'Brother Bear' learns about friendship and the human 'Monster'
An odd bit of doom and gloom - and downright negative thinking - intrudes into the otherwise perky and optimistic Disney animated feature Brother Bear, which will open Saturday. It comes at a time in the youthful adulthood of Kenai (sounds like: "keen eye") when, having witnessed his sibling's death and having been magically transformed from human to bear, our ursine hero is tromping through the Ice Age wilderness. Suddenly, Phil Collins is singing "There's no way out of this place/No hope, no future/ Ooh, I can't face another day." Jeez, kind of depressing, no?
An odd bit of doom and gloom - and downright negative thinking - intrudes into the otherwise perky and optimistic Disney animated feature Brother Bear, which will open Saturday. It comes at a time in the youthful adulthood of Kenai (sounds like: "keen eye") when, having witnessed his sibling's death and having been magically transformed from human to bear, our ursine hero is tromping through the Ice Age wilderness. Suddenly, Phil Collins is singing "There's no way out of this place/No hope, no future/ Ooh, I can't face another day."
Jeez, kind of depressing, no?
Collins' lyrics aside, Brother Bear - which takes its central conceit of human-animal metamorphosis from Native American lore - is a generally upbeat and engaging tale of friendship and understanding. Kenai is a bright, if unfledged young man, who, with his two brothers, had spent his days catching fish and clowning around. Their tribe is a happy, close-knit community whose elders are wise and whose kids frolic in the Great Outdoors. (The scenery is fantastic: forests shot through with light, majestic mountain ranges, dramatic waterways, big sky.)
Although the story has more than a little Lion King deja vu-doo going for it, Kenai (voiced by Joaquin Phoenix) is likable as both a man, and then a bear. In the latter incarnation, Kenai develops a friendship with the irrepressibly playful cub Koda (Jeremy Suarez) and thereby learns a little something about friendship - and also about how bears perceive man, a creature they have dubbed "the Monster."
About 30 minutes into Brother Bear, at the point of Kenai's mystical and pivotal transformation, the screen image shifts to a widescreen format - a gimmicky but successful way to show that he's now seeing the world in whole new ways.
Former SCTV lugheads Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas supply the movie's comic relief, voicing Rutt and Tuke, respectively: They're a pair of lazy, loping moose who speak in the vernacular of true Canadians. That is, they say "eh?" at the end of every sentence.
With top-notch (traditional) cartooning talent and a script laced with jokes that parents and guardians can chuckle at, Brother Bear is a solid entry in the family film fare category.
Contact movie critic Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.
Brother Bear *** (out of four stars)
Produced by Chuck Williams, directed by Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker, written by Tab Murphy, Lorne Cameron, David Hoselton, Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman, music by Mark Mancina and Phil Collins, dist. by Walt Disney Pictures.
Running time: 1 hour, 25 mins.
Kenai. . . Joaquin Phoenix
Koda. . . Jeremy Suarez
Denahi. . . Jason Raize
Rutt. . . Rick Moranis
Tuke. . . Dave Thomas
Parent's guide: G (mild violence)
Playing at: area theaters (opens Saturday)