Brother Bear Review
by David N. Butterworth (dnb AT dca DOT net)November 4th, 2003
BROTHER BEAR
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2003 David N. Butterworth
** (out of ****)
Disney's latest animated adventure takes a Native American context ("Pocahontas"),
populates it with four-legged protagonists, two of whom provide comic relief to offset the serious death-of-a-family-member subtext ("The Lion King"), and lashes it together with the feel-good musical excesses of Phil Collins ("Tarzan").
It's no surprise, therefore, that "Brother Bear" looks and feels as it does, a dull, unimaginative, and recycled seeming affair cobbled together from leftover
bits from other, better Disney movies.
The story, at least in the early going, is too complicated for children to follow (blame that on five--that's right, five!--screenwriters) and will easily tax unsuspecting adults, especially those (like me) wishing to articulate
the setup in 25 words or less--"Kenai is a young Pacific Northwesterner on the verge of manhood who's turned into a bear by the spirit of his recently deceased
older brother."
That, of course, doesn't begin to explain the fact that Kenai (voiced by "Gladiator"'s Joaquin Phoenix) was remiss in tying up his catch of fish, a catch
that a bear later stole. Or how he antagonized the bear. Or how the bear turned
on him and his brothers, resulting in the death of his older brother (D.B. Sweeney).
Or how, as a bear, Kenai must earn the rites of passage by "walking around in someone else's shoes" (to paraphrase Harper Lee) while his middle sibling Denahi
(Jason Raize) tracks him down. Or how, as a bear, Kenai befriends an orphaned bear cub (Jeremy Suarez) and journeys with him to a mountain where the light touches the earth (Koda was his own reasons for being there).
By the time adults are done figuring all this out they'll realize what's left isn't that involving--uninspired and largely flat 2D cell animation, unmemorable
characters (Bob and Doug McKenzie-styled moose are mildly amusing but they should
have stolen the show), and a paunchy, overbearing song score by the former Genesis
rock drummer.
Disney will always be a player but with increasing competition from Pixar and Dreamworks now is not the time to rest on their laurels. The
undistinguished
"Brother Bear" seems to suggest that the studio feels otherwise.
--
David N. Butterworth
dnb@dca.net
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
