Brother Bear is set in Alaska.
The 2003 American animated comedy-drama film Brother Bear was released by Walt Disney Pictures.It is the 44th Disney animated film.In the film, an Inuit boy named Kenai chases a bear in revenge for killing his brother in a fight.The Spirits were incensed by the unnecessary death of the bear and changed it to a bear himself.In order to be human again, Kenai must travel to a mountain where the Northern lights are visible.On his way, he learns to see through another's eyes, feel through his heart, and discover the true meaning of friendship.
The feature animation studio at Disney-MGM Studios in Florida was shut down in March 2004, not long after the release of this film in favor of computer animated features.The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 76th Academy Awards, but lost to Pixar's Finding Nemo.The film had a budget of $46 million.Brother Bear 2 was released on August 29, 2006
In a post-ice age Alaska, the local tribesmen believe all creatures are created through the Great Spirits, who are said to appear in the form of an Aurora.In order to receive their Totems, necklaces in the shapes of different animals, a trio of brothers return to their tribe.The animals represent what they must achieve to be called men.Denahi, who gained the wolf of wisdom, received the bear of love.He objects to his totem because he believes bears are thieves and that his point was made when a Kodiak bear stole a basket of salmon.During a fight on top of a glacier, Sitka saved his brothers by dislodging the glacier and the bear survived the fall.An enraged Kenai blamed the bear for Sitka's death.He chases and kills the bear on a rocky cliff.The dead bear's body becomes a bear after the Spirits arrive and transform it into a bald eagle.Denahi vows to avenge Kenai by hunting down the bear that killed him.
The shaman of his tribe healed him after he fell down some rapids.She doesn't speak the bear language, but she tells him to return to the mountain and be turned back to a human if he apologizes for his actions.The wildlife can now speak to him, and he met a pair of moose brothers.He is freed by a bear after being caught in a trap.They made a deal: Kenai will escort Koda to an annual salmon run and then the cub will lead him to the mountain.As the two form a brother-like relationship, Koda discovers that his mother is missing.Denahi is still determined to avenge Kenai, even though he knows that the bear he is pursuing is actually Kenai.The salmon run is where a large number of bears live as a family, including the leader Tug.Kenai is comfortable living with the other bears.During a discussion among the bears, Koda tells a story about his mother recently fighting human hunters on a glacier, reminding Kenai of his and his brothers' fight with the bear that lead to Sitka's death and making him realize that the entire time, thebear he killed was the one he
When he was horrified at his actions, Kenai ran away, but soon followed him.Kenai confessed the truth to Koda, who ran away.A man leaves to go to the mountain.After having had a falling-out, Tuke and Rutt reconciled with each other, prompting him to forgive Kenai.On the mountain, Denahi is cornered by Kenai, but their battle is interrupted by Koda, who stole his spear.Denahi and Koda were surprised when Sitka showed up and turned Kenai back into a human.Kenai asked Sitka to transform him back into a bear after realizing that he needed him because of his own mistake.The bear is transformed back into a bear.The spirit of his mother is briefly with him before he and his friends return to the spirit world.In the end, Kenai lives with the rest of the bears and becomes a man through being a bear.
Additional vocals by Patrick Pinney, Bob Bergen, Rodger Bumpass, Roger Rose, Debi Derryberry, Randy Crenshaw, Phil Proctor, John Schwab, Bill Farmer, Pamela Adlon, Hope Levy, and Sherry Lynn.
Following the critical and commercial success of The Lion King, Disney chairman and CEO Michael Eisner urged for more animal-centered animated features, and suggested a North American backdrop.The hero would be a bear, the king of the forest.The original idea was to have an old blind bear travel the forest with his three daughters.In 1997, a veteran animator came on board the project as director because he wanted to be attached so that he could make bears.A two-page treatment of a father-son story in which the son is transformed into a bear, and in the end, remains a bears was produced by Blaise and producer Chuck Williams because they wanted a more naturalistic story.The revised story was approved by Thomas Schumacher, the president of Disney Feature Animation.Tab Murphy, who had co-written the screenplays for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, came on board to write an early draft of the script.[8]
After the project was green-lit, Blaise, Walker, and the story artists embarked on a research trip in August 1999 to visit Alaska where they traveled on the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and Kodiak Island.The production team took more research trips through the parks after a year.Around 2000 the story evolved into a tale in which the transformed Kenai is taken in by an older bear, Grizz, who was to be voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan.Blaise said that they were trying to get some charm into the film.Grizz was turned into a panda named Koda, who was voiced by Jeremy Suarez.Tug, the leader of the bears at the salmon run, was written into the film because of Duncan's vocal performance.10
"Oh, but forget the Oscar nomination for Gladiator," said Phoenix when he was cast in the film.I'm playing an animated character in a Disney film.Isn't that the best?A Native American is transformed into a bear.It's called The Bears.Don't call me a leader.I don't care about that.I'm a leader.I'm content!The filmmakers heard his auditioning tapes for Finding Nemo and cast him as Koda.[5]
Unlike contemporary animated films where most of the cast members record their voices separately, Suarez and Phoenix did a recording together at least two times.Voicing the moose brothers was performed by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis.Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley, an associate professor who taught courses on Alaska Native philosophy at the University of Alaska, said he was given the dialogue that they had written, which was being told by a Native person.The dialogue for the role of the Inuit Narrator was translated into Yup'ik and sent to the Disney studio.He was videotaped for an animation reference while recording his translation.[13]
A salmon run and a caribou stampede are some of the elements in the film.Speaking about the drawing process on the film, layout artist Armand Serrano said that they had to do a life drawing session with live bear cubs and also outdoor drawing and painting sessions at Fort Wilderness in Florida three times a week for two months.There is a citation needed.Background supervisor Barry Kooser and his team traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyoming in 2001 to study with Western landscape painter Scott Christensen, who taught them how to simplify objects by getting the spatial dimensions to work first and working in the detail later.
