'''Brother Bear''' is a 2003
traditionally-animated feature produced by
Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by
Walt Disney Pictures on
November 1,
2003, the forty-third
animated feature in the
Disney animated features canon. In the film, an
Inuit boy pursues a
bear in revenge for a battle that he provoked in which his oldest brother is killed. He tracks down the bear and kills it, but the Spirits, angered by this needless death, change the boy into a bear himself as punishment. Originally titled ''Bears'', it was the third and final
Disney animated feature produced primarily by the Feature Animation studio at
Disney-MGM Studios in
Orlando, Florida; the studio was shut down in March 2004, not long after the release of this film in favor of computer animated features.
[1] A direct-to-video sequel, ''
Brother Bear 2'', followed in 2006.
Plot
Kenai receives his totem in ''Brother Bear''.
Long ago in a post-
ice age North America, there were three brothers named
Kenai, Denahi, and Sitka. Denahi, the middle brother, and Sitka, the oldest, work hard. They think Kenai should work more and play less. Kenai, the youngest, hates bears because they fight for the same food, overtake the land, and ruin his coming-of-age
ceremony. Each brother was given his own
totem when they came of age: Sitka, the
eagle of guidance and Denahi, the
wolf of
wisdom. At the ceremony, Kenai is presented with the
bear of
love. Kenai questions the totem he has been given: "You think love has anything to do with being a man?!"
When Sitka is killed in a battle with a bear that Kenai provoked, Tanana, the
tribal shaman woman, officiates a funeral rite for Sitka. Afterward, Kenai throws away his totem and ignores the village teachings of brotherhood with animals. He sets out to hunt the bear for
revenge and eventually kills it. Angered by Kenai's actions, the Great
Spirits, through the spirit of Sitka, transform him into a bear. Unfortunately his other brother, who was pursuing Kenai to stop him, doesn't realize what has happened. He finds Kenai's torn clothes and believes the bear he sees took his brother's
life. In grief, he remembers Kenai's words to him and, as he had done, vows revenge.
Disoriented and falling into the river, Kenai awakens on the shore and in the presence of Tanana, who eases him through his initial shock at his change. Although she cannot understand his bear speech, she advises Kenai to find the mountain where the lights touch the earth so that he can ask Sitka's spirit to change him back, and then she disappears without giving him directions. To Kenai's surprise, he finds he can talk with the other animals - but the only animals who are willing to talk to him are two sibling
moose,named Rutt and Tuke, who are more interested in cracking jokes at Kenai's claims to have been a man than helping him. Along the way, Kenai meets a talkative, pesky bear cub named
Koda who saves him from a trap, and asks him to accompany him on the way to the
salmon run where the bears gather to fish near the mountain where the lights touch the earth.
What follows is a journey in which Kenai, when not dodging Denahi who is now hunting him, grows rather fond of the irrepressible Koda who he learns shares his spiritual beliefs. This in turn puts his hatred of bears in a stark perspective that forces him to reconsider, especially when he learns that Koda sees humans as the same sort of dangerous monsters as he himself once believed bears to be. This culminates when they finally reach the salmon run and Kenai has the awkward experience of being surrounded by bears. Yet, the bears quickly accept him and he in turn learns about the loving
community of these animals that makes his hate seem so foolish even as he learns to enjoy himself.
This contentment is shattered when Koda tells the story of his separation from his mother. Kenai is aghast as he puts the pieces together and realizes the story is about the fight he and his brothers had with the bear. Kenai realizes to his horror that the bear he killed was Koda's mother.
Distraught at the harm he has done to a cub he has grown to love, Kenai flees the gathering. The next morning Koda follows and asks what's wrong. With great
shame and
remorse, but also with great moral courage, Kenai confesses. At this traumatic revelation, Koda is left
grief sticken and runs away in loss and betrayal while ignoring Kenai's apologies and pleas for
forgiveness.
With nothing left to keep him with the bears, Kenai scales the mountain to contact the spirit of Sitka. Koda mourns alone, but then has a chance encounter with the squabbling Tuke and Rutt who reconcile because of their brotherhood, which makes Koda realize the importance of his friendship with Kenai. Meanwhile, Denahi finally tracks down Kenai; in the ensuing fight, Koda, having forgiven Kenai, rushes in to help at a critical moment in the fight. Kenai struggles to protect Koda and is willing to
sacrifice himself to save the cub, much as Koda's mother had done. With this selfless act, Kenai shows that he has profoundly changed for the better and Sitka, who had been watching everything in the form of an eagle, changes Kenai back into a human.
