The White Seal (1975 TV Movie) User Reviews

Swimming in my head forever is the memory of this wonderful film...

[Theshapeshifter · 8/10 · 14 December 2005]

When I first saw this film, it was ages and ages ago. Obviously, now I clearly recall very little of it, but what I do recall was that it was about a seal who is white (quite unlike all the others), and who wishes to find a new home for all of those of his species. With this, he faces troubles and dangers in the form of sharks and humans on the hunt for seals. And from what I can loosely recall, it was very ethereal and whimsical, with good voices and a strong story line. After that, I recall very little, but from what I can recall, I highly recommend to fans of Chuck Jones cartoons. It would be a very good watch to many people.

Quite a sweet animated adaption of the original Rudyard Kipling story.

[Mightyzebra · 7/10 · 22 June 2008]

First off, let me say that this is rather different from Rudyard Kipling's original story. However, it does have some dialogue from the original story and is in some ways similar.

Secondly, Chuck Jones did a good job on this. There are a few Chuck Jones-esqe touches in this short film including some sweet slapsticky moments. It is a different from his Looney Tunes works, I will grant you that.

Thirdly, I like this short film for the music from Beethoven featured, the interesting background animation, the character behaviour and the surprising similarity to Rudyard Kipling's story.

This short film is about the seals on Nova Scotia beach, who gather in their thousands every year. One day, a baby white seal is born and his mother believes he will stay white forever. He grows up to be strong and wise and manages to do something very special for the other seals...

I recommend this to people who like short animated films with cute animation and to people who like Rudyard Kipling's original story. Enjoy! :-)

7 and a half out of ten.

Seals looking for safety

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 22 April 2016]

"The White Seal" is a 24-minute cartoon by the legendary Chuck Jones from over 40 years ago. If you have seen some of his work from the previous decades, you will realize how much animation had changed since the 1940s. Comedy is almost non-existent in here, but that is perfectly fine. June Foray is on board again here as well and Roddy McDowall is also somewhat known. Looking at how weak some of the Oscar winners for Best Animated Short from that era were, it is fairly obvious that quality animation had moved to the small screen and this one here is another example. It is Jones' middle installment from his Kipling trilogy. We have a seal who is constantly on the lookout for a safe place where is friends, family and entire tribe can move to in order to live peacefully and where they do not have to fear getting killed by humans. Overall, in terms of animation and story, I liked this movie. it does not achieve greatness, but is a solid watch from start to finish. However, I must say I do not agree with the creative decision to make the seal look majestic and sacrifice cuteness entirely for it. Nonetheless, I am surprised this was not nominated for an Emmy. It looks like what they would go for exactly. I recommend "The White Seal". Thumbs up.

Chuck Jones' take on Rudyard Kipling's story of the sea

[ja_kitty_71 · 10/10 · 9 April 2008]

I love seals, and I love animation by Chuck Jones. Based on the story by Rudyard Kipling about Kotick, a rare white seal who grows from a sweet little pup into an adult who later saves the colony from cruel hunters... I am against seal hunting myself, and I also love a good animal story. As with other Kipling stories like Riki-Tiki, Tavi, and Mowgli's Brothers, Chuck Jones once again made a masterpiece with great animation and storytelling, as well as adding Beethoven's 6th Symphony to the music mix.

I love the scenes when Kotick was a little baby; he's so cute! Especially when he's practicing barking.

The White Sea;'s Good for Young and for Old

[kamisch42 · 9/10 · 26 October 2007]

Yes Kingsnake, this is the movie that quote's from (and I'm from Florida too)! I recently picked it up on DVD as I was buying Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (another one I love). The white Seal had faded from my memory since the last time I'd viewed it as a child, but just seeing the title, I remembered one thing very clearly: the humans in the coats of dead seals go out killing more seals. This scene had scared the bejesus out of me when I was little. It's not really bloody at all, in fact, you don't see them actually do anything at all to the seals...but the way they round them up and chase them with those clanking things, and the looks on the seals' faces...and then the white seal shouting at them. The way the firelight was playing off of him, and with all the shadows, it was truly frightening to me at the time. Still, I liked it then, and upon re-watching it last night, I like it now. Some might call it a tad too scary for young kids, and it just might be for some, but on the whole, there's nothing wrong with them seeing this - sometimes it's good to show them the dangerous side of humans, in a rather Bambi-esquire way. I give it 9 stars just because it's too short though...I could've watched this for at least a whole hour, but alas, it was all done within 30 minutes. It's nice that the DVD has "A cricket in Times Square" to go with it, but it would've been even nicer if there was a DVD with this, plus Rikki-Tikki, plus the cricket, PLUS that other cartoon that's on the Rikki-Tikki DVD.

"It's the ghost of all the seals we've killed!"

[kingsnake302 · 10 March 2007]

For some reason that quote popped into my head last night... I remembered it being from an animated film I'd seen when I was a child in the mid 70s, where a white seal thwarted some seal hunters... thanks to the internet, I am reasonably sure this is the film I saw. Can anyone verify this? I probably remember it because at that time I was collecting names and donations to stop the Canadian seal hunt (even though I lived in Florida)... obviously even at the age of ten, the film made quite an impression, if quotes are still coming back to me 30+ years later. (And obviously I remember when the so-called "liberal media" really WAS liberal, if they were showing things like this!)

The Beaches of Lukannon

[andrea-45 · 21 August 2007]

In the edition of The Jungle Book that I own - which collects the short stories like "The White Seal" and "Rikki Tikki Tavi" - almost every story is preceded or followed by a poem/song. The one for "The White Seal" is "The Beaches of Lukannon." William Pint and Felicia Dale (www.pintndale.com) have recorded a haunting version of the poem (I was fortunate enough to get a tape of their original concert version many years ago). You can read the poem at http://www.pintndale.com/ by looking under their "Songlist" at the "Round the Corner" album link...and you can catch a brief sound clip (Windows Media) at Amazon under a search for said album "Round the Corner" (link too long to post here).