he knocks over a candle and sets fire to his circus tent.
Fox attacks a clown while Milagros is unconscious. The clown throws Fox and kicks her into the side of some furniture where she lies motionless as a fire begins to rage.
A clown nearly kills Milagros.
Fox is nearly crushed by a falling boulder.
A puma tells Milagros and Fox that he is going to ‘lick the meat off their bones’ and ‘swallow them whole’. He also says, ‘You will be my dinner’. He chases them through the forest, up trees, across ravines and through a river, where he nearly captures them before falling over a waterfall.
Workers try to crush and kill forest animals. One worker says, ‘I am going to squash you like the bug that you are’. When the boss sees the animals coming together to stand before the machines he tells his workers, ‘Kill the beasts and get on with it’.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in Little Wonder Bear.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Little Wonder Bear shows some use of substances. For example:

A clown tries to get into a bar.
A clown takes a swig from an empty wine bottle.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity in Little Wonder Bear.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in Little Wonder Bear. During the credit, a QR code from Green Initiative is shown, encouraging children to be part of a project that aims to plant trees for Milagros.

Coarse language

Little Wonder Bear has some mild coarse language, name-calling and insults, including ‘dumb dumb’, ‘dumber’, ‘dummy’, ‘knucklehead’, ‘slowpoke’, ‘tree slug’, ‘silly’, ‘Shut up!’, ‘heck’, ‘stupid thing’, ‘useless animal’, ‘vermin’, ‘damn brute’, ‘crazy beast’, ‘good for nothing’, ‘coward’ and ‘pest’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Little Wonder Bear is based on the award-winning book by Hernan Garrido-Lecca. Both the book and move are inspired by the true story of a spectacled bear cub who survived when a plane crashed into the Peruvian Amazon, killing her mother.

Although Little Wonder Bear is an animated movie, it has powerful and heavy themes, so it’s best suited to families with children aged over 8 years.

These are the main messages from Little Wonder Bear:

Love and respect nature.
You have a voice, which you can use to speak up for what’s right, especially if others can’t.

Values in Little Wonder Bear that you could reinforce with your children include resilience, environmental protection, courage, friendship and survival.

Little Wonder Bear could also give you the chance to talk with your children about the real-life consequences of things like:

destroying the environment for financial gain
poaching and caging wild animals
staying with someone who treats you badly.