Disney's latest offering follows a cookie-cutter recipe and illustrates the shortcomings of hand-drawn animation.
By STEVE PERSALL
Published October 30, 2003
[Walt Disney Pictures]
Kenai (voice of Joaquin Phoenix), a young man who has been transformed into a bear, and his traveling companion, Koda (Jeremy Suarez), enjoy the wonders of nature in this scene from Brother Bear.
Don't rush to theaters Friday expecting to see the latest Disney animated movie, Brother Bear. The core audience will be trick-or-treating, so the studio is waiting until Saturday to release the movie.
You don't really need to rush to theaters then, either. Brother Bear is a nice effort but nothing spectacular. Lovely artwork, some funny gags, a tear or two if you're a really soft touch, but it never rises to the artistic and emotional level of Disney's true classics. It floats somewhere between the studio's straight-to-video-but-we'll-try-theaters-first junk and the glories of The Lion King, not as heavy as Pocahontas or as fun as Lilo & Stitch.
Compare Brother Bear with Pixar's computer-animated brilliance, and it's easy to understand why Disney is phasing out these hand-drawn productions. No other cinematic form became obsolete as quickly as traditional animation did when Toy Story debuted.
Directors Aaron Blaize and Robert Walker don't accomplish anything that could stop the demise of hand-drawn animation. They pick the bones of other 2-D carcasses, lifting background ideas from Pocahontas (thankfully, with more colors in the wind than brown) and action like a stampeding herd from The Lion King, which also echoes in Phil Collins' musical contributions, right down to the abrupt bass drum climax of the opening song. The jungle, the Pacific Northwest woods - it's all the same in this cookie-cutter mentality.
The story is set 10,000 years ago in an American-Indian culture where a typically rebellious teen named Kenai (voice of Joaquin Phoenix) is preparing to receive his totem of manhood. But he's still irresponsible enough to leave a feast of fish unattended for bears to steal. Kenai doesn't like bears, especially when one kills his older brother during a hunt (shades of Mufasa's death in The Lion King).
But the great spirits intervene and Kenai undergoes a magical transformation, something like the princess in Atlantis: The Lost Empire mixed with Fantasia 2000's "Firebird Suite." He becomes a bear, his own enemy, paving the way to lessons in tolerance for different cultures that are impossible to argue against. Kenai even gets the obligatory cuddly sidekick (and budding plush toy), a lost cub named Koda (Jeremy Suarez). Meanwhile, Kenai's other brother, Denami (Jason Raize), is stalking Kenai the bear because he thinks it killed both his siblings.
A pair of moronic moose named Rutt and Tuke (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas doing their "Great White North" routine from SCTV) deliver some genuinely funny comic relief. But Collins' songs are distinctly unmemorable, turning native chants and rhythms into bubble gum pop, or blasting the faux nobility of Brother Bear through the pipes of Tina Turner.
Brother Bear won't disappoint children; but it won't be cherished when they grow into adults. In a way, the Saturday opening may be a smart idea for a reason Disney won't admit: If the weekend box office take is low, studio spin merchants can blame the competition's extra day of sales. If the movie is a success, they can brag about how well it did in only two days. Everybody wins except those who show up.
Brother Bear
Grade: C
Directors: Aaron Blaise, Robert Walker
Cast: Voices of Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Suarez, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Michael Clarke Duncan, D.B. Sweeney, Jason Raize
