* AccidentalInnuendo: "Well gee, eh, you're one big beaver." It doubles as FridgeBrilliance if you remember that there was a giant species of beaver that existed during the time the movies take place.
* AudienceAlienatingEra: While by no means one of the worst-received efforts at the time, this film's below-average critical performance and somewhat derivative nature meant it would not be the movie to lift Disney out of its critical and financial rut in the final years of the Eisner era.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Music/PhilCollins was part of the soundtrack, his second for Disney after ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}''. Hell, he even has some of his own versions where he's singing them.
** "Great Spirits" is a good start. The version in the movie was sung by Tina Turner, while the Phil Collins version was a bonus track.
** The heavenly choir in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85WNcQgrueE "Transformation"]] definitely counts. Sung in Inupiaq, the translated lyrics are a perfect match to what was going on.
** Koda's road song, "On My Way", particularly the last third.
** Phil Collins and The Blind Boys Of Alabama's performance in "Welcome" also qualifies.
** "Look Through My Eyes", the warm and self-assured end credits song that caps off Kenai and Koda's journey and ties together the themes of the film. It's arguably the best of the Collins songs.
** The primal, percussion-laden score is great in general, but in particular there's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fkaUDujwEk "Awakes as a Bear"]], a suite that journeys through many of the themes and melodies of the film. The part from 4:19 seconds, playing when Kenai and Koda explore the cave paintings, is breathtaking.
* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** Koda. You'll either find him cute, plucky and endearing or annoying. Though funnily enough, [[LampshadeHanging Kenai himself calls out Koda in-universe for being the "biggest pain in the neck ever"]], but it's "what you'd expect from a little brother" anyway.
** Rutt and Tuke. Annoying wastes of time or funny and effective sibling foils to the leads? Also, their Canadian accents/mannerisms are either endearing or insufferable.
* BrokenBase: [[WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}} Once again]], the Music/PhilCollins songs. You either like them for their lyrics and their rustic style or you think they really don't fit.
* CaptainObviousReveal: [[spoiler:Koda revealing to Kenai that he was separated from his mother makes it far too easy to guess that she was the bear Kenai killed]].
* CriticalDissonance: General consensus among Disney fans is that it's far from one of the studio's best efforts, but it's likable enough, and it has its own fanbase. Among critics, it is currently the second lowest-rated film in the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon on Website/RottenTomatoes, only being beaten by ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle''. On Metacritic, it is actually tied with ''Chicken Little'' as the lowest-rated film in the canon.
* DancingBear: Pun aside, some people do appreciate the movie for having a distinctively original setting in the North American Paleolithic. The impressive use of Iñupiat in "Transformation" is also something universally liked.
* FanPreferredCutContent: The scene where Kenai [[spoiler:confesses to killing Koda's mother]] was originally planned, even being mostly animated, to be entirely driven with dialogue as we hear Kenai's whole story, while the finished scene is edited into a silent montage with [[Music/PhilCollins "No Way Out"]] playing in the background. People tend to consider the original version the superior of the two, due to the music in the finished scene [[{{Narm}} badly affecting the desired emotional impact]].
* FanonDiscontinuity: A peculiar case. At least a few fans have expressed that they were enjoying the film up until Koda's introduction, only to be turned off by the sudden change in tone following that event. As a result, they disown everything after the transformation scene, settling for a DownerEnding where Kenai is left cursed in his animal form as punishment for killing the bear.
* FriendlyFandoms: ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' fans are likely to be on board as both franchises have protagonists who gain the ability to transform into caniform forms via spirits and learn to like their new forms with their families also learning to appreciate them too. As an added bonus, both are set in North America, and feature a conflict between two relatives as a major plot point.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** In the french-speaking version, the song ''On my Way'' is translated as ''Je m'en vais'' (which means ''I go away'' in french). However, in 2016, French singer [[Music/{{Vianney}} Vianney]] also sings a [[https://youtu.be/eLYyCFuPCX8?si=H6zLakoe2mKT7qsD song whose title is ''Je m'en vais''.]]
** In the Polish dub, Kenai is voiced by Bartosz Obuchowicz. This wouldn't be the last time when [[Main/CastingGag he will voice]] [[WesternAnimation/WalkingWithDinosaurs a prehistoric animal living in Alaska]], or [[WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish a talking bear]]. Crosses into {{Main/Heartwarming In Hindsight}} if you had grow up with the movie and its sequel, and you're hearing Kenai again, through Patchi and Baby Bear.
** This wouldn't be [[{{WesternAnimation/Brave}} the last time]] Disney will make an animated movie about people turning into bears. [[spoiler: And near the end of the movie, a family member of the bear-transformed character even tries to kill them after [[MistakenforOwnMurderer they falsely assumed they were killed by a bear]] (in ''Brother Bear'', the character's own brother, in this movie, the character's own husband).]]
** The movie portrays the protagonist's biological older sibling eventually becoming the main antagonist by turning into a vengeful AntiVillain due to a huge misunderstanding who then [[CainandAbel opposes the protagonist sibling]] for most of the movie, with the two eventually confronting each other on a mountaintop, and the antagonistic older sibling eventually performing a HeelFaceTurn after realizing the error of their ways. This was almost the case again during development of ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' until "Let it Go", originally written as a VillainSong was written, and as a result Elsa in the finished movie instead ended up becoming a more heroic character, and her relationship with Anna being changed from being like that of the human brothers (Anna being more like Kenai) to that of the bear "brothers" (Elsa now being more like Kenai and Anna instead being more like Koda). In fact, two of ''Frozen'''s [[CutSong cut songs]], "Cool With Me" and "Life's Too Short" would've been comparable to the Lava Field chase scene.
