‘The Bear’ (PG)

If you think you were traumatized when they shot Bambi's mother, just wait till you see "The Bear." Mud-and-guts director Jean-Jacques Annaud, who fictionalized the discovery of both fire and the missionary position in "Quest for Fire," leaves little to the imagination in this buddy movie for bears.

Told in ursine language and set to a thundering score, "The Bear" stars a real live teddy bear, Douce, as a fuzzy cub who is orphaned when her mommy is squashed in a rock slide. Mewling and pawing at her fallen parent, Douce finally realizes she cannot rouse her and timidly sets off on her own. Playing games with great frogs in a meadow pond, she is momentarily distracted.

Meanwhile, in another part of the woods -- Italy's Dolomites standing in for the Canadian Rockies -- a huge male (the superb Bart) is shot by hunters as he enjoys a lunch of bright orange berries. The angry, suffering bear mauls the hunters' pack animals, and the ignorant duo (Jack Wallace and Tcheky Karyo) swear vengeance against him, planning to return with a kennelful of vicious dogs. The cub follows gruff Bart at a distance, whining for acceptance, which she finally wins by licking the blood from his oozing shoulder wound.

The bear buddies go fishing together and enjoy other woodland recreation: Douce trips out on psychedelic mushrooms and Bart ruts enthusiastically with Doc (an "effeminate" male Annaud cast as the love interest). And for a moment, this beastly business becomes La Cave aux Folles. Well, it is a French film after all, part bedroom farce, part National Geographic special, but mostly an animal horror story. The hunters track the blissful bears like slashers sneaking up on high school kids.

Children, and adults for that matter, are sure to identify with Douce, the poor little love. Based on a novel written by American naturalist James Oliver Curwood in 1916, the movie is pretend realism meant to stay those little trigger fingers. It's certainly harrowing to sit through. Talk about your grizzly misadventures.

"The Bear" is rated PG but is likely to upset young children.