Please: DO NOT support the decline of a once great film studio

Rating: 4/10 (28 June 2012)

Mix Brother Bear with almost any princess film and this is what you get. The characters (surprisingly for Pixar) were poorly developed; this is especially true for the mother, where I was expecting some kind of back story, or at least a more believable development of the mother-daughter relationship. But no, apparently you're best buddies again and the mother will just change her mind on everything she believed previously, through a single fish-catching montage. ...Really? And don't get me started on 'the bad guy'. This 'evil bear' appears in only two scenes - one in which they escape from him, and one in which he returns and then gets squashed by a rock. In fact, the story would have been almost identical had the 'bad guy' been cut out of the script entirely.
Perhaps you could blame the complete underdevelopment of the plot and characters on the relatively short runtime (100 minutes, minus the equally disappointing 'short' at the beginning). But that wouldn't make sense, as Toy Story 3, a brilliant film, had the same running time.
I suspect that they are cutting back their effort on all fronts (writing, production time) bar animation, knowing full well that people will pay for their films regardless, so 'why bother?'.
Following the equally mediocre Cars 2 with this, it's clear that Pixar really needs to step up their game.
So please, do not support the decline of a once great film studio.