I have been to Yellowstone National Park twice and spent a lot of time in there...and loved every minute of it. However, although we spend a total of about 2-3 weeks there, we only very rarely saw any bears. This isn't a complaint but I am mentioning this because the bears and the way they acted in "Yellowstone Cubs" is clearly an antique...and such bear/human interactions simply don't take place there today like they did in this film. In the film, you see idiots actually hand feeding and even kissing wild black bears!!!! Not surprisingly, sometimes the bears ripped people's faces off....and eventually the Park Service changed the rules and clamped down on such idiotic behaviors by people. Seeing the stupid folks standing only inches from these wild animals will probably cause your blood pressure to shoot up a few hundred points!! I know that my daughter was angry as she watched the people behaving horribly.
When the story begins, you see a large mother black bear and her two cubs, who the narrator dubbed Tubby and Tuffy. They seem pretty cute and watching them scampering about is pretty entertaining. Soon, however, the park is open for the season and that's when the problems start. Idiotic people start interacting with them and eventually the two cubs are separated from their mother due to a really moronic family that decided to hand-feed the mother...as the cubs climb into the people's trailer. Soon the cubs find themselves at a camp ground and they run amok. Will they ever find their mother??
This film is an antique in many ways. I mentioned how in the old days, folks foolishly interacted with bears. This, fortunately has stopped...though I have still recently seen folks standing only a couple feet from Bison and Big Horn Sheep at the park!! The other way it's an antique is that instead of being a documentary about wildlife, the film is heavily orchestrated...placing bears around people and situations and creating a story around it. They anthropomorphize the bears--making them seem human-like in their actions and naming them furthers this outdated method of filmmaking. It's also horrifying that they likely placed the bears around various geothermals or ate movie film in order to make the film look cool! Or, if they didn't place them there, instead of shooing them away, they let the cubs muck about the mud pots and steam (which could have scalded them) and campgrounds! Crazy, huh?!
So is this worth seeing? Well, yes and no. It is a great look at the bad old days of human-bear interaction. You can see people (and even a ranger) doing some VERY stupid things with the bears! You'll likely be shocked as you watch. But it also isn't all that educational as instead of learning about bears and their behaviors in the wild, it's more about telling a story and entertaining. Very 1963 in its sensibilities but still worth seeing...particularly if you are planning on visiting our national parks, particularly Yellowstone.
By the way, for fun, show this film to park rangers and watch them to see if they have strokes or heart attacks! I am sure, at the very least, you'll hear an ear-full from them about the filmmakers and the crazy things they did with wild animals to make this movie 'more entertaining'.