Brother Bear

Brother Bear is a 2003 traditionally-animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 1, 2003, the forty-third animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. In the film, an Inuit boy pursues a bear in revenge for a battle that he provoked in which his oldest brother is killed. He tracks down the bear and kills it, but the Spirits, angered by this needless death, change the boy into a bear himself as punishment. 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; the studio was shut down in March 2004, not long after the release of this film. A direct-to-video sequel, Brother Bear 2, followed in 2006.

Plot
Long ago in a post-ice age North America, there were three brothers named Kenai, Denahi, and Sitka. Denahi, the middle brother, and Sitka, the oldest, work hard. They think Kenai should work more and play less. Kenai, the youngest, hates bears because they fight for the same food, overtake the land, and ruin his coming-of-age ceremony. Each brother was given his own totem when they came of age: Sitka, the eagle of guidance and Denahi, the wolf of wisdom. At the ceremony, Kenai is presented with the bear of love. Kenai questions the totem he has been given: "You think love has anything to do with being a man?!"

When Sitka is killed in a battle with a bear that Kenai provoked, Tanana, the tribal shaman woman, officiates a funeral rite for Sitka. Afterward, Kenai throws away his totem and ignores the village teachings of brotherhood with animals. He sets out to hunt the bear for revenge and eventually kills it. Angered by Kenai's actions, the Great Spirits, through the spirit of Sitka, transform him into a bear. Unfortunately his other brother, who was pursuing Kenai to stop him, doesn't realize what has happened. He finds Kenai's torn clothes and believes the bear he sees took his brother's life. In grief, he remembers Kenai's words to him and, as he had done, vows revenge.

Disoriented and falling into the river, Kenai awakens on the shore and in the presence of Tanana, who eases him through his initial shock at his change. Although she cannot understand his bear speech, she advises Kenai to find the mountain where the lights touch the earth so that he can ask Sitka's spirit to change him back, and then she disappears without giving him directions. To Kenai's surprise, he finds he can talk with the other animals - but the only animals who are willing to talk to him are two sibling moose,named Rutt and Tuke, who are more interested in cracking jokes at Kenai's claims to have been a man than helping him. Along the way, Kenai meets a talkative, pesky bear cub named Koda who saves him from a trap, and asks him to accompany him on the way to the salmon run where the bears gather to fish near the mountain where the lights touch the earth.

What follows is a journey in which Kenai, when not dodging Denahi who is now hunting him, grows rather fond of the irrepressible Koda who he learns shares his spiritual beliefs. This in turn puts his hatred of bears in a stark perspective that forces him to reconsider, especially when he learns that Koda sees humans as the same sort of dangerous monsters as he himself once believed bears to be. This culminates when they finally reach the salmon run and Kenai has the awkward experience of being surrounded by bears. Yet, the bears quickly accept him and he in turn learns about the loving community of these animals that makes his hate seem so foolish even as he learns to enjoy himself.

This contentment is shattered when Koda tells the story of his separation from his mother. Kenai is aghast as he puts the pieces together and realizes the story is about the fight he and his brothers had with the bear. Kenai realizes to his horror that the bear he killed was Koda's mother. Distraught at the harm he has done to a cub he has grown to love, Kenai flees the gathering. The next morning Koda follows and asks what's wrong. With great shame and remorse, but also with great moral courage, Kenai confesses. At this traumatic revelation, Koda is left grief sticken and runs away in loss and betrayal while ignoring Kenai's apologies and pleas for forgiveness.

With nothing left to keep him with the bears, Kenai scales the mountain to contact the spirit of Sitka. Koda mourns alone, but then has a chance encounter with the squabbling Tuke and Rutt who reconcile because of their brotherhood, which makes Koda realize the importance of his friendship with Kenai. Meanwhile, Denahi finally tracks down Kenai; in the ensuing fight, Koda, having forgiven Kenai, rushes in to help at a critical moment in the fight. Kenai struggles to protect Koda and is willing to sacrifice himself to save the cub, much as Koda's mother had done. With this selfless act, Kenai shows that he has profoundly changed for the better and Sitka, who had been watching everything in the form of an eagle, changes Kenai back into a human.

Yet, while Kenai has regained his humanity, he can no longer talk with Koda, a cub who is now orphaned yet again by the bear he had come to accept as his brother. Rather than abandon Koda, Kenai tells Sitka that Koda needs him. Denahi calls Kenai "little brother" instead of "baby brother" and Sitka transforms Kenai (by his choice) back into a bear. He and his brothers hug together and say goodbye, while Koda and his mother's spirit do the same.

The film ends with Kenai as a bear, accompanied by Koda, being welcomed back by his tribe and pressing his pawprint to the clff wall, which bears the handprints of countless generations of other tribe members who also fulfilled the calling of their totem animals.



Critical reaction
The reaction from film reviewers was severely mixed with many panning the film as a retread of older Disney films like The Lion King and the 20th Century Fox film Ice Age (although Brother Bear began production before Ice Age did), while others defended the film as a legitimate variation of the theme.

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 an anamorphic aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and towards brighter, more fanciful colors and slightly more caricatured art direction.

Box office and home video
Even though Brother Bear made $85,336,277 during its domestic theatrical run, Brother Bear went on to prove to be a great hit around the world, amassing $164,700,000, bringing its worldwide total to $250,036,277, just $ 30,000,000 less than Lilo & Stitch. In addition, its March 30, 2004 DVD release was successful, bringing in more than $167 million in DVD and VHS sales and rentals. In April of 2004 alone, 5.51 million copies of Brother Bear were sold.

Sequel

 * Brother Bear 2 was released on August 29, 2006.

Voice cast
The movie stars the voices of:
 * Joaquin Phoenix as Kenai, the youngest of three brothers who gets turned into a bear, to teach him to see through their eyes
 * Jeremy Suarez as Koda, a wisecracking bear cub who helps Kenai on his journey to where the Lights Touch the Earth
 * Rick Moranis as Rutt, a comic Canadian moose
 * Dave Thomas as Tuke, another comic Canadian moose
 * Jason Raize as Denahi, the middle brother
 * D.B. Sweeney as Sitka, the oldest brother
 * Joan Copeland as Tanana, the shaman-woman of Kenai's tribe
 * Michael Clarke Duncan as Tug, a wise old bear

Wil Wheaton is listed by many sources, previously including the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) as providing "additional voices" for the film. Willie Wheaton, the credited voice actor, is a different person.

Songs
Score by Mark Mancina

Deleted song

 * "The Fishing Song" - This was intended for the salmon run sequence, but was replaced by "Welcome".

Technical data

 * Directed by: Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker
 * Written by: Lorne Cameron, David Hoselton, Tab Murphy, Steve Bencich (screenplay), Broose Johnson (story), and Jeffrey Stepakoff (additional writer, story)
 * Music by: Phil Collins and Mark Mancina
 * Released on: November 1, 2003
 * American picture
 * Specifications: Technicolor, 35 mm 1.85:1 (partly) and 2.35:1 (partly) (color, Dolby digital sound)
 * Genre: Animation, fantasy, comedy, drama
 * Runtime: 85 minutes
 * MPAA Rating: G

Trivia

 * Unusually, the film was released on November 1, 2003, a Saturday. The announced reason was to avoid opening the film on a Halloween Friday, because Disney believed that kids would rather trick-or-treat than go to the movies.
 * Rutt and Tuke are loosely based on SCTV 's Bob and Doug McKenzie, also played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas.
 * This was Jason Raize's only film (he died in 2004). He was the voice of Denahi. Previously, Raize played Simba in the Broadway musical version of The Lion King.
 * Andy Hui and Alex Fong provided the voices of Denahi and Kenai respectively in the Cantonese version of the film. Andy Hui also sang all of the film's songs.
 * This film was the subject of an anti-cell phone ad. In it, Rutt and Tuke talk to the viewers, when one of mooses' phone rings and they start speaking and walk off the screen.
 * The names for the characters come from various locations in Alaska and Canada, e.g.: Sitka, Kenai (however, this name is also the inuit word for the Black Bear), Tanana and others.
 * There is a post-credits scene in which Koda appears at the salmon run by himself and says that in accordance with Wildlife Regulations no fish were harmed in the film. However, a fish, screaming, comes flopping into the background with a large bear chasing after it, when Koda starts signaling for the camera to cut and cover the lens with his paws and the screen goes black. Then, you hear Koda groaning and the larger bear is then heard belching, signifying that he ate the fish.
 * The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003 for Best Animated Feature Film, but lost to another Disney release, Finding Nemo.