Brother Bear is based on an old Inuit tale of three brothers, whose lives are guided by their personal totems, toward the end of the last Ice Age. The youngest brother Kenai, is just given his totem during his manhood ceremony and discovers his totem is ?the bear of love?. Kenai does not think this totem is worthy of him and rejects that which has been given to him.

Shortly after this Kenai falling down a cliff whilst trying to escape a bear he has angered. His two brothers try to rescue him, with his elder brother Sitka, sacrificing himself to save his brothers, taking the bear with him over the fracturing edge of a glacier. The bear survives the fall and Kenai swears revenge on the bear for the death of his brother. When he corners and kills the bear, the great spirits change Kenai into a bear so that he may learn what the bears life is like. The remaining brother Denahi, thinks Kenai is dead and that this remaining bear killed his two brothers. Kenai cannot make his brother recognize him and he becomes the hunted.

A young bear cub Koda, has lost his mother and looks to Kenai the bear to get him to the bears favorite fishing grounds and hopefully find his mother. Kenai has no idea where the grounds are and only wants to get to the mountain where the sky spirits touch the earth, so he may be restored to being a man. Along the way they meet colourful characters such as the two moose, Rutt and Took, as some mammoth and other assorted animals, all the time dodging his brother who is hunting him.

Needless to say by the end of the film Kenai has learned to understand the bear, to love Koda and to grow into his totem of ?the bear of love?. He is also reconciled with his brother and there is an interesting, but not unexpected twist at the end.

Disney usually comes up with brilliant characters in their animations, but occasionally they miss. I?m not saying this feature is bad, in fact it is quite good. It?s just not the usual five out of five brilliance one expects from them. Does anyone remember Pocahontas and how it lacked the ?X? factor? This is another film that I don?t think will become a ?Classic?. I have been told by an eight year old, it was fantastic, so it still appeals to the market it is aimed for.

THE EXTRAS

The extras here were better than the movie, well I think so anyway. There is loads on offer here and well worth the look.

Koda’s Outtakes - You just have to love Disney for creating those “outtakes”. As we all know they are specially done and I think some of the gags here are funnier than those in the film.

Rutt and Tuke’s Commentary - I am amazed by this one. The two moose of the film are doing the commentary here and it is kept up the whole way through. After a while it becomes a bit repetitious in their humour, as they are somewhat thick, but it is quite an amusing take on what often turns out to be a very dry and boring run through of a movie with actors trying way too hard to be funny.

“Look Through My Eyes” Music Video - As you might have guessed I am not a huge Phil Collins fan (used to be years ago, but now think his songs are a bit “wet”), so this didn’t grab me.

“Transformation Song” Music Video (?)- with subtitles as it is sung in Inuit by the Bulgarian Women’s choir. It is actually quite a beautiful chorale piece if you can ignore the rotating camera work.

Brother Bear Games

- Bone Puzzle: This is a simple game to fit shapes in the right space. You are then told from what animal the bones relate to.

- Find Your Totem: This is a series of pick your answers to several questions and your spirit guide will be revealed. I must admit I was snickering at some of the choices in anticipation of what my husband would choose.

Bear Legends - A featurette based on Native American legends of the bear.

Making Noise: The Art of Foley - This was a fscinating short feature on the art of sound effects, done the old fashioned way. Today most studios use pre recorded sounds sourced from huge libraries, but here they showed that Disney still goes back to the tried and true method of making exactly what they want and just how messy a studio can get when you are doing this.

Art Review - The usual discussion on how the animation process behind the film progressed with both charaters and background. This is a photo gallery of the work behind the scenes, but is still interesting stuff.

Deleted Scenes

“Introduction”

“Where’s Koda?”

“Confession”

“Muri the Squirrel” - I liked this one and would have liked it in the film, but I guess it didn’t add any value.

“Fishing Song” - Phil Collins tells about the “fishing scene” in the film and what he was originally asked to produce. I can understand the wisdom of Disney not using this, talk about drivel. I think even Phil Collins was embarrassed about having written this.

Overall the extras are great and worth the time to look at.

CONCLUSION

Brother Bear is another good film from Disney, but not as brilliant as some. Kenai is a young Inuit warrior who is transformed into a bear to learn the truth behind his spirit totem and to learn compassion for all creatures, great and small. Whilst your kids are going to enjoy this, it is not going to become the classic like The Lion King or Finding Nemo.