Beaver Valley

Fondly remembered by so many schoolkids, Beaver Valley was the second of the True Life Adventure series and won the Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-Reel, for 1950. Highlights include an incredible mid-air mouse transfer between two hawks, salmon spawning, and of course, the famous sequence with the otters sliding down the snowy lake banks. When narrator Winston Hibler describes the female beaver, saying breathlessly, "She's lovely!" the kids will scream with laughter. It takes the viewer into the wilderness regions of Montana and Minnesota. Cinematographer Alfred Milotte, evidently an extremely patient man, manages to obtain fascinating close-ups of a group of beavers at work and play. Also featured are such "supporting characters" as a coyote, a bear and a family of otters. Kids will love the film's "Frog Symphony," wherein the nocturnal croaking of a bunch of puffed-up frogs and toads is set to music.