Denahi was supposed to be Kenai's father, but later this was changed to his brother.The supervising animator for the film said that a bear named Grizz was supposed to be Kenai's mentor.The ending of the film shows how Denahi and Kenai get together once a year to play when the northern lights are in the sky.[15]
Phil Collins was offered the chance to compose songs for Brother Bear, as well as co-writing the score, following the success of the Tarzan soundtrack.Collins said that the bad news started to trickle down that he wouldn't be singing it all.I usually write songs that I sing myself.While Collins composed six songs for the film, he shared vocal performance duties with Tina Turner, who had announced her retirement from touring and had not released an album since Twenty Four Seven in 1999.Collins's lyrics were translated into the Inuit Eskimo language for the performance, which was arranged by score co-composers Collins and Mark Mancina, and vocal arranger Eddie Jobson.[19]
Home on the Range was supposed to be released in 2003 and Brother Bear in 2004.Home on the Range was pushed back to a spring 2004 release by Disney.Jim Hill stated that the release date switch was to promote Brother Bear on the Platinum Edition release of The Lion King.The release date was moved up by one weekend from November 7, 2003 to July 15, 2003 by Disney.Instead of opening on Halloween, the film would be released on November 1.[22]
New York Governor George Pataki attended the premiere of Brother Bear at the New Amsterdam Theatre.Tina Turner performed the opening song, "Great Spirits", on the stage after Collins performed "No Way Out" following the showing of the film.[23]
On March 30, 2004, Brother Bear was released on VHS and DVD.There were two versions of the film on the DVD release.A documentary on the production of the film, an audio commentary track by Rutt and Tuke with an option for visual mode, and three deleted scenes are included in the DVD.The home video release brought in more than $167 million in sales.In April 2004, over 5 million copies of the film were sold.[26]
The sequel, Brother Bear 2, was released in a special edition along with the film.[28]
Disney's Brother Bear games were released in November of 2003
The film received mostly mixed reviews from film critics who praised the film's animation but criticized its story.42% of critics gave the film a positive review with an average rating of 10, according to the review aggregate.Brother Bear is gentle and pleasant if unremarkable Disney fare, with so-so animation and generic plot.Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 48 based on 28 reviews.[29]
Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper both gave positive reviews of the film.In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Ebert wrote that the film doesn't have the "zowie factor of The Lion King or Finding Nemo, but is sweet rather than exciting."Children and their parents are likely to relate on different levels, the adults connecting with the transfer of souls from man to beast, while the kids are excited by the adventure stuff.The film was praised by the USA Today film critic for its message of tolerance and respect for nature.Family audiences are treated to a vibrantly hued movie with appealing characters.Todd McCarthy wrote for Variety that "Brother Bear is a very mild animated entry from Disney with a distinctly recycled feel because the film's characters and narrative simply fail to engage strong interest.""Brother Bear has an appeal that can't be denied," said Kenneth Turan in his review for the Los Angeles Times.Too often, however, this film's lack of a fresh dramatic approach and not its technique makes it difficult to embrace as much as we'd like to.[33]
The use of the film's aspect ratio as a storytelling device was noted by many critics and viewers.The film's art direction and color scheme are grounded in realism, and it begins at a standard widescreen aspect ratio of 1.75:1, similar to the 1.85:1 ratio common in U.S. cinema.After Kenai transforms into a bear twenty-four minutes into the picture, the film becomes an anamorphic aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and towards brighter, more fanciful colors and slightly more caricatured art direction.The first feature to do a widescreen shift was Brother Bear.The only other animated film to feature this technique was The Simpsons Movie.