Brother Bear

Brother Bear is a 2003 American animated musical/fantasy/comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 44th animated feature in the Disney Animated Canon. In the film, an Inuit boy named Kenai pursues a bear in revenge for a battle that he provoked in which his oldest brother, Sitka, is killed. He tracks down the bear and kills it, but the Spirits, angered by this needless death, change Kenai into a bear himself as a punishment. To be human again, Kenai must travel to a mountain where the Northern lights touch the earth, and learn how to see through another's eyes, feel through another's heart and discover the true meaning of brotherhood.
Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film was warmly-received by audiences and was a box office success, grossing $250 million worldwide on $46 million budget. It was better than the box office performance of the previous two films, even though it had to compete a bit with Love Actually, the infamous The Cat in the Hat and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Originally titled Bears, it was the third and final Disney animated feature produced primarily by the Feature Animation studio at Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida, as the studio was shut down in March 2004, shortly after the release of this film in favor of computer animated features. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature, but lost to the fellow Disney/Pixar film Finding Nemo. A sequel, Brother Bear 2, was released in 2006. Making this as of 2020, the most recent Disney movie to get a direct-to-video sequel.
==Plot==
The film is set in Alaska in the wake of the ice age, where the local tribesmen believe all creatures are created through Spirits, said to appear in the form of an aurora. At the beginning of the film, an elderly man named Denahi tells a story to a group of villagers about him and his two brothers and how love is the most powerful gift of all. Three brothers, Kenai (voiced by Joaquin Phoenix), the youngest, a younger Denahi (voiced by Jason Raize), the middle, and Sitka (voiced by D.B. Sweeney), the oldest, return to their tribe and meet with Tanana (voiced by Joan Copeland), the shaman of their tribe for Kenai to receive his sacred totem, its meaning being what he must achieve to call himself a man. Unlike Sitka, who gained the eagle of guidance, and Denahi who gained the wolf of wisdom, Kenai receives the bear of love, much to his objections (he is also teased by Denahi who calls Kenai "lover boy" and gives him a flower crown much to Kenai's annoyance). Sitka reminds Kenai not everyone is just like their totem, but he felt the same when he got his. He tells Kenai that he understands his totem now that he's older but Kenai still doesn't see how a bear can love as he believes that bears are mindless thieving monsters. He thinks his point is made a fact when they find out a bear steals some salmon that the brothers were storing in a basket that Denahi made. Denahi chews out Kenai for not tying the basket up in a tree and calls him a pinhead. Sitka stops a fight and tells the two they can always make a new basket but Denahi, who spent two weeks making the basket says Kenai should make it since he messes things up. Fed up with his brother's cruel words Kenai follows the bear's trail to get back the basket despite Sitka's objection. To his anger, Kenai finds the basket destroyed. As he leaves the bear appears and Kenai recklessly throws rocks at it. Provoked, the bear attacks Kenai, and he falls off a cliff. His brothers find him, and they battle the animal on a giant glacier. When the bear gets the upper hand, Sitka sacrifices himself to save his brothers by causing both himself and the bear to fall off the glacier. However, the bear survives and runs off into the woods. 
After Sitka's funeral, Kenai, outraged that Sitka died and the bear survived, decides to head out to avenge his elder brother. He tries to get Denahi to join in but Denahi tells Kenai that killing the bear won't solve anything. Kenai is only annoyed that Denahi is acting wise, but he tells Kenai he should be following his totem as he is. Kenai however remains unconvinced that love is an important part of being a man and after seeing a saddened Tanana rips off his necklace and leaves. Denahi takes it and goes to stop Kenai. After they leave Tanana says to Sitka's spirit that he left to soon and they both need his guidance. Kenai tracks down the bear, chases it up onto a rocky cliff, and engages it in a fight, eventually stabbing it and killing it. The Spirits, represented by Sitka's spirit in the form of a bald eagle, transforms Kenai into a bear as a punishment for his actions after the dead bear's body evaporates and joins them. Denahi arrives and falsely believes that Kenai was killed by the bear from earlier. Kenai falls off the cliff, falls down some rapids, and survives while Denahi vows to avenge Kenai.
