At only 90 minutes, this is so slow paced that it feels much longer. Set at the start of the 1900's on the North American prairies, it depicts the search for a missing boy, swept away in a swollen creek, and his journey home. It's exaggerating to say that the badger saves his life; it reluctantly shares a raw fish with him, gets caught in a trap, fights a dog and gets shot by the trapper hired early on to do so in a downer of an ending. The best thing about this movie is Salome Jens. This is the first time that I've seen her without her DS9 make-up and she really provides the pathos as the boy's mother.
8 Reviews
The Boy Who Talked to Badgers Review
twolfaith24 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
"The Boy Who Talked to Badgers" follows a young boy named Ben who likes to talk to animals, in particular, an old badger. But when Ben finds himself lost, the badger helps him survive in the wilderness. Well, where should I start? It's a nice little story about having faith when things are really bad, but the problem with this film is it feels like we hardly see the titular boy and badger. In fact, when the boy is lost, he hardly goes anywhere. You could argue this story is more about the mother and father having to cope with the fact that they can't find their son anywhere, but the title literally is "The Boy Who Talked to Badgers", so why don't we see more of the boy and the badger? This film isn't bad, but it just bothers me that we hardly see the, in theory, "main characters". This film is still better than anything Disney's pumping out these days (other than Encanto) and I would recommend you check it out but I wouldn't expect too much to come out of it, other than a nice little message and cute story.
Deserves to be so obscure
maccas-5636713 July 2020
Sometimes I question my life choices. Watching this film is one of them.
I have to admit, I was sold on the title. I thought it sounded almost auto-biographical, had I lived in a place with badgers. I went into this with an open-mind and somewhat silly curiosity - yet I was still disappointed.
It's typically savage for Disney films involving animals of this era. It needed way more badgers. Hell, it needed a whole range of other things too - in particular, decent pacing and something half-resembling feel-good Disney vibes.
It left me feeling depressed. Everyone in the film was kind of unlikeable and even the badger made some questionable choices too.
This film deserves to be as obscure as it is.
I have to admit, I was sold on the title. I thought it sounded almost auto-biographical, had I lived in a place with badgers. I went into this with an open-mind and somewhat silly curiosity - yet I was still disappointed.
It's typically savage for Disney films involving animals of this era. It needed way more badgers. Hell, it needed a whole range of other things too - in particular, decent pacing and something half-resembling feel-good Disney vibes.
It left me feeling depressed. Everyone in the film was kind of unlikeable and even the badger made some questionable choices too.
This film deserves to be as obscure as it is.
Mushroom ! Mushroom !
southdavid10 March 2023
Oh, Disney! Was the 1970's entirely spent making awful live action animal-based movies? I've been going through Disney Plus in Alphabetical order, and I must have seen ten already, and I'm still only on "B".
Benjy (Christian Juttner) is a young man, growing up on his families ranch in Canada. With little chance for human interaction, Benjy has formed attachments with some of the animals that surround the estate. One day he's fishing when he's overwhelmed by the river and swept away. His parents, Will (Carl Betz) and Esther (Salome Jens) desperately search for him and all but give up hope after several days without sign. Benjy though is OK, sharing a cave with a badger and sharing the food it brings back.
I mean, the one trait that all these movies seem to share is that they are staggeringly boring. This one in particular moves at a glacial pace and almost nothing happens. The river doesn't look like it's strong enough to carry a leaf away, let alone a child, but we'll live with that in the hope that it moves the story forward. The interaction with the Badgers, which you might anticipate would be a key element of the film is limited and much more time is spent with the family, fearing the worst whilst organising search parties.
I wasn't aware, going in, that this is based on a book, assuming that it would be like the other Disney films, where they filmed a bunch of animal interactions and built a narrative around it. Reading the synopsis of the book on Wikipedia, it's actually quite different from the film, and many of the aspects that sound like they might be interesting (the whole 'feral' child aspect for one) are dropped.
The performances aren't terrible, from the adults at least, and occasionally the backdrop is nice to look at, but it can't compensate for the absolute tedium of the story.
Benjy (Christian Juttner) is a young man, growing up on his families ranch in Canada. With little chance for human interaction, Benjy has formed attachments with some of the animals that surround the estate. One day he's fishing when he's overwhelmed by the river and swept away. His parents, Will (Carl Betz) and Esther (Salome Jens) desperately search for him and all but give up hope after several days without sign. Benjy though is OK, sharing a cave with a badger and sharing the food it brings back.
I mean, the one trait that all these movies seem to share is that they are staggeringly boring. This one in particular moves at a glacial pace and almost nothing happens. The river doesn't look like it's strong enough to carry a leaf away, let alone a child, but we'll live with that in the hope that it moves the story forward. The interaction with the Badgers, which you might anticipate would be a key element of the film is limited and much more time is spent with the family, fearing the worst whilst organising search parties.
I wasn't aware, going in, that this is based on a book, assuming that it would be like the other Disney films, where they filmed a bunch of animal interactions and built a narrative around it. Reading the synopsis of the book on Wikipedia, it's actually quite different from the film, and many of the aspects that sound like they might be interesting (the whole 'feral' child aspect for one) are dropped.
The performances aren't terrible, from the adults at least, and occasionally the backdrop is nice to look at, but it can't compensate for the absolute tedium of the story.
Awesome badger movie and one of a kind!
termalone5 July 2021
Before star wars there was 'The Boy Who Talked to Badgers'. A film with badgers and a boy who liked to talk to them, the film gloriously champions the badgers from start to finish with a touching end. If there was one movie you should see it should be star wars with this film being a close 2nd.
Its a Badger movie ok!
karoldoyle5 July 2021
Probably the greatest badger themed movie of all time, how many badger themed movie are there, probably just this one,so enjoy badger fans. Cant wait for the Gaurdians of the Galaxy cross over remake with the badger as the tash panda's cooler brother.
Life Altering Experience
mickdman13375 March 2022
Since I was young I loved badgers and could tell we had some deep connection, sharing sushi and cuddling everyday in the wilds. People called me crazy but I showed this movie to my friends and finally they understand that badgers are more than just wild creatures, they're my family.
Why Old badger? Why?
sararatti-030586 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
We all had an Old badger as a friend: the friend who had delicious food and didn't want us to take any, the friend who pretended to show support and run away, the friend who required to be set free from a trap and then abandoned us. Old badger is a marvellous metaphore about failed friendships. 10/10.
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