Brother Bear (2003)

Directed by Aaron Blaise & Robert Walker. Starring (voices) Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Suarez, Jason Raize, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Joan Copeland, D. B. Sweeney, Michael Clarke Duncan, Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley. [G]

Set many millennia ago, this animated adventure concerns an Inuit who goes after the bear responsible for his older brother’s death, but the spirits decide to transform the young man into a bear after the heartless deed is done. Now, not only is the “bear-man” being stalked by his other brother, but he ends up befriending a bear cub before realizing it’s the offspring of the bear he killed. A trite message movie passed off as bland family entertainment, and lacking the fundamental story elements needed to make such a routine idea involving—there’s no true villain, no romance, etc. What it does have is a handful of mildly humorous moments from side characters, like a couple of loudmouth rams and a pair of moose modeled off “SCTV”’s McKenzie brothers, but while the contemporary humor and behavior from everyone (man and beast) is surely meant to make the movie more accessible to a younger audience, it only makes the Native mysticism unimmersive and the emotional engagement shallow. In fact, the movie is so superficial in the way it uses cultural depiction as a thematic device, it makes Disney’s earlier Pocahontas look like Dances with Wolves. Those aforementioned “McKenzie moose” are voiced by the original comedy duo, Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis (a very rare film/television appearance since the 1990s for the latter). A direct-to-video sequel came a few years later.

46/100