44 – Brother Bear
The 44th Disney Classic I'll
be reviewing is 2003's Brother Bear. The
story is about a bratty kis named Kenai who basically ends up getting
his older brother, Sitka, killed. Kenai decides to take revenge
against a bear that vaguely had to do with those events instead of
reflecting that this whole mess was his fault to begin with. His
other older brother, Denahi, warns him that doing so would just upset
the spirits. Kenai ignores him and goes to kill the bear anyway
which, lo and behold, makes the spirits turn him into a bear to teach
him a lesson. Denahi finds bear-Kenai and thinks he killed him so he
decides to chase him down and get revenge, just like how he told
Kenai not to earlier. Kenai meets a young bear cub named Koda and
they have to escape Denahi and find a way to turn back into a human.
Kenai,
our annoying main character, spends more than half the movie being a
stubborn and unlikeable douche. He hates bears and is basically every
other cock Disney hero but with absolutely none of the redeeming
qualities. He finally learns his lesson after a touching, no wait,
really forced montage. I really didn't but it. His older brother
Sitka was very wise and kind and basically the standard wise older
character we've seen before. I did like that he was willing to
sacrifice his life for his brothers but he isn't around long enough
for us to get to know him. Dehani is just there for plot and gives
Kenai a ton of crap. When he finally shows that he's wise too, he
immediately forgets that wisdom and goes after bear-Kenai.
Koda
is a young cub who is separated from his mother early on. He wants to
get to the Salmon Run which happens to be right by the mountain that
Kenai needs to get to. They bond and he, eventually, helps Kenai
learn the error of his ways. Also, the bear Kenai killed earlier was
his mother but it's ok, he gets over it. Rutt and Tuke are just two
really annoying moose comic relief characters. Tanana is a shaman
that is basically there just to tell Kenai that Act 3 is gonna be at
some mountain and serves no other purpose.
So
it's pretty clear already that I did not like this movie, but there
were some good things. The animation is great as usual. They had a
cool idea in switching aspect ratios and color style from realistic
to colorful when Kenai becomes a bear. The idea isn't really that
well done but at least it was a good idea. The score of the movie is
perfectly serviceable and Phil Collins music was ok, if misplaced.
As for
things I didn't like, I'll try to keep this short. This movie feels
so absurdly manufactured it's crazy. Every scene is so blatantly
obvious about what they're trying to say that it doesn't tell the
story in an interesting way. It's downright condescending when they
think they have to spell out every single message they're trying to
make because they think their audience won't understand. “Funny”
scenes are scattered methodically to make sure the kids don't get
bored. There are some downright horrendous music with equally idiotic
montages. The relationship between Kenai and Koda is central to the
movie but Kenai is so absurdly unlikeable that his transformation
just feels forced and unrealistic. This all adds up to a movie that
feels fake and heartless.
So I
really didn't like this one. It sucks too because Disney has dealt
with themes like seeing life from another perspective already and
they've done it more gracefully and with more heart. They really half
assed this movie, plain and simple. It just feels like a desperate
attempt to recapture what they had during the renaissance.
44
down. 9 to go.
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