Brother Bear Revisited

In BROTHER BEAR (2003) the story and the film seem to have been
divided into two parts: the more serious first part which sets up the
time and place and the human characters and their culture, and the
second, a lighter feel, which follows Kenai on his journeys to new
understandings.

The first part, which is fairly long, is necessary for the
appreciation and enjoyment of the second part. The place, North
America a thousand years ago, is as much a character of the film as is
the dessert in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. The layouts, backgrounds, camera
movements are stunning and spectacular, and not in the all-too-often
roller coaster way usually seen today. There is atmosphere here that
recalls how audiences must have felt seeing the scope of PINOCCHIO’s
locations for the first time in a theater. The first part’s direction
is magnificent. Many small children were in the audience I sat in, and
there wasn’t a peep from them during this long expository section, so
enthralling and mesmerizing was the look and direction of this early
part and the action scenes such as the bear fight were suspenseful and
gripping. The caribou stampede is less mechanical than a similar
computerized scene in THE LION KING.

There is no doubt that Disney’s visually storytelling ability
continues to be the best in the business. It alternately springs to
action or quietly, even seductively, unfolds to hold the audience
spellbound but keeps them involved as well. There was a similar need
for other-culture explanations woven through POCAHONTAS and MULAN, but
those films did not handle it as well as it is here. There is not one
extra or wasted moment in the early section—storytelling and direction
are at their confident best here.

The film is visually superb—even the skies enthrall, not only with the
Northern Lights, but with moving clouds and even ordinary rain is done
noticeably well. The backgrounds are majestic without being
in-your-face show-offy. Everything fits visually, from the changes in
lighting as sun rays filter through tree branches, to seeing
characters’ breaths when it is coldest, to waterfalls, to an ice
cave. The animation is superb, with great mouth action, subtle,
not-overdone acting and fully-rounded characters—Disney feature
characters turn in three dimensions whereas others’ show a character
in one position, then cut to another character onscreen, then back to
the first to see that it has moved to a new position that would have
been difficult to have animated, going from one position to the other.
Over and over in this and other Disney features, no one takes the easy
way out—not in animation, not in layout, not in effects. Audiences
might not notice all the details of such a policy, but they feel them
in the believability of the characters and the reality of the fantasy.
It takes twenty minutes of screen time for Pinocchio to go out into
the world, for Peter Pan and the children to arrive in Neverland, for
Alice to enter Wonderland. Each of those films and others spent a long
time setting up the characters and the premise so there could be
adventures to care about. What is marvellous in BROTHER BEAR is that
the second part builds on the first, and continues its theme without
breaking from it. The second part lightens up, sure, and is at times
howlingly funny, but doesn’t break with the first section, it expands
upon it. Unlike THE LION KING which has its serious first part, then
when Simba grows to adulthood goes off the deep end with Simon and
Pumba, culminating in an awkward attempt to reconcile them: a funny
hula dance during a serious fight to the death between Simba and his
uncle,for example, breaking the spirit of the film

In BROTHER BEAR, even the hilarious characters, Rutt and Tuke (moose),
two mountain sheep and others can be so within the spirit of the film.
The feature film doesn’t stop as does THE LITTLE MERMAID to do a
Sebastian and Pierre the cook five minute funny cartoon, then back to
the seriousness of the situation where we left the feature.This is
craft and it is a joy to behold and enjoy. Like all the arts, it is
wonderful to see creative people at the top of their craft doing their
best.