Kenai awakens and is healed by Tanana. He is in shock to be a bear and becomes panicked until Tanana snaps him out of it. She does not speak the bear language but advises him to go to a mountain to find Sitka and be turned back to normal, but only when he corrects what he had done wrong; she quickly disappears without any explanation. Kenai quickly discovers he can talk to the wildlife and meets two moose brothers, Rutt and Tuke (voiced by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas). He gets caught in a trap but is freed by a chatty bear cub named Koda (voiced by Jeremy Suarez). After they evade Denahi, who is still unaware that the bear he's pursuing is Kenai, Koda reveals to Kenai that his mother is missing. They make a deal: Kenai will escort Koda to an annual salmon run, and then the cub will lead Kenai to the mountain. Along the way, the two eventually form a brother-like relationship and are joined by Rutt and Tuke. The group hitches a ride on a herd of mammoths to avoid being tracked by Denahi, but the moose are left behind when the bears continue on foot. Next, the bears encounter some cave paintings and a pair of rams arguing with their echo. Before reaching the salmon run, they must go through a volcanic field with steam geysers, red rocks, dead trees, volcanoes, and wildfires. Kenai and Koda are then forced to outrun Denahi once again while avoiding the geysers and other obstacles. After escaping, the pair approach the salmon run, where a large number of bears live as a family, including their leader Tug (voiced by the late Michael Clarke Duncan), a huge Grizzly Bear. At first, Kenai is about to say goodbye to Koda, (saying they will not be meeting again) he asks Kenai why, but he cannot tell Koda the true reason. Tug is listening in and asks why; Kenai says he doesn't belong there but insists he stays. The bears join a whole group of bears fishing for salmon. While spending time with them, Kenai becomes very much at home and at content with the other bears. During story time among the bears, Koda tells a story about his mother fighting human hunters on a glacier (which was the same bear Kenai encountered but from Koda's perspective), making Kenai realize in horror that the bear he had slain was Koda's mother, who was only trying to keep her cub safe.
Guilty and horrified for what he did, Kenai runs away, but Koda soon finds him. Kenai reluctantly reveals the truth to Koda, who runs away heartbroken because he is now an orphan. Unable to apologize to Koda because he can't find the cub, Kenai leaves in disgrace to climb the mountain himself. Having fallen off the mammoths (Rutt having lost an antler in the process), Rutt and Tuke reform their brotherhood in front of Koda, prompting him to go after Kenai in the hopes of rekindling their brotherhood. Denahi confronts Kenai on the mountain, but their fight is intervened by Koda, who steals Denahi's hunting spear. Kenai goes to Koda's aid out of love, prompting Sitka to appear and turn him back into a human before he could suffer the same fate as Koda's mother, much to Denahi and Koda's surprise. Even though he can't talk to humans, Koda doesn't want Kenai to leave because he has been like a brother to him ever since he came into the cub's life and is in desperate need of a parental figure. Kenai realizes that Koda is now motherless because of his own mistake and asks Sitka to transform him back into a bear so he can take care of Koda. Sitka relents, Kenai changes back into a bear with Denahi's blessing and Koda is reunited briefly with his mother's spirit before she and Sitka return to the Spirits. In the end, Kenai lives with the rest of the bears and paints his paw print on the village wall. At last, Kenai gains his title as a man through being a bear.
In a series of mid-credit scenes Kenai and Koda are shown taking part in various activities together including art. Before we see the Disney logo, Koda breaks the fourth wall in a post-credits scene. He tells the viewer that according to the state law life regulation, "no fish were harmed in the making of this film", referencing the American Humane Association warning "No animals were harmed in the making of this film." However he was proven wrong as an adult bear is seen chasing a salmon, the latter crying for help as the bear with an attempt to eat the salmon. Koda knows a gesture for cutting the camera, as he tells the cameraman "Cut!", but the camera was still rolling. He then sees that the bear has the salmon now, and this makes Koda cover the lens with his paws, so that the audience can't see the bear eating the salmon. But the fish is still heard eating, as the bear is heard burping. The movie then finally ends.