*** Sven even looks just like Rutt and Tuke the moose.
** This also won't be [[WesternAnimation/BigHero6 the last time]] Disney would make an animated movie about a young boy whose older brother dies and vows revenge on his brother's killer, only to eventually realize that revenge is wrong after all.
* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: Was heavily accused at the time of borrowing elements from more popular Disney films, including ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove''.
* JerkassWoobie:
** Denahi starts the movie as a BigBrotherBully, albeit mild and playfully so, like most siblings. Then he loses his older brother, which promotes him to the responsible older sibling role. ''Then'' he seemingly loses his younger brother. It makes him snap and he goes on a mad hunt to avenge Kenai, pursuing the bear that seemingly killed him, not knowing that it's actually a transformed Kenai. He becomes more and more desperate, and less and less sane, every time you meet him. Right before the climax, there's a scene showing him alone, lost and cold on the mountain, crying over his failure to avenge his brother.
** Despite a lot of his misfortune in this movie being the result of a KarmicTransformation and/or LaserGuidedKarma, Kenai himself can slide into this at times. He watches his beloved brother die right in front of him, he doesn't really start to accept that until halfway through the movie, his other brother wants him dead (not knowing he's a transformed bear, and when he finally grows enough as a person to realize just how badly he's screwed up he feels immense guilt and remorse over [[spoiler: putting Sitka in a position where he'd need to sacrifice himself for him, planting the seeds of darkness in Denahi's head and orphaning Koda]], but he can't undo or alleviate any of it. He wants to redeem himself but, for a while, it seems like he'll just have to live with having become a terrible person, or just be killed by Denahi. By the time Denahi ambushes him in the climatic mountain fight, Kenai is nearly broken and defeated and it's only his need to protect Koda that keeps him fighting.
* MemeticMutation: "QUIT TELLING EVERYONE I'M DEAD!!"[[labelnote:Explanation]]Maple's mourning for her husband Edgar which is PlayedForLaughs is easily snowcloned for moments of some people insisting that a certain living thing/existing property is dead and the 'dead person' takes offense of the claim... only for the mourner to insist they can still their voice, but still dead. Format: "This year, I lost my dear [relation], [name]!" ([name], off screen or just out of normal sight of the speaker: "QUIT TELLING EVERYONE I'M DEAD!") "Sometimes I can still hear their voice!"[[/labelnote]]
* PopularWithFurries: It's an adventure about a man who [[ForcedTransformation turns into a bear]] and ultimately [[spoiler:decides to stay as one]]. Bear fans like it and people who like [[TransformationFiction characters who can turn into animals]] like it.
* QuestionableCasting: Admittedly, the actors that the filmmakers cast turned in superb performances, but given that this story is based on proto-Indigenous lore, it arguably would have made more sense -- and lent a shred of authenticity -- if they cast Indigenous (preferably Alaskan Native) actors for the human characters, in both the original film ''and'' the sequel.
* SignatureScene:
** The transformation sequence is the one scene in the entire film people can unanimously agree was good. The powerful song accompanies the breathtaking animation perfectly.
** Thanks to MemeticMutation, the "QUIT TELLING EVERYONE I'M DEAD!" scene has become this.
* SoOkayItsAverage: General consensus is, while definitely not bad by family film standards, the film's potential was somewhat hampered by a predictable plot, a sometimes {{anachronis|mStew}}tic tone that distracts from the setting, and generic writing.
* SpecialEffectFailure: During the scene where Kenai is coming clean to Koda, Koda's animation briefly doesn't match with the movement of the CG background, leading to the mostly still Koda awkwardly sliding across the rock he's supposed to be standing on.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Easily the most common critique of the film is that the first act is the high point of the film, due to its rather likeable characters and fairly unique tone and setting for a Disney film, with some even viewing it as a WinBackTheCrowd moment after the heavily stereotyped portrayal of Native cultures in ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}''. When Kenai is transformed, the film suddenly becomes a much more standard kid's animated flick with a very different tone and characters, and most of the stuff relating to Native culture is dropped, which many saw as a disappointment.
* VindicatedByHistory: For a long period of time, it was considered one of Disney's weakest films, with some even ranking it alongside ''WesternAnimation/HomeOnTheRange'' and ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'', with complaints about anachronistic dialogue, a predictable plot, and unlikeable characters. In later years, however, many consider it an underrated gem in spite of its flaws, with many praising the themes of revenge and seeing past differences, along with the movie's criticism of the mindset of love being unmasculine. The film's vivid visuals and stunning wilderness scenery help it stand out as well. It's telling that there was a resurgence of merchandise in TheNewTwenties such as shirts, collectible pins, and a 20th anniversary Disney Sketchbook Ornament.
* TheWoobie: Koda. A sweet and well-meaning bear cub who admittedly can talk a bit too much, but nonetheless has to journey across Alaska hunted by a deranged human for reasons he doesn't understand, with his main companion being a [[DefrostingIceQueen cynical, immature stranger]] whom he later discovers [[spoiler: killed his mother]]. Ouch.
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