Oscar-shortlisted animation inspired by Baffin Island landscape

This screen grab from the animated short film Snow Bear shows a glacier landscape inspired by Baffin Island’s Akshayuk Pass, hand-painted by Oscar-nominated animator Aaron Blaise. (Photos courtesy of Aaron Blaise)

The opening scenes of the animated short film Snow Bear may look familiar to Nunavummiut.

Created by Oscar-nominated American animator Aaron Blaise over three years, Snow Bear tells the story of a lonely polar bear navigating an unforgiving Arctic environment in search of companionship.

The opening shot is set in Akshayuk Pass, a glacial valley that cuts through Nunavut’s Auyuittuq National Park.

“I just loved it,” said Blaise.

“You’ve got these mountains named after Norse gods. It was so dramatic.”

The 11-minute movie is hand-drawn animation, done entirely by Blaise.

His career includes 21 years at Walt Disney Feature Animation working on films like The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Blaise directed the 2003 Walt Disney film Brother Bear, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.

Since leaving Disney, he has focused on wildlife-inspired animation and co-founded an online art school in 2013.

When asked about the origins of Snow Bear, Blaise said the story grew out of personal experiences.

“In 2007, I lost my wife to breast cancer,” he said.

“I really was emotionally distraught and kind of all over the place. I decided to leave Disney and just start over and kind of find myself.”

Blaise said he always knew he wanted to create his own film. The Arctic initially appealed as a simple setting for a solo character.

But his research into the Arctic expanded the visual scope of the film, with Baffin Island becoming a key reference for landscape, even though he’d never been there.

“The rest of the film is my idea of an idealized Baffin Island. It’s all made up — landscapes, seascapes, ice-scapes— but it’s all directly influenced by the region and the research that I did,” he said.

Animals play a central role in the story, including Arctic foxes, walruses, seals and orcas, and the polar bear’s interactions with them.

Blaise, a trained wildlife illustrator, said his lifelong love of the natural world guided the film’s character design.

Oscar-nominated animator Aaron Blaise, who spent 21 years at Walt Disney Feature Animation working on films including The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, hand-painted the 11-minute animated short Snow Bear. (Photo courtesy of Willeke Machiels)

Since the polar bear does not speak, Blaise relied on facial expressions to convey emotion.

“Animals don’t emote in the same way that we do. I keep their bodies naturalistic, but I focus on the faces and give them human-like expressions, like eyebrows,” he said.

At the time, Blaise had not seen a polar bear in the wild and said the streamlined look of Inuit ivory carvings of polar bears helped his research.

Blaise visited Churchill, Man., last month to observe polar bears in the wild for the first time.

“I felt like a little kid out there, in a tundra buggy, drawing and painting wild polar bears in front of me,” he said.

Partnerships with Polar Bears International and the National Parks Conservation Association came about as the film developed.

“When you watch the film, it has a strong environmental, global warming slant to it. I hadn’t intended it but it was there, so I decided to lean into it,” he said.

Blaise said he would love to someday visit Nunavut and conduct workshops on art and animation with young people.

The film was first screened in January and its reception has been positive, he said.

“I want people to laugh, I want them to cry. I want people to enjoy the film, but I also want them to think at the end of it. Those are my favourite films — the stories that make me reflect,” he said.

Snow Bear is available to watch on YouTube.