==Cast==
*Joaquin Phoenix as Kenai
*Jeremy Suarez as Koda
*Rick Moranis as Rutt
*Dave Thomas as Tuke
*Jason Raize as Denahi
**Harold Gould as Old Denahi/Narrator
**Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley as Inuit Narrator (Older Denahi)
*D.B. Sweeney as Sitka
*Joan Copeland as Tanana
*Michael Clarke Duncan as Tug
*Greg Proops as Male Lover Bear
*Pauley Perrette as Female Lover Bear
*Estelle Harris as Old Lady Bear
*Darko Cesar as Croatian Bear
*Bumper Robinson as Chipmunks
===Additional voices===
*Patrick Pinney
*Brian Posehn as Geese
*Phil Proctor as Inuit Tribe Members
*Pamela Adlon as Female Bear
*Bob Bergen as Fish
*Rodger Bumpass as Male Bear
*Jennifer Darling
*Debi Derryberry
*Bill Farmer as Edgar
*Hope Levy as Valley Girl Bear
*Sherry Lynn as Female Bear
*Mickie McGowan as Female Bear/Koda's Mother
*Caitlin Rose Anderson as Little Girl
*Maxi Anderson as Koda's Mother/Chorus
*Carmen Carter
*Randel Crenshaw
*Trey Finney
*Ben Johnson
*Bethany Johnson
*Luke Johnson
*B. Wyatt Johnson
*Amy Keys
*Rick Logan as Chorus
*Susan Stevens Logan
*Arnold McCuller
*Tim Mertens as Various Male Bears
*Josef Powell
*Lamonte Van Hook
*Julia Tillman Waters
*Maxine W. Waters
*Oren Waters as Singer
*Willie Wheaton
*Fred White
*Terry Wood
*Terry Young
*Frank Welker (uncredited) as Additional Animal Vocal Effects
==Production==
Following the critical and commercial success of The Lion King, Disney chairman and CEO Michael Eisner urged for more animal-centric animated features, and suggested a North American backdrop, taking particular inspiration from an original landscape painting by Albert Bierstadt that he bought. To track the "king" idea, the hero would naturally be a bear, the king of the forest. At the time, the original idea, which was inspired by King Lear, centered around an old blind bear who traveled the forest with his three daughters. In 1997, veteran animator Aaron Blaise came on board the project as director because he "wanted to be attached so that I could animate bears", and was soon joined by co-director Bob Walker. Because Blaise desired a more naturalistic story, Blaise and producer Chuck Williams produced a two-page treatment of a father-son story in which the son is transformed into a bear, and in the end, remains a bear. Thomas Schumacher, then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, approved the revised story and proclaimed, "This is the idea of the century." Tab Murphy, who had co-written the screenplays for Tarzan and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, came on board to write an early draft of the script.
After the project was green-lit, Blaise, Walker, and the story artists embarked on a research trip in August 1999 to visit Alaska where they traveled on the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and Kodiak Island, as well as traveling through Denali National Park and the Kenai Fjords National Park, where they visited Exit and Holgate Glacier. A year later, the production team took additional research trips through the Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and the Sequoia National Park. Around 2000, the story evolved into a tale in which the transformed Kenai is taken in by an older bear, Griz, who was to be voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan. However, Blaise explained that "we were struggling [with the story], trying to get some charm into the film. So we turned Griz into a cub named Koda", who was voiced by Jeremy Suarez. Because Blaise, Walker, and Williams enjoyed Duncan's vocal performance, Tug, the de facto leader of the bears at the salmon run, was written into the film.
===Casting===
In March 2001, Joaquin Phoenix confirmed he was cast in the film exclaiming, "Oh, but forget the Oscar nomination [for Gladiator]. The real pinnacle is that I'm playing an animated character in a Disney film. Isn't that the greatest? I play a Native American transformed into a bear. It's called The Bears. Don't call me a leading man. I don't care about that. I'm a leading bear. I am content!" After the filmmakers heard his audition tapes for Finding Nemo, Jeremy Suarez was cast as Koda.
