Gerry Shephert, played by Paul Walker, is forced to leave his team of sled dogs behind to fend for its own survival in "Eight Below."

"March of the Penguins" — phooey! Those smelly little birds are built to survive in the frozen tundra, and nobody's asking them to pull a sled.

In "Eight Below," on the other hand, a pack of keen-eyed huskies and malamutes brave the Antarctic winter after their human owners have abandoned them.

Battling subzero temperatures, blizzards and some kind of leopard seal that looks like it grew up watching "Alien," the pooches huddle in frigid drifts wondering whether the star of "2 Fast 2 Furious" will ever come back to them.

Like a good, old-fashioned Disney movie where animals do amazing things amid the dangers, and splendors, of the natural world, "Eight Below" is a crowd-pleasing, tear-jerking adventure yarn. Its eight stars (and their stunt doubles) are intrepid four-legged beasts with big, silky coats, bright, eager expressions and a way of standing atop a pile of ice that makes them look noble and wise.

Their not-nearly-so-handsome costars are Paul Walker, Bruce Greenwood, Moon Bloodgood and Jason Biggs — playing a team of humans who reluctantly leave the dogs behind when wicked weather and a wounded scientist compel them to exit their station, post haste.

Walker, whose eyes are as blue as those of his heroic young sled dog, Max, is Jerry Shepard, a guide who has trained these big critters since they were pups, and who can discourse long into the night on the respective talents of Maya, Old Jack, Shadow, Buck and the rest. It breaks his heart to leave the dogs behind, but he's been promised by his pilot pal (and ex-girlfriend) Katie (Bloodgood) that they'll return and get them right away.

Then the Storm of the Century blows in, and no one's allowed to fly into Antarctica until the spring thaw.

"Eight Below" is inspired by a true story — one that's already been turned into a movie (and a hit) in Japan.

Director Frank Marshall made another true-life survival tale, "Alive," a few years back, in which Ethan Hawke and his fellow plane crash survivors must contemplate cannibalism. Happily, that thought doesn't enter the doggies' heads in the new movie, although some of the things they have to eat (gulls, blubber, Russian canned food) look pretty unappetizing.

Photographed mostly in the Canadian Rockies, subbing for the antipodes, "Eight Below" is dazzling to look at, and nicely intercuts the human relationships — and Jerry's desperate attempts to get back Down Under — with the pooches' awesome struggles to stay alive in the white, wintry wild.

<b>TITLE:</b> 'Eight Below"<b>DIRECTOR: </b>Frank Marshall<b>CAST:</b> Paul Walker Greenwood, Moon Bloodgoo, Jason Biggs.<b>RATED:</b> PG (profanity, animals and humans in peril)<b>GRADE:</b> 3 Stars (on a scale of 5)