Cuddle up with 'To the Arctic' animals

Bear necessities: The story of a mother polar bears and her cubs take center stage in 'To the Artic 3D,' in IMAX theaters nationwide Friday. (Credit: By Barbara MacGillivray, Warner Bros. Entertainment)

To the Arctic 3D (* * * out of four, rated G, opens Friday on IMAX screens nationwide) opens with a shot that's a jaw-dropper: a panoramic sweep over the honeycombed Arctic shelf, spouting beautiful yet destructive cascades of ice water. Unless you're rich, it may be the closest thing to being there.

Visually stunning and narratively stunted, this IMAX documentary is the family version of 2006's An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary on global warming

Where Gore ministered with graphs and a cartoon of a polar bear swimming in an iceless sea, To the Arctic gives us simple metaphors and real bears.

If anything, the lumbering giants of the Earth's northern cap are the stars of this featherweight film. Rated G and running a scant 40 minutes, Arctic means simply to take you to the land, not lecture too much.

When the movie has to turn dark, as when narrator Meryl Streep explains that some male bears enjoy the taste of baby bears, the gloss-over is stark and the movie can smack of a family-channel documentary.

Fortunately, director Greg MacGillivray sticks to the strengths of his movie, namely cute bear cubs and baby seals.

The film dabbles briefly in politics and makes it clear it sides with An Inconvenient Truth, laying global warming squarely at our feet.

If the children are too young to get Truth but could use a film with an Earth-friendly message — and some furry cuties —Arctic is not a bad destination spot.

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