Much like contemporary animated films where most of the cast members record their voices separately, Suarez and Phoenix voiced the roles separately, although they did a recording session together at least two times. Voicing the moose brothers Rutt and Tuke, Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis performed simultaneously throughout the recording process. Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley, an associate professor who taught courses on Alaska Native philosophy at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, claimed he was never given a script, but was instead given "the dialogue that they had written, which was being told by a Native person". For the role as the Inuit Narrator, Kawagley translated the dialogue in written form into Yup'ik and faxed the translation back to the Disney studio. He later recorded his translation at an Anchorage studio while being videotaped for animation reference.
===Design and animation===
The film is traditionally animated but includes some CG elements such as "a salmon run and a caribou stampede". Layout artist Armand Serrano, speaking about the drawing process on the film, said that "we had to do a life drawing session with live bear cubs and also outdoor drawing and painting sessions at Fort Wilderness in Florida three times a week for two months [...]".. In 2001, Background supervisor Barry Kooser and his team traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and studied with Western landscape painter Scott Christensen, where they learned to: "simplify objects by getting the spatial dimensions to work first and working in the detail later."
According to Ruben Aquino, supervising animator for the character of Denahi, Denahi was originally meant to be Kenai's father; later this was changed to Kenai's older brother. Byron Howard, supervising animator for Kenai in bear form, said that earlier in production a bear named Grizz (who resembles Tug in the film and is voiced by the same actor) was supposed to have the role of Kenai's mentor. Art Director Robh Ruppel stated that the ending of the film originally showed how Kenai and Denahi get together once a year to play when the northern lights are in the sky.
==Release==
Originally the film was supposed to be released in the spring of 2004 but Disney decided to release the film in the fall of 2003 because Disney thought of promoting Brother Bear on the Platinum Edition DVD release of The Lion King and due to production troubles with Home on the Range which took the spring 2004 release and ended up being one of the worst movies Disney created.
===Critical reception===
The film received mixed reviews, praising the film's animation but criticizing its story, with some deriding the film as little more than a retread of older Disney films like The Lion King and the 20th Century Fox film (now owned by Disney as of March 20, 2019) Ice Age (although Brother Bear began production before Ice Age did), while others defended the film as a legitimate variation of the theme. The popular American movie critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper have given positive reviews of the film. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 37% rotten rating, saying: "Brother Bear is gentle and pleasant if unremarkable Disney fare, with so-so animation and generic plotting." Metacritic has a 48 out of 100 score, which is "Mixed or average reviews". IMDb has the film at 6.6/10 from 25,904 users.
Of note to many critics and viewers was the use of the film's aspect ratio as a storytelling device. The film begins at a standard widescreen aspect ratio of 1.75:1 (similar to the 1.85:1 ratio common in U.S. cinema or the 1.78:1 ratio of HDTV), while Kenai is a human; in addition, the film's art direction and color scheme are grounded in realism. After Kenai transforms into a bear twenty-four minutes into the picture, the film itself transforms as well: to a wider, anamorphic aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and towards brighter, more fanciful colors and slightly more caricatured art direction. Brother Bear was the first feature since The Horse Whisperer to do a widescreen shift. It was the only animated feature to do this trick, until The Simpsons Movie and Enchanted in 2007. It is also, to date, the only film in the Disney Animated Canon use this trick as a storytelling device.
In spite of its negative critical reception, Brother Bear gained a more positive reception from audiences. The film eventually obtained a small fanbase, and is currently considered as one of Disney's most underrated feature films.
===Box office===
The film made $85,336,277 during its domestic theatrical run and then went on to earn $164,700,000 outside the U.S., bringing its worldwide total to $250,383,219, making it one of the more successful films of the post-renaissance era.
===Home video===
The film's March 30, 2004 DVD release brought in more than $167 million in DVD and VHS sales and rentals. The film and its sequel were released on a 2-Movie Collection Blu-ray on March 12, 2013.
==Awards and nominations==
The film was also nominated at the 76th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, but ultimately ended losing out to another Walt Disney pictures film Finding Nemo.
