Is anyone else watching this?

Its from the creators of the Snowman and then The Snowman and The Snowdog.

The only difference is instead of snowmen and snowdogs they've been replaced by bears and brown dog. Also instead of just one kid there's now about six....

There's also no resemblance to Christmas whatsoever, feels much more summery instead.

Can't get the song "Were going on a bear hunt, were going to catch a big one, what a beautiful day" out of my head as they've repeated it about 5 million tomes now!

Also, why are they wearing shorts and dresses when its snowing outside, completely bizzare...



So, What does everyone think of the show so far??

It's been so over-trailed that I was heartily sick of it by today - Swerved it entirely because of that.

I'm watching, despite it being so over-trailed. The kids seem insufferable and stupid, but the animation is nice.

Is there a tragic ending to give some kind of moral lesson, because it's quite boring so far (on +1).

Yeah, I'm watching on +1 as well, doesn't seem to have the magic of the previous versions.

Is... that it?

Well, that was short and sweet.

Quite disappointed with the ending, was really thinking that the bear would come back.

Wonder what kind of reviews this will get?


The original The Snowman scored 8.2/10 on IMDb and The Snowman and Snowdog scored 7.1/10 so I wonder how this will compare?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084701/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2560206/


Somehow I think it won't score as high...

Disappointing end, I was hoping the bear would return 😞

I'm guessing none of you have read the book to your children then.

That programme was originally a book???

Hadn't heard of it before.

Was hoping for some Grimm-style ending where the bear eats everyone, but I may have been in the minority/wrong demographic for that.

Hated it! Have the book, read with joy to my children and we all sat down to watch it and they didn't do each important verse, and in the book you don't feel sorry for the bear, in the animation my daughter felt sad for it, and husband and I hope that the bear was going to reunite with another bear. Hmm I'll stick to bbc adaptations like room on the broom and gruffalo (rather surprised not a new one this Christmas)

Not as good as the The Snowman and The Snowman and the Snowdog that I had watched earlier, both of which have a timeless appeal and never lose their magic. Bear Hunt was nice but I wouldn't be likely to watch it again, unlike the other two which are Christmas must sees. I think part of the problem is the repeated sentences 'over it/under it/through it' which likely works well in the book (I have never until this month heard of it) but not on screen, quickly getting a bit monotonous. Also, as someone else said, it didn't feel very Christmasy, in fact it felt quite summer like in places! That said, I do really like the fact that it's a properly drawn animation, which is so sparingly seen now in the sea of CGI crap that I'd like to see it do well if only to encourage animators to go back to real decent drawings again. Not everyone likes those horrible dead behind the eyes atrocities they keep using.

I don't want to have to say this but I thought it was crap.

It had the look and the feel of some of those classic Christmas animations, but that was it?
They went on a bear hunt, little girl finds a bear in a cave and they cuddle, dad drags girl away and they run home, then the neighbours come to the house, little girl looks for bear but he's gone.
That was the story. That was it. There was nothing there.

It had the look and the feel and all the trimmings of presentation, but as a story that was very poor.

I love all those Raymond Briggs based Christmas animations which this was evidently trying to capture the spirit of, and in appearance it succeeded. But in content it most certainly did not.

You weren't concentrating, were you? It wasn't dad it was big brother. Parents went off to fetch grandma in the first few minutes. I accept that it doesn't work as a film, but the repetitive refrains fit better in the 'read it with a child' normality. The snowstorm that came from nowhere and then dissapeared was very strange.

I even thought maybe the bear was going to be grandad reincarnated 😁
the snowstorm was odd they did it, but it is on the book, just didn't work in the cartoon

The book is utter crap, have never understood the fuss. This cartoon was little better and like the book what was the point of any of it other than to upset a bear?

My kids love the book, I've always found the story somewhat lacking although the poetry style prose is lovely but it doesn't translate well to the big screen. Even knowing the bear was not coming back we were hoping something exciting would happen anyway! My younger children enjoyed it though ... I guess you just have to take it for what it is and 'bear' in mind that it's based on a book which is fairly limited to start with!

It should have also been on at 6 or 6.30 given the audience it was aimed at and the book is aimed at.

I haven't read the book but it did seem rather incoherent even for (presumably) a fantasy. Is it summer or winter? Who on earth would take a baby outside in a (strangely localised) snowstorm? How are they able to walk long distances so quickly? And why is a grizzly bear living in a cave on the English coast?

Not read the book (in particular not had to re-read it over and over to a youngster) and was able to suspend reality to enjoy it for what it was.

Rubbish!

Father Christmas is the only one I like

LOL, as soon as I saw this advertised I thought "This better not be bloody Corden again" ... When it turned out not to be it was a nice, pleasant surprise!

Father Christmas is fabulous - I don't understand why it's not on as often as The Snowman.

It's on the 24th, 25th and 26th and every Christmas.

Really? I always seem to miss it then. It's certainly not as bigged up as The Snowman (and more recently, The Snowdog).

It's on at 9:25am on E4 if you still want to catch it.