A great movie, a story that is as true as it is artistic. It's not your typical pet/animal movie in which a friendship is born between a child and an animal and everything turns out okay for both - in the wild or not. I'm trying not to give away any spoilers, but what I can say is that it's a very sad movie in the end, but as sad as life can be, really. We are taught a lesson that no matter how much we love someone (human or not), we cannot force them to live or save their lives just because we love them very much or they're cute. I think it's a great movie for older kids to learn about how nature works and to understand the difference between what can and cannot be done, but it can be very depressing if you're expecting a cutesy-frutesy easy story with comic aspects.