Rectangular_businessman When I saw the first trailer of "The Great Bear", I thought that the plot seemed interesting and way more original than the usual premises of many other CGI flicks from the recent years. Now that I finally saw it, I think that this movie was a missed opportunity to create a more interesting kind of family film. The premise was good and had a lot of potential to be something much better but the final result isn't particularly good nor memorable. From a technical standpoint, "The Great Bear" has some glaring flaws: Most of the time it looks more like a low-budget video game cutscene rather than a proper film. On the positive side, the characters designs, despite being quite unremarkable, at least are not hideously unappealing (A very common recurrence in many low- budget CGI movies) The only character with a horrible design was the villain, and I know this is going to sound like a petty nitpick, but his ridiculously hairy arms managed to be distracting at certain points of the movie, killing the mood of some serious scenes… Imagine a human character with orangutan arms and the face of the Rasputin version from Don Bluth's Anastasia, and you will have an idea of how grotesque and unappealing his design was.With all that being said, I have to admit that the movie had a neat atmosphere which would have been perfect for a more mature kind of adventure film. I also like the fact that the movie (despite being aimed at kids) didn't shy away to include a certain level of violence and isn't afraid to mention death in the same condescending manner of many other mainstream animated movies.I guess the noticeable lack of gags is one of the reasons some viewers may consider this movie to be "joyless", but I personally think that "The Great Bear" would have been much worse if it tried to shoehorn some forced gags to the story. There are, however, a couple of awkward "cutesy" moments that didn't add very much to the plot but weren't particularly annoying either.The main two kids character were okay. The girl had a somewhat generic "girly" personality, but the boy, despite not being very likable, behaved in a more realistic manner than the stereotypical portrayal of children that is so common to see in media. His characterization wasn't entirely perfect, but it had potential. On the other hand, I found the villain to be generic and forgettable, despite the cruelty and unpleasantness of his actions. Not only his design was awful, his personality was also totally flat, without any interesting element that could differentiate him from the bunch, besides of his horribly hairy arms. And the titular great bear…All I can say that maybe the first trailers gave me the wrong impression, but I was expecting a completely different kind of character. Something a bit less generic, instead of the average "friendly-bear" archetype so common in cartoons. Well, at least he didn't talk and wasn't voiced by some over-hyped celebrity.The whole movie feels like a missed opportunity. Even when the CGI wasn't great, this aspect could have been compensated with a better story and a more solid characterization. Also a better villain without awful orangutan arms would have helped a lot.

erlebird My 27 month old granddaughter does not sit quietly for many movies but this is one she sits and watches the whole movie without moving. She loves it. Every time she asks to play a movie, she wants the Great Bear. She does not find it scary. She views this through Jonathans and Sophies eyes, very innocent and trusting. The parts where the bear got shot did not upset her because Jonathan and Sophie were there to help. There was a positive outcome in the movie. It also I believe portrayed the hunter as not so much mean but not fully understanding because all he thought he was doing was protecting his home and Sophie understood that when she asked the bear to fix the hunters home. I do recommend this movie. Wish I could find another movie that held her attention like this one.

danumber40 While on vacation, eleven-year-old Jonathan and his younger sister Sophie get lost in the deep woods. While Jonathan is looking for Sophie, she discovers a mountainous bear and befriends him. Jonathan thinks the bear kidnapped her and "hires" a hunter to take him down, but he soon realizes the bear is a friend and must stop the hunter. There's the environmentalist message for you.This movie was made in 2011, but the graphic appear older. Movements are choppy and unrealistic. Not a lot of detail went into things, making them look rather smooth.The animators seemed too lazy to properly move the characters' mouths. The mouths only jump around. Then the they simply threw the script in, so none of what they say matches the movements. Occasionally, their mouths wouldn't move at all.For a children's movie, there's a decent bit of gore. Jonathan sticks his whole arm into the bear's tongue to remove a bullet, and adding to the gunky blood from the wound, Jonathan's arms a covered in blacking blood, as well as splattered across his face.There was a rather unsettling scene where Sophie falls from the bear's head. It looked like a good five story drop, and she lands flat on her back. For the brief second we see her, she's not moving. I thought she was dead from the terrible thud, but when the hunter angrily grabs her, she's perfectly fine, unharmed. Oddly enough, she seemed to pull a muscle when the hunter lifted her arm up. Yet she wasn't hurt from the fall.There was some unnecessary violence, I think, for a kids' movie. In a slightly disturbing scene, the hunter squeezes a small bird in his hands out of anger. Then he launches it at a tree. The poor thing was squashed and its eyes stayed open while his bird friends mourned over him. It might startle some viewers.On top of all this, Jonathan cursed in the beginning of the movie. It's dotted with small things, like "darn" and "idiot." But an eleven-year-old is not supposed to drop the S-word.A lot of obvious goofs: When Jonathan first meets the hunter, the hunter makes a bandage out of leaves and puts it on Jonathan's arm. In the very next shot, it's gone and never returns. The wound is also gone. The animators didn't take the time. For some reason, the bear, who is hundred of feet tall and long, is afraid of two small dogs. That makes no sense; a regular bear could attack the dogs.Unexplainably, frogs create rain.The hunter dies from collapsing rocks, and without music, it's quite sudden and, as I said before, probably unnecessary.The whole movie has a dark, eerie feel. The sky is always cloudy, the forest is always covered by a foggy--literally and figuratively--veil. Not something cheerful. Did not enjoy it and don't recommend it.

MartinHafer When The Great Bear begins, you'll think that this film is at least a decade old if not much older. This is because the computer generated graphics are quite blocky and unattractive. However, when you realize that the film just came out in 2011, you realize just how poor the film is graphically compared to the products coming from mainstream studios today. The films by Universal, Fox, Dreamworks and Pixar are so far beyond The Great Bear in quality that kids will no doubt also notice the difference. However, if the film has an excellent story, it can surely overcome the primitive graphics. Unfortunately, the graphics aren't the only problem with this tale.The story involves an 11 year-old named Jonathan and his 6 year-old sister, Sophie. She is like most little sisters--a bit of a pain and he's a lot like older brothers--he just wants her to leave him alone. However, the pair end up having a big adventure when they go to stay at Grandpa's house out in the country. There, they wander into the great forest--a scary and foreboding place. Soon, the sister disappears and when Jonathan finally locates her he realizes this is an odd place indeed! She's discovered a nice bear and it's her friend--and it's also larger than a dinosaur. Jonathan thinks she's been kidnapped and enlists the help of a completely insane hunter. However, eventually Jonathan realizes the bear is friendly and he now has to stop the hunter from trying to kill this nice creature--even if this means his life.In some ways, this film reminds me of My Neighbor Totoro, as the bear is very much like this magical Japanese creature. But this is where the similarity ends. Otherwise, the film seems very much like a heavy-handed and joyless film that has a very small audience. The film is too scary and violent for young kids and older audiences will probably feel it's too much of a kids' film. Its heavy-handed message that hunters are evil will probably annoy quite a few parents and delight the PETA-lovers out there. I was more upset at how one-dimensional and poorly written the guy was--regardless of whatever statement the filmmakers were trying to make. The bottom line is that the writing is broad and not particularly good. Combine that with the ugly graphics and it's a film you'd probably want to skip. Now I am not saying you necessarily should completely avoid the film--I just cannot see paying anything to rent or buy it. If it ever appears on a pay channel that you subscribe to and you have nothing better to do, then by all means see The Great Bear. Otherwise, you certainly could do better.