==Music==
#"Look Through My Eyes" - Phil Collins
#"Great Spirits" - Tina Turner
#"Welcome" - Phil Collins
#"No Way Out" (single version) - Phil Collins
#"Transformation" - Bulgarian Women's Choir
#"On My Way" - Phil Collins
#"Welcome" - Blind Boys of Alabama with Phil Collins and Oren Waters
#"Transformation" - Phil Collins
#"Three Brothers" (Score)
#"Awakes as a Bear" (Score)
#"Wilderness of Danger and Beauty" (Score)
#"Great Spirits" - Phil Collins (Best Buy Exclusive)
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*This is the fifth Disney hand-drawn animated film to not feature any musical numbers or any characters singing. The first four are The Black Cauldron, The Rescuers Down Under, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Treasure Planet. Although Koda briefly sings during the opening of On My Way.
*This is the fourth Disney film to have dust, after The Lion King, Pocahontas, and Tarzan.
*This is the first Walt Disney Animation Studios film to be scored by two composers (as it was scored by both Mark Mancina and songwriter Phil Collins). However, it would be the last animated film made by Disney to do so until Pixar's film The Good Dinosaur, released 12 years later.
*This is the ninth Disney animated classic to have the 2006 Walt Disney Pictures logo with just Disney at the end of the movie, on current releases.
*This was the first Walt Disney Animation Studios film to be broadcast on STARZ.
*Disney/Pixar prepared a special teaser trailer for Brother Bear to show before Finding Nemo during its initial theatrical release. The moose brothers, Rutt and Tuke, suggest that "If you see only one movie this year, see this one." Rutt then reminds Tuke, "For those who see only one movie this year, it's a little late now." Both moose then encourage everyone who is "only going to see one movie this year" to leave the theatre. As the scene fades to black, Tuke says, "I see some of them leaving." Rutt then replies that maybe they're going to "go find that Nemo guy." In the regular trailer, Rutt only replies that they're just going to the bathroom. This is a blatant fourth wall break.
*This is the fourth Disney film to start and end with the title after The Lion King, Tarzan, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
*This would be the last Walt Disney Animation Studios film to be produced in 2.35:1 until Wreck-It Ralph, 9 years later.
*The movie is set around 10,000 years ago at the latest at the very end of the ice age, as evidenced by the presence of Wooly Mammoths, and the mention of other fauna such as the Sabretooth Tiger (Smilodon). However, this means that despite the tact implications (especially with the use of the Yup'ik language), the culture shown in the movie is not Inuit, as the ancestors of modern Inuit only arrived in America around 5,000 BC, several thousand years after the movie is set. However, the movie and its sequel display an archaeologically accurate depiction of Native Americans during the Upper Paleolithic era, as seen with the accurate clothing, settlements, the use of “Clovis” spear tips, the use of red ocher during ceremonies, and jewelry. The names of the human characters come from multiple Na-Dene languages, including Koyukon, Dena'ina and Tlingit. All of these factors taken into account suggest that the characters are intended to be Athabascan and Tlingit, not Eskaleut.
*On the VHS version of the film, it is was presented in the widescreen format (albeit letterboxed) rather than the pan-and-scan format. This also occurred in Home on the Range. This and Home on the Range are the only animated Disney films to be presented in the widescreen format instead of the pan-and-scan format on the VHS release (not counting the "Widescreen Edition Release" VHS of the Disney/Pixar film A Bug's Life).
**Earlier standard-definition TV airings of the film such as on Disney Channel SD present the film in 4:3 pan-and-scan format, hence the aspect ratio shift from 1:75:1 to 2:35:1 as seen in the original widescreen version of the film is nonexistent due to the aspect ratio consistently staying at 4:3 throughout its runtime.
*This is the fourth movie where there are no clear villains, unless if you count Denahi.
==References==
==External links==
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ar:أخي الدب
da:Bjørne Brødre
es:Brother Bear
fr:Frère des Ours
id:Brother Bear
it:Koda, fratello orso
ja:ブラザー・ベア
no:Min bror bjørnen
pl:Mój brat niedźwiedź
pt-br:Irmão Urso
ro:Fratele Urs
zh:熊的傳說
Category:Disney animated features canon
Category:Disney films
Category:2003 films
Category:Brother Bear
Category:Animated films
Category:Films about animals
Category:Traditionally Animated Films
Category:G-rated films
Category:Academy Award nominated films
Category:Annie Award Nominated