Review: We Bare Bears “Yuri and the Bear”

The baby bears always win.

Spoilers Below

A hungry baby Ice Bear swims through the snow of the arctic. As he searches for food, he tries to stay away from three poachers set on killing him. His nose eventually leads him to a tent where beef stew it cooking. It turns out a Russian man named Yuri lives there. Yuri tries to chase Ice Bear out of the tent but ends up injuring his leg. After Ice Bear helps him, Yuri lets the bear stay with him as long as the snow rat does chores. Yuri teaches Ice Bear how to chop wood, fix an engine, and speak Russian. Ice Bear teaches Yuri complicated mathematics. The only rule Yuri has is Ice Bear must stay out of the large chest.

One day, while Yuri is away, Ice Bear looks inside the chest. He finds pictures and mementos of Yuri’s family. One of the pictures shows a young girl, presumably Yuri’s daughter, holding a wooden horse. Ice Bear carves a replica of the wooden horse for Yuri. When Yuri finds out that Ice Bear was in the chest, he is so furious that he kicks Ice Bear out of the tent.

As Ice Bear runs away, he gets caught in a bear trap. The poachers and their dogs hear the trap snap closed and rush off to grab their prey. Yuri hears the dogs howling and heads out to find Ice Bear trapped. The Russian frees the little bear. Together, they ride off on his snowmobile until the engine gives out. Cornered between the poachers and the frozen ocean, Yuri sets Ice Bear on a block of ice and uses his axe to cut the ice block free. Ice Bear floats away on the ice, never to see Yuri again. But Ice Bear does have Yuri’s axe to help him.

Such a sweet episode! It was a little weird since Ice Bear didn’t say a single word and Yuri was kind of difficult to understand. But I think everyone could get the gist of what was going on. While I would love to see each of the bears have this type of solo episode, I don’t think it would work as well for Grizz or Panda. Ice Bear is one of a kind.