Fuglekrigen i Kanøfleskoven (1990) or, Every Bird for Himself

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Birds in a dark environment play music and dance (with rats), while an ominous vulture readies to feed on them on this poster for Jannik Hastrup's Fuglekrigen i Kanøfleskoven

A young bird in the forest called Oliver gets a good friend and later girlfriend in fellow bird Olivia, and they stage a united front against the vulture tyrant of the forest, Fagin. - But precious few will help them.

Fuglekrigen i Kanøfleskoven is written by Bent Haller (Dreaming of Paradise/Strit og Stumme (1987)), based on his own children's book Fuglekrigen (1979), and directed by great Danish filmmaker Jannik Hastrup (Sandheden (1964)). The original Danish title translates to, 'the bird war in the reproach forest'.
It is a fairly typical Haller-Hastrup collaboration, which pushes the view that people are stupid and ignorant, and that adults aren't much help but are often selfish and/or downright malicious.
Two mice from Hastrup's popular Cirkeline (1967-70) animation get dragged into the story, and this is one of those films were developments seem to be invented primarily as a means to boost the running time.
Tommy Kenter's (Chop Chop/Fukssvansen (2001)) voice performance as the owl, which was inspired by W.C. Fields, is one of the best things in the film, but Ove Sprogøe (Kurt og Valde (1983)) and Anne Marie Helger (Jungledyret Hugo (2003, TV-series)) as the two magpies are also funny.
Fuglekrigen i Kanøfleskoven is singular and out-spoken but in no way deep or inspired exactly, and the animation isn't beautiful or original.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 12 mil. DKK, approximately 2 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[Fuglekrigen i Kanøfleskoven was released 28 September (Denmark) and runs 68 minutes. No box office information is made available, regrettably, though the Danish Film Institute, (one of the production companies behind the film), called it a "big audience success" in its primary production company Denmark, and also inform that the film was distributed with 80 and 40 copies made, respectively, for the German and French market. The film was also released in Iceland, Sweden, Japan, Finland and the Netherlands. It won the Best Film for the Youth award in Cannes 1990. 30 seconds of profanity was cut out for a North-American release of the film, which never came to fruition. It won a Robert award (Denmark's Oscar) for Best Sound. Hastrup returned with 3 shorts and theatrically with Aberne og det Hemmelige Våben (1995). 711 IMDb users have given Fuglekrigen i Kanøfleskoven a 7.3/10 average rating.]

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The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear/Drengen Der Ville Gøre det Umulige/The Boy Who Wanted to Do the Impossible (2002) - Hastrup hits the bull's eye with breathtaking Greenlandic adventure

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+ Best Animation of the Year + Best Box Office Disaster of the Year +  Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Family Movie of the Year 

The inviting, neat poster for Jannik Hastrup's The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear

QUICK REVIEW:

The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear is a modern highlight in Danish animation.

A Greenlandic baby is taken by a polar bear, who is looking for a replacement for her own lost cub. The boy is raised as a bear and later experiences an identity crisis, for what is he really?

One quickly overcomes viewing the animation style of Bear as somewhat staccato and float happily into the beautiful, inspired universe full of fresh colors and white created for the film, which feels like getting to really visit Greenland.
The film has an exciting story with a mythical richness, high stakes and a strong, touching ending. There are also really good voice work, (this review is based on the original Danish version.) Particularly Tommy Kenter (Chop Chop/Fukssvansen (2001)) is funny and liberating as the raven, and Paprika Steen (The Substitute/Vikaren (2007)) is good as the human mother.
Bear is a super fairy-tale-like adventure with a simple animation design that hits the spot. It also does a good job of incorporating digital three-dimensional effects to especially dramatic moments.
A couple of minor reservations: In one scene involving danger, the landscape changes too noticeably back and forth. And some of the playful/romantic scenes are a bit tame.
The original Danish title (Drengen Der Ville Gøre det Umulige) translates to 'the boy who wanted to do the impossible' , (which was the UK title as well.) The film is written by Bent Haller (The Secret Weapon/Aberne og det Hemmelige Våben (1995)) and Michel Fessler (Man to Man (2005)) and directed by the great Danish animation filmmaker Jannik Hastrup (Benny's Bathtub/Bennys Badekar (1971), short).

Related review:

Jannik Hastrup: 2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Benny's Bathtub/Bennys Badekar (1971, short) - A boy's fantasy adventure in Danish animation classic

Watch the Danish trailer for the film here, (unfortunately without English subtitles)

Cost: 33 mil. DKK, equal to approximately 5 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear was released December 18 and runs 75 minutes. It was Haller's biggest movie to date, a Danish-French-Norwegian co-production, which is also the reportedly first film ever to receive a Greenlandic voice version, which was finished about a year after the film's initial release. The film reportedly got 65,700 admissions in its native Denmark, (Greenland is a part of the Danish kingdom), which is far from hit status there. However without numbers from other countries, - the film has also been shown at, and received praise and prizes at several festivals, - it is impossible to say whether it became profitable theatrically, although it is unlikely. 754 users have rated the The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear 3.1/5 at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear?