Review of Brother Bear (2003) by Bryan K — 23 Apr 2011

I thought this movie had an interesting moral. It starts out showing you these three brothers who seem very tight knit. They are part of what I would call a tribe. Throughout the movie they have this theme that ties into religion. They believe that the ancestors are in they sky or heavens above them watching over them. The spirits have the power to change things as well. And by change things, in this case they help teach a lesson. There is this certain mountain where you can go that it touches the lights (ancestors) in the sky.

Keni is the main character and the youngest of the brothers. He is very spunky. He is at an age when, in their tribe, they are given a small figurine that best represents them. This character is chosen by the ancestors. Keni is so excited to see what fierce animal they have chosen for him. He is disappointed when he recieves the bear of love. Soon after, Keni gets mad at a bear that gets into the fish he was supposed to tie up. Keni decides to go after this bear since he caused him trouble. His brothers Sitka, and Denahi go after him. They are all four put in a bad position and Sitka ends up getting killed by falling from a cliff. This only enfuriated Keni even more and he kills the bear. Denahi is after Keni to stop him from killing the bear. At the moment when Keni kills the bear the ancestors change him into a bear. Denahi comes to find a bear and no Keni. So the rest of the movie Denahi is chasing Keni thinking that he is the bear that killed Sitka and Keni.

The rest of the movie is about Keni's journey to be changed back to man. Along the way he gets a traveling buddy, Kodah. Kodah is a small bear cub and annoys Keni all the way to the salmon run. Kodah has lost his mother and plans to meet her there. Keni learns a lesson that bears have their place on earth too. He realizes that the bear he killed was just trying to survive. The biggest revelation is when Keni realizes the bear he killed was Kodahs mom. Keni at that point had grown kind of fond of the cub. When he finally makes it to the mountain ti get changed back to human, Denahi catches up to him. Keni is changed back to man, but then makes a decision to go back to being a bear since he feels responsible for Kodah because he killed his mother.

This movie displays a good example of indigenous religion. The small tribe has their beliefs in the ancestors, and other traditions that were probably passed down for generations. They perform a sacred ritual at the end of the movie where Keni gets to put his bear prints on a wall. It doesn't say much about the wall, but you can tell its an honor. Their religion is very spiritual and earth connected.