ANI-MOVIES, *Brother Bear

As the 44th theatrically released Disney animated movie, Brother Bear was one of the last non-CGI films the Mouse Mansion put out in cinemas. Being an original screenplay not based on any existing material like most Disney flicks, this was inspired by Inuit folklore. The story starts out fairly strong, but it really seems to go downhill once it becomes a talking animal movie. It did pull in several times its production cost back at the box office, but the film never seemed to gain any sort of lasting love even if it did get a direct-to-video sequel three years later. Phil Collins returned from Tarzan to do most of the soundtrack much the disdain of the haters, although Tina Turner adds a smashing song to it. For a 2D animated film, this was one of Disney's best since their renaissance with amazing backgrounds and underrated character movements that can flawlessly go from realistic to cartoonish at the drop of a hat.

Set sometime after the Ice Age in what would be called Alaska, a native tribe believes that divine spirits maintain order and live in the aurora borealis. Kenai is the youngest of three brothers who is finally receiving his totem which is like a rite of passage into manhood, but he is given the totem of love which his older brother Denahai gives him a hard time over it. The eldest sibling Sitka tried to maintain peace in his family, but Kenai's negligence leads to a bear stealing their food causing it to get into a fight with him which results in Sitka sacrificing himself becoming one with the spirits. Kenai goes after the bear and during the fight the bear falls on his spear, which technically means that the bear's death was theriocide and not Kenai's fault, although the great spirits have a crooked legislative system and put all the blame on Kenai by turning him into a bear. Denahai thinks that the transformed bear has killed Kenai and sets out to avenge his younger brother's demise, so Kenai now in the body of a bear runs into his tribe's shaman woman who tells him he has to go the top of a mountain miles away that reaches up to the aurora. On his way to the mountain, Kenai comes across a lone talkative bear cub named Koda who has been separated from his mother on their way to the same location, so Kenai teams up with Koda since he knows how to get to his destination. Along the way, they run into a pair of hoser moose based on SCTV's old McKenzie Bros. sketches who tag along their journey and manage to hitch a ride on some migrating woolly mammoths. Kenai and Koda run across some other bears who also travelled to see the aurora which Kenai begins to bond with the other bears and considers Koda as a little brother. Koda tells why he was on his own and Kenai realizes that the mother bear was the one he accidentally killed, so he confesses the entire truth to Kona in a scene that was entirely drowned out by Phil Collins' insistent lyrics, and Koda runs away just as Denahai finally catches up with them. The concludion has Sitka's spirit finally showing up as an eagle who transforms Kenai back into a human letting him know his bear curse has passed, but Kenai takes back his old bear totem so he can remain as an older brother for Koda. Whether or not Kenai can decide to change back into a man at will is up in the air, even though it's implied all he needs to do is take off his totem necklace.

Brother Bear was the first to start Disney's strange habit of making films where people get magically changed into animals and quite of few have noted that Pixar took this idea for their movie Brave. For a story that is supposed to take place after the Ice Age, the Inuit seem to have very up to date clothing and equipment, plus the animals use modern day concepts like pinkie swears and playing I Spy. Most of the casting is decent, although being a sucker for Strange Brew I actually appreciated Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas reprising their roles as Bob and Doug McKenzie but with antlers. One thing that is lacking in this movie is the actual "brotherhood" aspect which the film is titled after as we don't see any real bonding between Kenai and Koda until near the final act. It does dwell on some standard cartoon tomfoolery a bit too much, but it doesn't descend into immature fart jokes that most early 2000's animation seemed to be obsessed with. You will probably have an enjoyable time watching this, although whether it validates repeat viewings is up to the audience.