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Brother Bear Customer Reviews (31 - 33 of 67 Reviews)

A True Disney Classic!
A lot of the more recent Disney animated films haven't been so great. Definately not movies worthy of being in the Platinum Collection (wich includes to date Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and the Lion King). Brother Bear was so unexpected. I guessed that Disney was trying to cash in on the success of Tarzan (the other Disney film with music by Phil Collins), but the two are nothing alike. I went into the movie thinking the plot would be man turns into a bear resulting in good family fun. There is so much more to it. I really don't want to give anything away because the story takes you through so many surprises. The moose and the young bear, koda, definately steal the show, but you really do care for Kenai, the man who turns into a bear. I think Disney should have released this film after Home On The Range, the next and last Disney hand animated movie. That way they could go out with a bang. Home on the Range looks good, but good like Emporors New Groove was good. I really hope they change their mind and make more hand drawn, because I get sick of computer animation after a while. Take your family or friends to see Brother Bear. There is something for everyone in it.

Would have been much better without all the moralizing.
Brother Bear (Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker, 2003)

Blaise and Walker, two of the guys who worked on Mulan, get into the director's chair for the first time for Brother Bear (a movie that I somehow missed was animated before I actually got to it). The last time Disney (well, a subsidiary) tried this trick, we got Monsters, Inc., perhaps the best Disney release of the past fifty years. This one doesn't fare so well.

Three Native American brothers, Kenai (voiced Joaquin Phoenix of Gladiator fame), Denahi (singer Jason Raize), and Sitka (D. B. Sweeney of Strange Luck, Harsh Realm, and a number of other short-lived but excellent Fox TV series), live in an Indian village. On the day of Kenai's initiation into manhood, a bear gets into the feast. Kenai, looking for revenge, goes after it, and (really, through no fault of his own) kills it, although he loses Sitka in the process. In order to atone for his sin, Kenai is changed into a bear himself and sent on a quest, though he has no idea what the quest is.

To save you some time, let me tell you the triune moral of the story First, you should never hurt an animal, not even if it's about to tear your head off and eat your brain for breakfast. Second, if you do harm an animal, even through no fault of your own, something bad will happen to you. Third, do whatever you must to atone for hurting an animal. (It should come as no surprise that the subtext to all this is that animals are better than people.) This could have all been handled with at least a little aplomb, despite the obvious stupidity of the message itself, had the points not been hammered home with (no pun intended) a week-old dead herring about halfway through the movie; Kenai, in bear form, encounters a large band of other bears at a salmon run. The other bears are doing what bears normally do at a salmon run (i.e., eating). Throughout the whole scene (accompanied by a suitably sugary and brainless Phil Collins jingle sure to be nominated for the best song Academy Award), Kenai, unlike every other bear in the scene, does not eat a single fish. After all, he's not really a bear, he's a human, and has to learn the lesson that humans can't harm animals.

Disgusted yet? You should be. The worst part is that without all the messagemongering, this was a half-decent movie. It otherwise tells its tale with gentle humor, and if the two main plot twists are both relatively predictable, well, you're not here to find yourself wowed by originality. (Hey, Toy Story was predictable, too, but that makes it no less great). But since the movie feels the need to hammer its point home in such an amateurish way, and with so little regard for the intelligence of its audience that it feels everything must be spelled out, it ends up being insulting rather than warmhearted. **

An Amazing Bear
I saw the trailers for Brother Bear when it was in theatres and didn't really think much about it, until it got the Academy Award Nomination for Best Animated Feature, then I said to myself that this could be good, and guess what...it is!

Brother Bear is about Kenai (Joaquin Phoenix), a young Native boy who takes revenge on the bear who killed his older brother. When his brother's spirit sees what he's doing, he changes Kenai into a Bear to make him see through the animals point-of-view.

AMAZING! I was really impressed at how well done this movie is. I have to admit that this is one of my favorite animated films to date. The music by Phil Collins and (surprise!) Tina Turner are great! The score really stands out too, especially during the exciting transformation scene. Though, not as much music as my second favorite animated film, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, this one still delivers and music placement is put in where music is needed. The story is a bit strong and there are some scary scenes that may frighten little children, but other than that, the kids will forget about it when the two hilarious Moose, Rutt and Tuke, arrive on-screen (voiced wonderfully by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas). The Animation mixed in with a few CGI's are fantastic! as is the detail and the usage of the widescreen scope is used to the fullest extent. I was reading around and one reviewer said that this is a collaboration of all of the Disney themes, such as family in 'The Lion King', the transformation of 'The Little Mermaid', the Natives in 'Pocahontas' and the collaboration of Phil Collins again, just like in 'Tarzan'. I do agree with this and found it incredibly interesting that there are similarities which I welcome to with open arms.

I have to comment on how animated films have more adult themes to them these days. The 3 Nominated films of 2003 have elements of death or separation to them. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, it's actually, to me, a breath of fresh air. Brother Bear does have some intense and scary moments but at the same time there are are those fluffy scenes that back it up. I grew up watching Disney films right when I was at least 7 years old and ten years later, I have to admit, I still watch them. That may seem a bit sad and embarrasing, on my part, but it just shows how Animated films, such as Brother Bear, have that long range of age where no matter how old you are, you can still learn and relate to what these stories have to tell. It's really a dissapointment to hear that Traditional Animation is fading away, as it really shows the talent of human art, but times are changing and so is technology. So, just as long as Animated films have a great story to tell then I'm open to the posibilities that Computer Animation has to offer.

So, in the end, Brother Bear is an excellent mix of Disney themes that is filled with great music, good story and overall just a great film.

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