Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote: "Mr. Disney has assembled a fine, often fascinating color documentary on animal life in the North American Arctic".

Filmed in awesome detail in the icy wastes of the Arctic, where struggle for existence is savage and cruel, this feature is one of the most spectacular of Walt Disney's 'True-Life Adventure' series, and as such can expect handsome returns from its particular market".

[8] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The familiar music score, production tricks, anthropomorphic humours and human-angle narration are again in evidence.

[9] White Wilderness contains a now-infamous scene that supposedly depicts a mass lemming migration, ending with hundreds leaping into the Arctic Ocean.

[12][13] Wildlife photographer and filmmaker James R. Simon – who worked freelance for Disney on numerous True-Life Adventure films[14] – is credited as being the person responsible for staging the lemming sequence.