Disney Movie Challenge
Brother Bear (2003)
The years between 2003 - 2007 are the heart of the 2nd Disney Dark Ages. Most of these films are not very well known and not well regarded. Kicking off the era is Brother Bear, a movie that seems to want to say something but just ends up being middling.
The movie is about three Inuit brothers growing up in Alaska just after the ice age. When the youngest brother Kenai (Joaquin Phoenix) leaves a basket of fish out it gets stolen by a bear. Kenai goes after the bear and his brothers Sitka and Denahi follow him. When Kenai encounters the bear he gets trapped on a mountain. To save him, his brother Sitka causes a chunk of ice to collapse. Sitka dies in fall but the bear lives. Kenai blames the bear and sets out to kill it. After he kills the bear his brother's spirit comes down and changes Kenai to a bear to teach him a lesson. After he is turned into a bear he meets up with a cub named Koda who shows him how to get to the “mountain where the lights touches the land’ so he can be turned back into a man. At the same time his other brother Denahi vows to kill the bear since he thinks the bear killed Kenai. On the journey Koda annoys Kenai, but eventually Kenai learns to love Koda like a brother. After they meet up with other bears at the salmon run, Kenai learns that he killed Koda’s mom and must ask forgiveness. When Kenai finally makes it to the mountain he realizes that he must stay a bear to protect Koda.
The idea for the film came from Michael Eisner’s desire to make a movie like The Lion King with bears. While the film went through several changes it’s hard to see any resemblance to The Lion King. The first big difference is that Brother Bear is not a musical. Taking inspiration from Tarzan they hired Phil Collins to write songs that played over the action. Unlike Tarzan, Collins only sang some of the songs. Tina Turner, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and the Bulgarian Women’s Choir all had sung songs for the film. While the songs for Tarzan were catchy the songs in Brother Bear seemed to miss the mark. None of the songs were bad but nothing that really stood out as special.
Two of the biggest issues that I had with the film was the mammoth scene and the ending. At one point Kenai and Koda are trying to avoid being hunted by Denahi and decide to ride mammoths so they don’t leave tracks. This scene comes out of nowhere. There is no set up. No explanation why the mammoths would even let bears ride them. One second Kenai says he has an idea and the next second they are on mammoths. Just felt super bizarre.
The biggest problem with the ending is that I never understood why Kenai would want to stay a bear. While I get that he learned to love Koda as a brother and wants to protect him, is staying a bear really the best way to do that? Could he have stayed human and still protected Koda? The decision totally took me by surprise. It seemed he would want to return to his human family and adopt Koda.
The story itself feels like it wants to say something about respecting life and how sometimes you have to look at things from a different perspective. Unfortunately the movie spends too much time being silly that when it switches to being a serious drama it doesn’t feel earned. A few scenes after they ride mammoths we find out that Kenai killed Koda’s mom who up to that point we didn’t even know was dead. Maybe I was just oblivious to the clues and figured out the twist too late into the story but after a fun silly story the serious turn felt out of left field.
My favorite part of the film were the two moose played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas. They pretty much are reviving their roles of the McKenzie brothers from SCTV and Strange Brew. Their classic banter is great and used just enough to not get old. My favorite line at the end is when they are leaving for the last time they say “you know what this calls for? A pile of delicious barley and amber wheat on a cool bed of malted hops”. Pretty much the closest you will get to someone saying let's have a beer in a Disney film.
Overall: A movie with a lot of potential but doesn’t quite get there. The animation looks fine, it's not as eye-popping as Treasure Planet but still good. The music is pretty forgettable. It’s tough to walk the line between silly comedy and serious drama and this movie tries to do both but doesn’t quite succeed.
Random Facts
Rick Moranis and Joaquin Phoenix were in Parenthood together where Phoenix played Moranis’ nephew in that movie.
This was the first Disney Animated film to have a post credit scene.
The film changes aspect ratio at the 24 minute mark. It goes from 1.33:1 to 2.35:1 when Kenai is turned into a bear. The change is supposed to symbolize Kenai’s world view getting larger.
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