DMCP# 58 - Brother Bear

Down to the final 8! for those of you playing along at home, this is what we have left

Toy Story 2
Toy Story 3
Brave
Fantasia 2000
Dinosaur
Bolt
Oliver & Company
and today's movie: Brother Bear.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, this is the second worst Disney movie, only beating Chicken Little (which I quite enjoyed). The main complaint is that this movie is mild and dull. I think they missed the part where a character dies pretty tragically in the first 20 minutes, then a relative goes out for revenge, kills a character's mom and ends up sort of dressed in her dead body. So yeah, nothing to see here. This movie also is Disney's third foray into telling a story with native american characters, and I think it's their best try. The film takes place in an Inuit tribe thousands of years ago, you can tell because there are wolly mamoths. The main advantage of this is we are far removed from any of the uncomfortable culture clashes seen in Peter Pan or Pocahontas. We are allowed to just sit back and enjoyed the adventure without being constantly reminded of generations of bigotry and genocide. The movie is a nice coming of age tale in which our hero, the youngest of three brothers, is assigned his spirit animal. He gets a bear and the emotion of love, and as you can imagine, he doesn't appreciate such a weak emotion being chosen to guide his life. Naturally, we all get to learn the true power of love by the end of the movie. It's a good movie, bolstered by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as two dumb moose brothers (or Bob and Doug McKenzie to you SCTV fans) The move does drag quite a bit though, and a lot of the jokes don't work (Joaquin Phoenix is not talented comedic actor), but the worst offender is the music. The songs in this movie are terrible, Phil Collins fails to replicate his success from Tarzan and instead gives us the bad, bland Phil Collins. Basically, it sounds like muzak versions of rejected Lion King songs. It brings the movie down from what was a pretty darn good movie to a simply adequete Disney film.

6/10