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A Tale of Two Critters (1977) - Dickens adjacent


“A Tale of Two Critters” (1977) opens with a riff on the first two clauses in Dicken’s first sentence. I think they should have skipped down a skosh to “age of wisdom, age of foolishness” or “spring of hope, winter of despair”. Maybe threw in some take from the closing stanzas about [holding sanctuary in their hearts]. It was clearly titled and scripted to evoke Dickens, but that is pretty much where the similarities stop.

This is a Buena Vista Films production - released theatrically in the middle of the summer - at a time when (a) Disney would produce a G-rated movie and (b) movie theaters would take up summertime seats with a 47 minute nature flick. I wonder if it came as a double feature. I could not find anything about the box office numbers. The original song is fun and I would have sworn the orchestrated score kept calling back the hymn “I’ll Fly Away”.


If you have seen Milo and Otis (1986), you have seen this - except this is half the time commitment. I would guess they are both equally dubious in terms of the jeopardy in which the film makers placed these two creatures. There are a couple of chuckle out loud parts: every time the raccoon would tackle the bear and they would wrestle; it made me giggle. Some of the narrator’s puns were funny. There were a couple of cringey parts: when they got in a fight with a wolverine, I didn’t want to think about who set that scenario up and how much first aid it should have needed.


I have visited the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim*, WA where this was filmed. If you know the place, you have to know that several of the scenes are a total setup. It is technically possible to float down a river to the ocean, but it is not direct. I think there is no way a hollowed-out log carrying a raccoon and a bear would make it without getting stuck. I don’t think the Olympic peninsula is home to either wolverine or badger. The skunk and the crow looked local though.


If you want a short pleasant no demand motion picture experience, this tale can provide it.


*if you are not from the PacNW, you are likely pronouncing that word wrong

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