Deep Dive Disney: Wes Looks at Brother Bear

It’s been a minute since we’ve covered a Disney film that was just… just, bad. Well, the wait, if there ever was one, is over because today, Deep Dive Disney is looking at Brother Bear. Now look, like any Disney movie, I know this film has its fans, but after watching this ninety-minute hot mess of tired cliches and irritating characters. I’m going to be honest, I just want to get this over with so let’s get right into the story. In post-ice age Alaska lived three brothers, Sitka, Denahi and the youngest, Kenai. Kenai is about to receive his totem, a necklace carved into an animal shape that are meant to symbolize what they must achieve in order to be considered men. Kenai receives the Bear of Love, making him the subject of ridicule within his tribe, because they’re all a bunch of assholes. Speaking of bears, Kenai comes across a big one and ends up getting attacked, his eldest brother Sitka sacrificing himself in order to save the lives of his brothers with the bear surviving. A vengeful Kenai hunts down the bear and kills it in cold blood. This causes the spirit of his brother to decide to be a dick and turn his brother into a bear, the only way to become human again is to make a long trek to a mountain that is touched by the Northern Lights. Along the way, Kenai meets Koda, a bear cub who’s been separated from his mother. Kenai wants nothing to do with the annoying little hairball (I don’t blame him) but since they’re going in the same direction and Koda knows the way, he agrees to let the cub tag along. Meanwhile, the middle child, Denahi, believes that Kenai was killed by the bear and is now hunting both him and Koda. Along the way, Kenai figures out what the audience was able to figure out as soon as Koda popped up and realizes that the bear he killed was Koda’s mother. It’s… honestly not one of Disney’s best. Let’s just get it over with and talk about, Brother Bear.

Main Character:

Right from the start, Kenai is a bit of an idiot and a jerk. He’s immediately disappointed upon receiving his totem and learning that it’s a totem of love, seeing the idea of love as somehow beneath him as a man. That whole idea had me rolling my eyes so hard I almost went blind. Instead, Kenai thinks he can prove himself a man by killing the bear that his brother gave his life trying to protect him from. Even after he becomes a bear himself he’s still a jerk, only tolerating Koda because he knows where they’re going. Yeah, they do bond over the course of their journey but this whole brotherly bond feels forced, like, it’s expected to happen because the plot demands it. I think what irks me most about Kenai is the fact that once again we have a main character who’s some shit head teenager who is turned into an animal to learn a life lesson. Not only have we seen this before, but we’ve seen it much better in both Beauty & The Beast and The Emperor’s New Groove. Those movies both had plenty of charm, while this feels like it’s trying and failing to replicate the charm of its predecessors.

Villain:

The closest thing in the film we have to a villain is Denahi who, while a jerk to his little brother, is not evil. The thing that makes him the antagonist here is his relentless pursuit of the bear who he thinks killed his brother, unaware of the fact that the bear IS his brother. I do like that in some of his scenes of hunting Kenai and Koda, Denahi remains completely silent, adding to the perception of humans as monsters by the animals who find themselves hunted by them. Not much else to say about Denahi, other than the fact that I found myself rooting for Denahi in many of these scenes since I wasn’t really invested in Kenai or Koda. Also, if you look closely, by the end of the film Denahi actually looks like a much younger version of Shan-Yu from Mulan, making me wish that this was secretly a Shan-Yu origin story all along.

Side Characters:

None of the side characters really blew me away in this one so I’m going to try to make this one fairly brief.

I actually rather enjoyed the character of Tanana, the tribe’s Shaman, as she’s the only one who seems to have a fun personality and her name makes me want to break into a stirring rendition of Paul Simon’s “Diamonds on the Souls of her Shoes.”

Sitka is fine, but he’s also the stereotypical decent person with very few faults who shares a strong bond with the main character, which, in a movie like this may as well be a one way ticked to the hangman’s noose.

Rutt and Tuke, the two Moose brothers get one or two somewhat humorous lines but they’re honestly mostly superfluous to the film. Still, it’s always nice to hear Rick Moranis.

Finally, there’s Koda. I’m going to be honest, I couldn’t stand Koda. Koda, to me, is every annoying little kid in a cartoon with little of the charm that makes those characters likable. Maybe some people think he’s cute but, I don’t know, I just wanted to strangle him every time he opened his mouth.

Songs:

I can’t lie, the songs in this are perfectly enjoyable. I know a lot of people aren’t crazy that Disney once again had Phil Collins handle the soundtrack yet again, but as I said when we covered Tarzan, I actually like Phil Collins music so I’m not complaining. Great Spirits was a catchy opening tune, On My Way was a lot of fun and Welcome, my favorite song in the movie, is an absolute blast. The only song I really take issue with is No Way Out. The song itself is fine, but they choose to play it during a really serious scene and its presence undercuts the emotional weight that the scene is supposed to carry.

Memorable Scenes:

There were one or two scenes that made me chuckle, like the scene where the elder bear played by Estelle Harris (Estelle Constanza from Seinfeld and Mrs. Potato Head from the Toy Story films) claims that her very much alive husband is dead or the scene where the two mountain goats argue with their own echoes, something done far better in the Jim Carrey Grinch movie of all things, but nothing too memorable to talk about. However, the initial transformation scene was actually pretty amazing. To continue the comparison from earlier, it was actually very reminiscent of the transformation from the end of Beauty & The Beast. Frankly, this beautiful animation deserves to be in a better movie.

Story:

This is yet another film where the main theme is some contrived “Men are the Real Monsters” thing that I’ve seen a million times. This sort of story can work, but here it just comes across as heavy handed and lame. Also, I have a bone to pick with how this movie ends with a reconciliation between Koda and Kenai… after Kenai confesses that he killed Koda’s mother. I’m sorry, but I have to call bullshit. Maybe Koda can come to forgive Kenai for what he did, maybe he can reach a point where he hold Kenai no ill will as they part ways, but I’m sorry, he killed his mother. You do not god back to being buddy-buddy after something like that. To once again bring up Beauty & The Beast imagine if Beast had killed Belle’s father and the rest of the movie played out like normal. Wouldn’t that totally undercut the rest of the film’s message? Maybe you can read this as Kenai taking responsibility for Koda to atone for what he’s done and that’s certainly a valid interpretation, but to me, like so many other aspects of the film, it feels forced.

The Dark Disney Factor:

I mean, Kenai killing Koda’s mother in cold blood when she was only trying to protect her cub is pretty messed up. That’s… all I got, I just want to be done with this.

Final Thoughts: This just wasn't an enjoyable experience. The characters are annoying and uninteresting, the plot is uninspired, the execution of the themes are confused and overall, so much of the film feels like the filmmakers are trying to force things that have worked in the past to work here as well, and they fail, miserably. Let's see what's up next... Home On The Range!? Fuck That! I need a buffer before I tackle one of Disney's most infamously terrible films. I'm sure I'll think of something. In the mean time, call me, beep me, if you wanna reach me.