I have just heard about
Eight Below, a sled dog movie in which 8 Siberian Huskies are left stranded in Antarctica for 6 months (hence the title). From what I got from the trailer, the dogs are left after an accident occurs and the researchers had to evacuate in a helicopter. There is not enough room on the helicopter for the dogs, so they are left behind. This was supposed to have been a few days, but the weather turns bad and the dogs are not rescued for 6 months.
The movie is loosely based off a real event in 1957-1958 in which Japanese researchers left 13
Karafuto-ken (Sakhalin huskies) when they had to make an emergency evacuation. They left the dogs on a picket line with enough food for a few days. They thought that a relief team would be able to recover the dogs in a few days. The weather turned bad and the researchers did not get back till nearly a year later. Surprisingly, 2 dogs managed to survive. Taro and Jiro are national heroes in Japan. The story suggests that the some of the dogs managed to slip out of their collars and formed a pack. They learned to hunt penguins and seal.
In 1983 a Japanese film,
Nankyoku Monogatari (Tale of Antarctica), was released about the same event. It was a hit in Japan. 23 years later, Disney is going to release
Eight Below on February 17th, 2006.
Links:
Article in the Japan Times
Eight Below on Yahoo Movies
