Frère des ours

I took my 8 year old daughter to see this and the cinema was packed full of kids. They loved it and I loved it too. It was like going back in time to seeing those old Disney movies of my youth such as the Jungle Book and The Aristocats. Brother Bear is one of those movies that is funny and moving at the same time and of an ideal length to hold the attention of a kid.Sure,the critics hated it probably because it is not as knowingly clever as Finding Nemo. Who cares? The proof of the movie's entertainment value was seeing all those kids in the cinema laughing and having fun. I do sit through an awful lot of garbage when I take my daughter to the movies. Finding something like Brother Bear makes it all worthwhile.The only negative factor was those songs by Phil Collins. Rotten is the only word to adequately describe them.If he wins an Oscar again, I will be annoyed.

Brother Bear is a real superb fable with many a social theme coursing through it. Relations between different social groups and the value people and animals hold dear to one another are transcendent. This film knows this, and shows us so.

I have to be honest, I didn't think much of "Brother Bear" when I first saw the ads for it on TV all those years ago. I dismissed it as another Disney film which probably catered to kids, probably had high production values, and probably had some kind of story about a Native American turning into a bear via Disney magic.

It's all those things, but it is so much more. Often our social cliques dictate to use what we assume other people must be like, and when we see someone who looks different from ourselves, we wonder if they actually are different. Otherwise a lot of us assume that other people simply operate they way we do, and get along as we do. It creates rifts in society that can spill over into violent social outrage.

"Brother Bear" takes a page from the spiritual, and uses that plot device to propel the story forward to give one of the humans a taste of what it's like to walk int he footsteps of "the opposition".

This Disney production, like a few other Disney productions, does not spare the talent. From the screenplay, which is coursing with great dialogue, story moments, focusing around a great premise that has ramifications world wide, to the voice talent, to the superb traditional animation style that only Disney can deliver to audiences. The result really is a superb film.

A magnificent parable that not only has exceptional high production values we come to expect from Disney animation, not only has good leads for the voice talent, but also has Bob and Doug McKenzie reincarnated as a couple of moose from "the great white north" (take off, eh!). For them alone I had to see this film. Their commentary and actual roles in the film are G-Rated Disney fare (no beer jokes here, eh),

Further, the themes in this Disney film really do touch the hearts of all creatures and people. Even if you're a die hard scientist and atheist like myself, you'll come to understand that even though you know that the concept of ghost or spirits is a nonstarter to begin with, it is the process of looking to the beyond ("super-natural") that ultimately leads us to look to our own more rational judgment, and how said good sound judgment on matters of the heart stemming from our feelings, is a strength. The film really does go after divisions between the races, sexes and nationalities, though uses our own primal paleolithic history to bring forth such a tale.

If I had any real criticisms of this film, and I can't say that I truly and honestly do, it's that we didn't see more creatures of the era. We aren't sure if we're seeing vaunted cavebears (larger than the largest grizzly and polar bears), we saw woolly mammoths and woolly bison, but we didn't see dire wolves, woolly rhinos nor some of the other animals of an era long gone ago. But, as with all negatives about this film, that's nitpicking.

All in all a superb Disney film. Watch by yourself, with friends, or with the family.

Enjoy as much of it as you can.

Sadly, Disney Feature Animation closes down after "Home on the Range." I'm waiting for Disney's last cartoon on DVD, but the subject of this review is "Brother Bear." This is the second last traditional Disney animated feature.

"Brother Bear" is a good story of love, sin, understanding, forgiveness and brotherhood, as the title suggests. It's set in Alaska in the time of the Inuit and the mammoth. Sitka, Denahi and Kenai are brothers (eldest first). After Sitka is killed by a bear, Kenai sets out to kill the bear, whilst Denahi doesn't blame the bear. Kenai kills the "monster," but Sitka, now a powerful spirit, turns Kenai into a bear to take the other's place and atone for his wrongdoing. Denahi thinks the bear has killed his other brother as well, and vows to track down Kenai and kill him. It is different from most other stories. The message is clear, the story straightforward, not muddled by subplots and separate story lines. The film tells a story that is just a fable. Fortunately, that's all it needs to be.

The animation isn't all that gorgeous, yet remains high quality. The bears are realistically depicted, all the animals are their true forms but for the caricature of their funniest features and habits. The forest, which is CG, is beautiful. The color and the realism of it is magnificent. But again, some of the computer effects don't work. The film was clearly trying to aim for something like the DreamWorks half-and-half pictures, with hand-drawn characters acting in photo-realistic environments and effects (i.e. "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" and "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas"). The water in "Brother Bear," in its early stages, looks nearly as bad as that in "The Jungle Book 2." It's flat, with a bit of shine, unlike the fast-flowing, moving torrents of other films. It just looks lame. Don't get me wrong, this is a minor mishap. The Cg layout looks fantastic.

