The original plan for the movie was for Rutt and Tuke to be the main characters, without any appearance from Kenai or Koda, but that idea was vetoed.
Jeremy Suarez, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis, and Michael Clarke Duncan are the only actors who reprise their roles for this film. Joaquin Phoenix, who had voiced Kenai in Tierra de osos (2003), did not reprise his role for this film due to several scheduling conflicts with films that were able to release in theatres at the time and was replaced with Patrick Dempsey.
By the time of the film's release, Koda's voice actor, Jeremy Suarez, had already gone through puberty. This was his last film to feature his young-sounding voice.