Set in the arctic nether regions, a world losing its state of normalcy by the day, the film’s narrative begins by following the life of a newborn polar cub, Nanu. Awakening to the world outside her mother’s birthing cave, Nanu, along with her mother and brother, venture out into the tundra for food. We learn a lot, of course, through Queen Latifah’s (perhaps too) sassy narration. Nanu’s mother hasn’t eaten in six months. She hunts baby walrus for nourishment that will become milk for her young. The only animal she has to fear is a male polar bear that, if given the opportunity, will attack her cubs.

To parallel this narrative is the story of a newborn walrus, Seala, as well as her mother, her “auntie” and a massive family of walruses that live, eat, digest, swim and sleep as a family, “all up in each other’s business.” Like I said – sassy narration. Once again, there is information aplenty. Walruses eat clams, believe it or not. They harvest them thousands at a time and look for visual landmarks that indicate harvesting spots along the ocean floor. And they seemingly spend their entire day sunbathing, otherwise. Well, when avoiding starved polar bears.

From here the filmmakers steer the yarn toward the environmental dangers facing the animals. Each passing year thins the ice considerably, leaving animals in some cases stranded with the limited food supply they already have in a given area. The point Al Gore made in “An Inconvenient Truth” about polar bears having to swim hundreds of miles just to reach ice suitable for walking is amplified ten-fold here.

Polar bears have to search farther and farther for a food supply that is itself forced abroad. Animals that specialize in hunting food hidden beneath the ice are now faced with prey well aware of their approach, given the conditions of the ice. Global warming is bad, m’kay?

All of this is laid out in a rather simple, expected manner. The filmmakers cleverly edited footage together to drive the narrative forward in linear terms. And of course there’s always Queen Latifah’s audible guidance throughout. Nanu and Seala separately grow older in their family environments. Tragedy strikes each equally and the survival instincts put on display really sting the heart. Nature is an evil bitch, but that’s not the point with which the film wishes to clobber you over the head.

The point – in this, Paramount Classics’ perennial “green” film, I suppose – is that humans are affecting the environment of species that have dominated the indicated regions for thousands of years. If you buy the argument (I do), human behavior has brought on drastically shifting conditions that could force extinction onto the arctic agenda before long.

That is where “Arctic Tale” at least seemingly transcends the boundaries of a simple cut-and-paste program you’d catch on a Sunday afternoon on the National Geographic Channel. There is a greater purpose to presenting the plight of the polar bears and walruses. Its simplicity might be its greatest attribute in the final analysis. Having a bunch of kids drive it home over the credits might have been a bit unnecessary, but this one isn’t trying to win awards for nuance. In an ever changing world, indeed in a quickly sliding environmental society, perhaps we’ve charged far past the point of nuance altogether.