Eight BelowMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 64 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
8 OK for kids 8+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 83
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    There's something invigorating about this unpretentious dog tale. And if a penguin drops by to promote his own movie product, well, there's room on the frozen continent for all. Read full review

  • 80
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    Disney may have written the book on live-action animal adventure stories, but it has been quite a while since there has been a chapter as terrific as Eight Below. Read full review

  • 80
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    Although the dogs have surely been Disney-fied to some extent, the sequences of them trying to survive are magnificent and deeply moving. Bring the Kleenex, and hug your pups when you get home. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    Remarkable, how in a film where we KNOW with an absolute certainty that all or most of the dogs must survive, Eight Below succeeds as an effective story. It works by focusing on the dogs. Read full review

  • 75
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    It's the most touching love story about tragically separated sexy beasts since "Cold Mountain." Read full review

  • 75
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Walker is adorable, but gives a one-note performance. Greenwood, a charismatic and unsung character actor, has the most noteworthy human performance as a somewhat arrogant academic whose decency keeps him from becoming a stock villain in a formulaic story. Read full review

  • 70
    Variety | Dennis Harvey

    An easy watch, thanks to the splendors of frosty scenery and furry canines. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times |

    Eight Below is Grade A pooch porn, an orgy of canine cuteness. Read full review

  • 50
    Los Angeles Times | Kevin Crust

    This family adventure about a team of sled dogs abandoned in Antarctica naturally invokes the traditional shout of "Mush!" urging the canines to go faster, but it's also an apt descriptor of both its shameless sentimentality and ineptly structured story. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Peter Hartlaub

    The movie is overly long and much too intense for small children, yet it's filled with dialogue and plot turns that are too juvenile to thrill adult audiences. Read full review

View more reviews for Eight Below on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 8+ Inspiring story about brave sled dogs.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this film includes some perilous situations for humans (a fall into a crevice and icy water, frostbite and broken limbs) and huskies (they face freezing cold, blizzards, starvation, and predators, with the number of perilous "days on their own" marked by subtitles). The oldest dog must be left behind (sad scene), some dogs are injured and/or die, leaving sad-looking survivors (mournful eyes, nuzzling the dead bodies). One jump scene features a ferocious (animatronic) leopard seal, who leaps out with teeth bared to defend a whale carcass it's been eating. Some gentle romance and a kiss. Some mild language (s-word).
  • Families can talk about the loyalty between Jerry and his dogs: While other people think he goes too far, he sees the huskies as family members. How does the movie make the dogs seem like people, with the help of soundtrack music and close-ups to show "expressive" faces?
The good stuff
  • message true3 Positive messages: Independent-minded Jerry won't give up on his dogs, and learns to trust his human friends as well.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence and scariness: Dogs attacked by leopard seal, dogs must bring down birds to eat; dogs suffer wounded legs/paws and die from cold and starvation; Davis falls through ice and must be pulled out, half-frozen; Jerry's frostbitten (blackened) fingers visible.
  • sex false0 Sexy stuff: Brief and gentle flirting and eventual kiss.
  • language false3 Language: Mild language (s-word) during harrowing circumstances.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false0 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters meet in a bar.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

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