abegley-19194
Brother Bear is one of the few overlooked Disney films that doesn't get enough credit. It's definitely not perfect, however it has it's fair moments. A positive I can say about this movie is the animation and music. This is a Disney movie, so they will always be there. But, here it's unique and luminous. It felt colorful and shiny how much the music stands out from the other Disney movies I've seen. Now let's talk about the rest of the movie.The film opens with the one thing I hate mostly in films, narration of the Plot and setting. The narrarion itself was mostly just setting the tone for the movie and it did that well, I guess. However, it included some of the laziest writing Disney has to offer. Than it cuts to the main characters who are so flat and cardboard, I barely remember the one that dies 30 minutes later. Oh yeah, by the way, this movie is roughly two hours long and doesn't introduce the plot until 45 minutes in. We are introduced to the most annoying character in cinema since Jar Jar Bunks, Coda. He does have some sweet and heartfelt moments, but they aren't earned when he has been harassing Kenai most of the time they are together. The flashback scene at the camp where Kenai realizes that he killed Coda's mother was handled very well, I thought. It's just the sound and editing that was pretty sloppy, but the emotion as handled well.The separation of Kenai and Coda along with Phil Collins' music was pure Disney magic. These small moments are what make the movie truly stand out to me. And a lot of it is thanks to Phil Collins talent. The ending of the movie, however, wasn't
handled well. The battle between Kenai and his brother had awkward editing and strange music choices make it hard to understand what emotion it was trying for. The very last part of the movie is more Disney magic with a great moral and clever music choices. However, it does set up a sequel which is twice as bad as this one. This movie has great music, animation and wonderful set designs. It suffers from unlikable and annoying characters and bad editing and slow pacing, and I'm gonna give Brother Bear a 5/10.
OllieSuave-007
Disney's 44th full-length animated feature film is a story about an Inuit tribe member named Kenai who kills a bear and he, in turn, becomes one in order to learn the true meaning of brotherly love.This movie brings us directors Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker, who gave us quite an adventurous movie full of man vs. bear action and animals journeying through the wilderness. The plot about Kenai traveling through the land looking for ways to become human again with a chattering cub as his guide is interesting, but not fascinating. The brotherly relationship between the talkative cub and Kenai is a little heartfelt, but I've seen more touching animal character moments from other Disney films like Fox and the Hound and Dumbo.The animation was colorful or vibrant like earlier animated pieces in the Disney canon - traditional hand-drawn animation. The visual effects were quite nice - love the human to animal transformation and the sequences involving the spirits.The plot, though, goes at a somewhat slow pace and doesn't gain very much traction throughout the movie because of a lack of suspense and surprises. Nothing really captures your interest as it's more like a simple Disney cartoon about talking animals. However, I do have to give credit for Disney in entertaining the idea of producing stories with different plot lines other than prince meets princess love stories, and emphasizing on family, consequences, responsibility and forgiveness.Yet, this movie still doesn't have that wow factor as earlier Disney movies do like those from the Walt Era and the Renaissance Era, but it's still not too bad to watch at least once.Grade C
Taylor Kingston
I don't know why this movie got bad reviews. I think it is an adorable children's movie with funny moments and real-life moral dilemmas and situations. It is relatable, whilst at the same time, goes off in a way that is more make-believe.This movie is about Kenai, a man who resents all bears, after his brothers get into a fight with one, and is sadly killed. I don't like Kenai's attitude towards bears at the beginning of the movie. After all, the bear was just protecting itself, just like any human would. Kenai is then turned into a bear to see what it's like to be in a bears "shoes". He sees life from a new and different perspective and realizes that not it really wasn't the bears fault. On his journey, he meets an adorable bear cub, Koda, who is trying to find his way home. Meanwhile, Kenai's other brother worries that he has been killed by the bears, until he comes face-to-face with bear Kenai. Overall, I give this movie an 8 out of 10.
Michael_Elliott
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.
AD