Phil Collins did the score for this! What a surprise! NOT! The soundtrack for "Tarzan" was inspirational: the soundtrack for "Brother Bear" is varying and lackluster. The opening Tina Turner number is decent at best. Collins' songs, which form the bulk of the music in the film, have stupid lyrics, although his great voice saves it from being totally painful. The best song by far was sung by a Bolivian women's chorus, written by Colins. The lyrics for this song were better than the other songs', not bothering to include idiotic rhymes since the English words are never heard. The words were translated into Inuit. When at last the grand performance is over, you whisper: "Wow."

The characters are funny and not at all one-dimensional. Of the brotherhood, Sitka, who plays such a pivotal role, is the weakest. His character is no deeper than enough to make it clear he is brave, wise and self-sacrificing. Everyone's dream big brother to beat up the bad guys. Denahi and Kenai are have much more to them. They, of course, are the typical siblings that incessantly antagonize each other, their battles being a good source of comic relief. "Brother Bear" may have fallen flat on its face without the two distinctly Canadian moose brothers (notice the number of brothers in the film) that are by far the funniest of Disney's recent creations. They get cramps from eating grass and need to do yoga before starting, and spar to practice for the rutting season. Kenai reluctantly allows a young bear cub separated from his mother. This cub is Koda. Correction: The moose are the funniest SIDEKICKS from Disney in recent times. Koda is a lead player. He's funny, exceedingly better equipped to survive than his older chum, and most importantly: extremely cute.

So, does "Brother Bear" live up to the classics of old? Honestly, no, it doesn't. On the other hand, it doesn't exactly make it impossible for them to show their faces in public again. All in all, Disney hasn't ended a creative vacuum. But if you think about it, would Walt have approved? No. He wouldn't have. But what matters isn't how "Brother Bear" compares to other Disney films, but how much you enjoy it in a single viewing. Admittedly, it's funnier than any of than many older films. "Brother Bear" rating: 8/10

Brother Bear (2003)

*** (out of 4)

Underrated Disney film about a Inuit hunter (voice of Joaquin Phoenix) who kills a bear without cause and ends up being transformed into a bear where he must help a young cub who has lost its mother. In order to take human form again, the bear must grow a heart and learn the true meaning of love. BROTHER BEAR seems to get a lot of mixed reviews among Disney fans but I really don't understand why because I thought it was a pretty good film with several memorable characters, some good laughs, the needed pulling of the heart-strings and of course some great animation. I really thought the animation here was quite wonderful from the opening scenes that were full of darkness to the middle of the picture when things are a lot more colorful. The attention to detail was just marvelous and especially the scenes early on with the ice, the flowing water and several scenes inside a cave. There lights in the sky were another impressive bit of animation from the studio who were obviously legends by now. Another major plus were the vocal performances with Phoenix doing an extremely good job in the role of the bigger brother who takes on this young cub. You can just really feel a love and naturing feeling to the vocal work. Jeremy Suarex, Rick Moranis and D.B. Sweeney are also very good in their supporting roles. As you'd expect, there's certain messages that the filmmakers try to get across and I think they did a fine job without having to beat the viewer over the head. The ending, which I won't spoil, was quite touching as only Disney can do. Again, I'm really not sure why this film got so many negative reviews but it's certainly a winning addition to the studio's great work.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy Brother Bear as much as I did. It is by far one of the better post-Tarzan Disney movies, along with Emperor's New Groove and Lilo and Stitch. I do think it is very underrated, apart from a couple of minor flaws there is hardly anything wrong with it. So what makes Brother Bear a delight? Well for one thing, the animation is simply gorgeous. Beautiful colours, stunning backgrounds and next to flawless character movement. Out of the post-Tarzan Disney movies, Brother Bear gets my vote as the most beautiful visually.

Another pro was the awesome soundtrack. The orchestral music is lovely, and Phil Colins's songs are every bit as catchy, fun and memorable as the ones he did for Tarzan. The film also has a heartwarming story, concentrating on the friendship between Kenai and Koda and there is a nice moral. There is also a lot of symbolism, that was incorporated into the narrative very well. The characterisations are strong, with Joaquin Pheonix superb as the voice of Kenai, and Koda(voiced by Jeremy Suarez) is a simply adorable character. Plus the MacKenzie Moose, voiced by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis were hilarious. There are some funny parts in the script, but quintessentially it is a heartwarming one, maybe even some tearjerkers.

I have very little to complain about this movie. Though had this movie been a tad longer, we could have had some more development in the secondary characters. My only other qualm was although the songs in general were awesome, the song sung by Tina Turner at the beginning wasn't quite in the same league. Other than that, this is a great underrated movie, not Disney's best, but you know what, it is well worth the look. 8.5/10 Bethany Cox