Yet, while Kenai has regained his
humanity, he can no longer talk with Koda, a cub who is now orphaned yet again by the bear he had come to accept as his brother. Rather than abandon Koda, Kenai tells Sitka that Koda needs him. Denahi calls Kenai "little brother" instead of "baby brother" and Sitka transforms Kenai (by his choice) back into a bear. He and his brothers hug together and say goodbye, while Koda and his mother's spirit do the same.
The film ends with Kenai as a bear, accompanied by Koda, being welcomed back by his tribe and pressing his pawprint to the cliff wall, which bears the handprints of countless generations of other tribe members who also fulfilled the
calling of their totem animals.
Kenai's contentment is about to be shattered when Koda tells the story of his separation from his mother
Critical reaction
The reaction from film reviewers was severely mixed with many panning the film as a retread of older Disney films like ''
The Lion King'' and the
20th Century Fox film ''
Ice Age'' (although ''Brother Bear'' began production before ''Ice Age'' did), while others defended the film as a legitimate variation of the theme. The popular movie critics
Roger Ebert and
Richard Roeper have given positive reviews of the film.
[2]
Of note to many critics and viewers was the use of the film's
aspect ratio as a storytelling device. The film begins at a standard widescreen aspect ratio of 1.75:1 (similar to the 1.85:1 ratio common in
U.S. cinema or the 1.78:1 ratio of
HDTV), while Kenai is a human; in addition, the film's art direction and color scheme are grounded in realism. After Kenai transforms into a bear twenty-four minutes into the picture, the film itself transforms as well: to an
anamorphic aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and towards brighter, more fanciful colors and slightly more
caricatured art direction.
Box office and home video
''Brother Bear'' made $85,336,277 during its domestic theatrical run and then went on to earn $164,700,000 outside the U.S., bringing its worldwide total to $250,383,219, which is considered successful.
In addition, its
March 30,
2004 DVD release brought in more than $167 million in DVD and VHS sales and rentals.
[3] In April of 2004 alone, 5.51 million copies of Brother Bear were sold.
Pop culture references
★ ''
Bambi'' - A young animal losing his mother.
★ ''
The Emperor's New Groove'' - A man being magically turned into an animal.
★ ''
Finding Nemo'' - During ''Great Spirits'', when the mammoth - which Kenai rides on - knocks all the fish down with its trunk, you see Nemo.
★ ''
Ice Age'' - A scene with the Mammoth herd trampling through the scene from left to right, especially the shot with the feet stepping into the same footprints. Also, the bears sleeping in the Mammoth tusk (like
Sid the sloth in ''
Ice Age'').
★ ''
The Land Before Time'' - Tanana says "Yep yep yep", which is
Ducky's favorite quote.
★ ''
Lilo and Stitch'' - An
Inuit child in the "Great Spirits" scene resembles Lilo. In the outtakes on the DVD, Stitch is shown in the first blooper replacing a chipmunk dubbed "What's-his-name" in the DVD's Moose Commentary.
★ ''
The Lion King'' - During ''On My Way'', Kenai is seen sleeping by Koda on a rock, a reference to Pride Rock. Also similar to ''
The Lion King'' is that the elk stampede at beginning is played as a gag. On the DVD, one can choose to watch the film with commentary by the two moose, Rutt and Tuke. At one scene, Rutt and Tuke comment on what animals they would like to change into; Tuke says he'd like to be a lion. Rutt insists that that's already happened in the film ''
The Lion King''. Tuke replies "No moose ever turned into a lion in ''
The Lion King''!".
★ ''
Second City TV'' - The two moose are actually recreations of
Bob and Doug MacKenzie, from
Second City Television, and their own movie
Strange Brew.
★ ''
The Sword in the Stone'' - Kenai's line "I'm not a beaver, I'm bea- no, I mean I'm not a bear, I'm a MAN!" is a reference to Merlin's line: "I am not a boy, I'm a squirre-, I mean I'm not a squirrel, I'm a boy, no, I'm... I'm an old man!".
