Movie Thoughts: Brother Bear (2003)

• Released: 1 November 2003
• Directed by: Aaron Blaise, Robert Walker
• Running time: 1 h 25 min
• Rating 4.5/5

Synopsis

A young man in prehistoric Alaska gets turned into a grizzly and now must travel to a mystical mountain in order to be changed back, all the while bonding with a younger bear cub named Koda.

My Thoughts

I've seen this movie get so much flack for many things. The Phil Collins songs, the characters being unlikable, the plot after the first 10 minutes being boring, et cetera, et cetera. Do I agree? Well, I mean, look at my rating. Not with all of it, obviously.

That's not to say that I don't get where people are coming from. I genuinely do believe that the first 10 minutes of the movie (when Kenai is a human) is the best part, and honestly I do sometimes wish it just was about these three Inuk brothers without any magical bear-changing interference. I can see how people dislike the songs or Koda or the moose. But for me, most of these aspects don't bother me (though, again, a movie about just the brothers as humans would've been amazing).

I like the characters. Yes, okay, the moose are bordering on annoying, but they're still far from the most obnoxious comic relief Disney has ever had in one of their movies. Koda? I don't find him annoying at all. He's just a kid. At least he has a personality, I personally dislike kid characters that lack a personality and are just designed to make you feel sorry for them because they're so pwecious (e.g. Penny from The Recuers) way more. Koda is fine. A bit much sometimes, but I don't think he's annoying. 

I also really like Kenai and the changes he goes through. As well as the brothers, by the way. Sitka and Denahi have such a great chemistry with each other and their younger brother. They had a very realistic-feeling dynamic and I honestly love it.

The animation itself is beautiful and breathtaking. The sequence where Kenai changes into a bear for the first time is legit awe-inspiring and one of my favorite scenes from any animated film. But the character animation is also really good. I particularly like the design and animation of Koda's mother. She really feels like a real grizzly, with the weight of her fur and all. Her design is more semi-realistic than the other bears, but it still works really well.

The songs? Okay, this is where I'll have to agree with the people who hate on this movie a bit. Most of them I like, but there are some exceptions. Notably the one everyone has criticized: the Phil Collins song that plays when Kenai tells Koda what happened to his mother. It's the emotional climax of the movie, with the two titular bear brothers breaking apart after Koda finds out. But instead of letting the scene play out with dialogue like it should, it has Phil Collins just singing over it, which just kind of destroys the moment. I get their intentions behind this decision to have the song convey the emotions, but there's a time and place for when to place a song, and here isn't it. The song in and of itself doesn't sound horrible, but it just shouldn't have been here.

Overall this is still one of my favorite Disney movies ever, though. I get where people who dislike it are coming from, but like with Dinosaur, I just really can't help but love the movie.