Review of Brother Bear (2003) by Warren S — 15 Jan 2011

"Brother Bear" is both stupid and evil. It is the story of an Inuit boy named Kenai who murders a female bear, is transformed into a bear himself, and then moves in with her offspring, Koda. (Humbert Humbert would be very proud.).

The plot is lazily written and full of holes, the jokes are awful, the songs are trash, the tone shifts so unnaturally from dark "drama" to light-hearted "comedy" and back that the audience should expect whiplash, and the message at the end is so ignorant about basic mammalian nature that I can hardly believe it was written by a mammal. Really? All it takes for Koda to forgive Kenai for *murdering his mom* is some wacky antics from the unfunny moose comic relief characters? The other bears all go along with the idea of Koda's new caretaker having a history of anti-bear violence? REALLY?

They try to be creative with the tonal shift when Kenai becomes a bear--the colors become brighter, the animals possess more anthropomorphic qualities, even the aspect ratio changes--but it's more distracting and unnerving than helpful. The only good thing about "Brother Bear" is the unexpectedness of the twist at the end. You know, the twist where it turns out that the bear Kenai killed at the beginning was actually Koda's mom. The twist I just spoiled for you. So now that you have no reason to see this movie, you can get on with your life.

But if you're still craving a post-Renaissance Disney flick, I can recommend "Lilo & Stitch" and "The Princess and the Frog". If you've already seen this movie and it's left a bad taste in your mouth, I recommend the same to help cleanse your palette. Disney's a lot better than this, folks--it just needs to be reminded.