Polar Bears (TV movie)

Polar Bears is a 2008 television movie written and directed by Polly Draper and starring her prodigious sons, Nat Wolff and Alex Wolff, who act as famed versions of themselves. It tells of the siblings' who, along with their bandmates, take a ride on their tour bus to go to New Orleans, Louisiana. The plot chronicles Alex's obsession to save the polar bears by preserving the environment, as well as a conflict, in which, Rosalina (DiMeco) is suspicious when Nat becomes very close to his childhood friend "Little" Grace (Grace Cartwright). The movie also features band members, Thomas (Thomas Batuello), David (David Levi), Rosalina (Allie DiMeco), Qaasim (Qaasim Middleton), as well as, Cooper (Cooper Pillot), Jesse (Jesse Draper), and Nat and Alex's real dad (Michael Wolff).

The motion picture is presented in the style of a mockumentary—a parody shot in documentary format. It aired as a three-part TV special in conclusion of the second season of The Naked Brothers Band TV show, which broadcasted on Nickelodeon on June 6, 2010.

Plot

Brothers Nat and Alex, aged twelve and nine, are members of a rock band called The Naked Brothers Band. The film begins with the group—along with their ditzy nanny, Jesse—eating outside on a table in Pawnee Junction, Missouri. The cellist, Thomas, shows the audience a magazine which features a "Nat Wolff Exclusive". It shows five reasons why Nat "isn't perfect" and the first one is: "he slurps his soup". 

The group has been touring the country in their psychedelic tour bus and their next concert stop is in New Orleans, Louisiana. The group stays over Onita's (Donna Lynn Leavy) house, who is an old friend of the Wolff family. They also hang out with Onita's daughters, "Big Ella" (Saorise Scott), and "Little Grace" (Grace Cartwright).

Although "Big Ella" is the younger sister and "Little Grace" is the eldest, they have been Nat and Alex's childhood friends. While they are traveling on the bus, Jesse conducts a "manners class" for everyone, apart from Alex because he is "too young to play with knives". This is arranged by Jesse, as Nat's table manners are not approved by the restaurant ballroom.

While Jesse was in the middle of her lesson, Alex walked into the room. Jesse urged Alex to watch a digital versatile disc that she bought for him. Alex replies: "And what movie is this my lovely sugar plum?" Jesse recalled that a salesman from Blockbuster recommended buying this old humorous film called "The Awful Truth", starring Carry Grant.

After watching it, Alex comes back into the room explaining that she made a mistake; the film was actually called An Inconvenient Truth that featured Al Gore. Alex also recalls that "... Polar bears die in it, because the earth is too hot so their homes melt."

That night, Alex becomes overly concerned about the polar bears losing their homes, so Nat suggested to gather all the money they make from their upcoming concert and give the proceeds to the environment. The next morning, Alex shows their viewers a list of things that he will be doing to preserve the environment. He wrote it on his arm so he does not waste paper and it includes recycling and not taking baths.

Later during the day, they arrive in New Orleans in which their dad waits at the bus stop, along with Nat and Alex's dog Lucky. Their dad surprises them by bringing Little Grace too. They meet up with the other family at their house, and everyone is overjoyed that they are all together again.

The children go out into the town for the day, and Nat starts hanging out with Little Grace most of the day and Rosalina thinks that he is attracted to her, but he really is not. Meanwhile, Qaasim asks Rosalina for advice on how to flirt with Little Grace. Later on, the flooding from Hurricane Katrina flew Onita's house away, and because of this, the family had to move into a trailer home.

Over dinner that night, Qaasim puts his napkin on Little Grace's lap, in order to be well-manared. Little Grace did not acknowledge this, and so Rosalina explains to Qaasim that Little Grace obviously dislikes guys who are polite and to be more of a "bad boy". Meanwhile, Nat starts asking Little Grace if Rosalina likes him more than just a friend.

Little Grace explains that it seems like Rosalina actually likes Qaasim in that way because Rosalina was telling Grace how she was fascinated by his table manners, but Rosalina actually said that to try to cause Little Grace to fall in love with Qaasim. Following Rosalina's advice, Qaasim sits down next to Little Grace and pinches her butt. This results with her being abruptly furious and she ensues his actions by taking her bowl of spaghetti and pouring it all over his head.

Thereafter, the entire group speaks at a press conference in which Alex is looking at a calendar on the wall. Alex says, "Look at the calendar. Our picture. It's bigger. We're bigger than Santa Claus." News reporters twist his words around; they falsely claim that he said: "We're bigger than Santa Claus." The journalists get mad and they chase the band to Onita's trailer to hide from the reporters.

The misinterpretation causes the band's state dinner party to be cancelled. The next day, Alex and Big Ella shows Nat the documentary cameras to prove that Rosalina is actually attracted to Nat and not Qaasim. The footage shows Qaasim and Rosalina talking that night at dinner, in addition to even earlier when they were talking on the tour bus.

They were talking about how they both agree that Nat is attracted to Little Grace. Then Nat starts shouting "No! No! I'm in love with you Rosalina. How could she not know that I love her?" Alex replies, "She does now," which prompts Nat to look behind him. Nat finds the door open towards the kitchen and sees Rosalina smiling in the doorway. Then they start hugging and kissing each other, to show their affection and forgiveness.

The next morning, Big Ella wakes everyone up explaining that everything the reporters claimed of what Alex initially said about Santa Clause is all fixed. Because Alex doesn't believe her, she turns on the television in which the media explains that: "Alex was framed by nasty reporters who just wanted a story." Big Ella, who is obsessed with Santa Clause, is shown on television explaining to reporters that "Alex Wolff loves Santa Clause.

All he wanted to do was to tell you that he was giving all his money to save the polar bears. The polar bears are Santa's neighbors. Santa loves them and he loves Alex too, and so do I." Everyone applauses the actions that Big Ella took to save Alex's reputation and the group's state dinner. That following night, the band ends up raising money at the state dinner, which they donated to a charity that helps global warming.

Production

The siblings mother', who is the series' creator and executive producer Polly Draper, wrote and directed this film; she recalls, "Nat and Alex have become a fanatic about recycling and saving the environment—and mostly Alex, because after we watched [An Inconvenient Truth] he completely flipped out about it. He refused to take baths: only foot and butt bath's. And we hope that this movie will get kids' to recycle and think about the polar bears and the environment."^[1]

Principal photography took place in New Orleans, where Michael Wolff is a native of.^[1] A scene in the film, depicts Alex saying: "We're bigger than Santa Clause", which lampoons John Lennon's comment that the Beatles were, "more popular than Jesus".^[2]

Guest stars

Songs

References

External links