The Little Polar Bear

The Little Polar Bear (in Lars de kleine ijsbeer) is a franchise about a polar bear cub named Lars who first starred in a number of books written by Dutch author, Hans de Beer.

The first of several animated adaptations of the books is a Japanese original video animation, released on April 28, 1990, with animation production by I.G Tatsunoko (now known as Production I.G).

It later became an animated TV series for BBC TV and WDR Lars, der kleine Eisbär, in the 1990s. The show proved to be popular in Germany.

The show was later revived between 2001 and 2003. For its first film, subtitled Der Kinofilm, Warner Bros. and animation studio Rothkirch Cartoon Film bought the rights to adapt the children's books into a feature-length film, released in 2001.

Following the success of the feature, several direct-to-video features were released, one of the new characters included was a tiger cub. In 2005, another film, The Little Polar Bear 2: The Mysterious Island (Der kleine Eisbär 2: Die geheimnisvolle Insel) was released and also proved successful.

The score to The Little Polar Bear was composed by Nigel Clarke & Michael Csanyi-Wills and recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and was nominated for several awards.

The Japanese version uses Tomoko Tane's "Rainbow Song" as the ending theme.

Original BBC TV series adaptation
In the mid-1990s there was a German-British TV adaptation for the BBC and WDR, featuring the voice talents of Susan Sheridan and Jimmy Hibbert. The animation of the series was provided by Sinan Gungor.

Voices

 * Susan Sheridan - Lars, Lena, Peeps, Mummy Polar Bear,
 * Jimmy Hibbert - Daddy Polar Bear, various male voices
 * Vanessa Feltz - Brownie Brown Bear

Characters

 * Lars - the little polar bear, main character of the show
 * Frieda, Lars' mother
 * Mika, Lars' father
 * Lena - the Arctic hare
 * Peeps - the snow goose
 * Brownie - the little brown Bear

Film
The Little Polar Bear is a 2001 German film based on the books of the same name. It is directed by Piet De Rycker and Thilo Graf Rothkirch and produced by Willi Geike. The film was distributed in Germany by Warner Bros. Germany through the Warner Bros. Family Entertainment unit on 4 October 2001.

Warner Bros also produced an English dub of the film that was released in America and Britain in 2003.

Sequels

 * The Little Polar Bear: Lars and the Little Tiger (2002)
 * The Little Polar Bear: The Dream of Flying (2002)
 * The Little Polar Bear: Nanouk's Rescue (2003)
 * The Little Polar Bear: A Visitor from the South Pole (2004)
 * The Little Polar Bear: The Mysterious Island (2005)

Voice cast
Additional English voices
 * Steve Bulen
 * Richard Cansino
 * Melora Harte