★ ''
The Sound of Music'' - The background where "On My Way" starts resembles the landscape from where Fräulein Maria sings "The Sound of Music".
Sequel
★ ''
Brother Bear 2'' was released on
August 29,
2006.
[4]
Voice cast
The movie stars the voices of:
★
Joaquin Phoenix as
Kenai, the youngest of three brothers who gets turned into a bear, to teach him to see through their eyes
★
Jeremy Suarez as
Koda, a wisecracking bear cub ,who helps Kenai on his journey to where the Lights Touch the Earth
★
Rick Moranis as
Rutt, a comic
Canadian moose
★
Dave Thomas as
Tuke, another comic Canadian moose
★
Jason Raize as
Denahi, the middle brother
★
D.B. Sweeney as
Sitka, the oldest brother
★
Joan Copeland as
Tanana, the shaman-woman of Kenai's tribe
★
Michael Clarke Duncan as
Tug, a wise old bear
Wil Wheaton is listed by many sources, previously including the
Internet Movie Database (IMDb) as providing "additional voices" for the film. Willie Wheaton, the credited voice actor, is a different person.
Crew
Soundtrack
Main articles: Brother Bear: Original Soundtrack
Songs
Score by
Mark Mancina
Deleted song
★ "The Fishing Song" - This was intended for the salmon run sequence, but was replaced by "Welcome".
Technical data
★ Directed by:
Aaron Blaise and
Robert Walker
★ Written by:
Lorne Cameron,
David Hoselton,
Tab Murphy,
Steve Bencich (screenplay),
Broose Johnson (story), and
Jeffrey Stepakoff (additional writer, story)
★ Music by:
Phil Collins and
Mark Mancina
★ Released on:
November 1,
2003
★
American picture
★ Specifications:
Technicolor, 35 mm 1.85:1 (partly) and 2.35:1 (partly) (color,
Dolby digital sound)
★ Genre:
Animation,
fantasy,
comedy,
drama
★ Runtime: 85 minutes
★
MPAA Rating: G
Trivia
★ The film was released on
November 1,
2003, a Saturday. The announced reason was to avoid opening the film on a
Halloween Friday, because Disney believed that kids would rather trick-or-treat than go to the movies.
[5]
★ The film premiered on
Disney Channel in the
United States on
August 3,
2007.
★ This was
Jason Raize's only film (he died in
2004). He was the voice of Denahi. Previously, Raize played
Simba in the Broadway musical version of ''
The Lion King''.
★
Andy Hui and
Alex Fong provided the voices of Denahi and Kenai respectively in the
Cantonese version of the film. Andy Hui also sang all of the film's songs.
★ This film was the subject of an anti-cell phone ad. In it, Rutt and Tuke talk to the viewers, when one of mooses' phone rings and they start speaking and walk off the screen.
★ The names for the characters come from various locations in
Alaska and
Canada, e.g.:
Sitka,
Kenai (however, this name is also the inuit word for the
Black Bear),
Tanana and others. However, in the Rutt and Tuke commentary, it is stated that the characters were named after random
SUVs, which is false.
★ There is a
post-credits scene in which Koda appears at the salmon run by himself and says that in accordance with Wildlife Regulations no fish were harmed in the film. However, a fish, screaming, comes flopping into the background with a large bear chasing after it, when Koda starts signaling for the camera to cut and cover the lens with his paws and the screen goes black. Then, you hear Koda groaning and the larger bear is then heard belching, signifying that he ate the fish.
★ The film was nominated for an
Academy Award in 2003 for Best Animated Feature Film, but lost to another
Disney release, the computer animated ''
Finding Nemo''.
★ Kenai and Koda now appear at
Walt Disney World in
Lake Buena Vista, FL and
Disney's California Adventure of
Disneyland Resort in
Anaheim, CA as meet and greet characters.
★ Veteran voice actor,
Nancy Cartwright (of
Simpsons fame) served as a voice coach for the film.
See also
★
List of Disney theatrical animated features
References
1. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328880/news
2. http://www.animated-news.com/2003/brother-bear-two-thumbs-up/
3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26716-2005Jan21.html
4. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465925/releaseinfo
5. http://www.animationmagazine.net/article.php?article_id=1249
External links
★
Brother Bear Official Site
★
★
★
★
★
★
Brother Bear Online Archive
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