Eight Below

I'm a sucker for two types of movies: romantic comedies/drama and animal movies (real movie AND cartoons/animation). More so, animal movies. Something abt animals never fails to tug at my heart and I almost always end up shedding a tear or two at these movies... Lassie, Homeward Bound, Free Willy (yes, the whale show!), Spirit, Lady & The Tramp, The Fox & The Hound, Balto... aiyoh, u name it lar! I think I've cried at almost all, if not ALL, animal movies I've seen!

Last Sat, we went to watch Eight Below. It's inspired by a true story (events of a 1957 Japanese Antarctic expedition) and it's abt how 8 sled dogs were left to fend for themselves in Antarctica for 5-6 months when their human handler had to leave them while they evacuated the base due to a storm and they didn't have enuf place to take the dogs (notice how it's always the animals that get left behind?). Anyway, the story itself wasn't that exceptional i.e. they didn't make it really THAT interesting but I loved to dogs!!! They were soooooo cute and cuddly and intelligent and amazingly beautiful!!! There's Maya, Old Jack (he's 10!), Max, Shadow, Shorty, Truman, Dewey, and Buck. Maya's the Alpha Dog i.e. the leader of the pack. The part where I'd teared up a bit was at the end, when Jerry was talking to Maya coz he thought she'd died, with Max sitting close by... sniff snifff... End of story - 6 out of the 8 dogs survived when they finally managed to get back there to rescue the dogs.

Here are pics of 7 of the 8 dogs in the movie, courtesy of Yahoo! Movies (no pic of Dewey :o( ):









Martin Buser (defending champion and a four-time winner of the Iditarod dog-sled race and a member of its Hall of Fame. He and his family operate Happy Trails Kennel in Big Lake, Alaska, which breeds and trains sled dogs), upon being asked a question by National Geographic for its webcast "The Last Great Race" :

NG : Is there anything you think people should know about dog-sled racing that may not be obvious?

MB : The emphasis of the sport should really be on the dogs and not the drivers. They go out and run 150 miles in 24 hours, sleep a few hours, and then they are ready to get up and do it again. They are the true heroes of the trail. The humans just get all the attention because they can talk.

A few interesting links:
Balto
Sled Dog Action Coalition
Hero Dogs
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race