Brother Bear is one of Disney's underrated masterpiece's. It may have done well finaincial wise but it also got mixed reviews. I've seen this movie enough times to think this movie deserves a spot in one of many of Disney's crowning achievements in film, animation and artistic history.
The film is about three inuit brothers: Sitka, the oldest brother and leader of the three who keeps his two brothers in check, Dehani, the middle brother who bullies his younger brother but still loves him. And last but not least; our main character; Kenai, the naive, desperate boy who wanted to become a man. These three characters hit the mark on being relatable sibling wise and are my favorite part of this movie.
When Sitka sacrifices himself to protect his brothers from a bear, Kenai being the naive hothead that he is, wants revenge. He gets it but this event upsets the spirits, thus turning him into a bear. Arriving a little too late to the scene Denahi thinks the newly formed kenai is the same bear that took both his brothers. Kenai manages to escape and of course wants to be human again, and runs into many characters along the way.
the middle is where i start to have a problem with this movie, the modern talk for example like "dude", "I spy", "pinkey swear", really hurts the movies setting for me, the little cub Koda i found really annoying due to his tough guy act and the moose are the stereotypical vanadian accented comic reliefs which i also found annoying.
The ending is just as good as the begining, history repeats itself, everthing comes full circle, everyone learns something, and the bond between brothers remain strong.
the music is very spiritual and native to the point it made me want to explore more into this kind of genre. it gave off those powerful emotions that a lot of Disney movies have done over the years. I personally think it could have done without Phil Collins but whats done is done. there are mostly music montoges instead of singing numbers and I liked that a lot, never been a big fan of the latter.
overall, great begining, not so good middle, great ending, 2/3 works for me. the story gets a huge recomindation from me. the music is really good and helps create the mood, the characters are all likable and i wished to see more of them, the culture, beliefs and mythes they worshipped i thought was really cool and it made me want to look more into their religion that being animism. Very interesting concept, fun family film, this gets a 7/10.