Headscratchers / Brother Bear

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• The totems and their meanings. In the movie, it's established that the bear represents love, the eagle represents guidance (or leadership), and the wolf represents wisdom. What about totems that feature other animals? During Kenai's transformation, other animals other than eagles, bears, and wolves were seen, and I was wondering who could've gotten a salmon totem and what it would mean. I know another one or two were mentioned in a game on the Brother Bear DVD, but I forgot what they were (I think one was a beaver).
  • I don't see how anyone would know this unless Disney released some material explaining it.
  • In the video game on PC there are totems of other animals and Tug explains the meaning of them: the deer totem is the symbol of togetherness for friends young and old (as well for being smart, witty and always alert); the chipmunk totem is the symbol of curiosity and being always full of wonder, even though sometimes being cautious about new things. The mammoth totem symbolizes strenght, power, steadiness and liking to do things the same way every time and never being in hurry, as well as being happiest in the group and didn't liking being alone; the moose totem likes life to be simple and is always truthful and honest, as well as being a true friend with a great sense of humor; the otter totem likes to keep moving all the time and loves its family and is caring and considerate of the others; while the beaver totem symbolizes hard work and likes to keep things neat and tidy and doesn't have a time for foolishness due to always busily preparing for the future.
• Regarding Sitka, back in life he was pretty talkative just like his brothers. But after he dies and comes back as a spirit, why does he become The Voiceless all of a sudden?.
  • Maybe spirits speak a different language than living things. Or maybe they simply can't speak at all. Or maybe they can, but some choose not to. When Koda reunited briefly with his mother, we didn't hear her say anything, either.
  • I always had the impression that Sitka wanted his brothers to learn (partially) without his help, so that's the reason why he didn't said anything.
• Why is Kenai treated as being in the wrong for going after the bear? Yes, the plot was kickstarted by him neglecting to secure a basket of fish, but the film portrays animals as being as self-aware as the humans are, so Koda's mother still stole the fish for herself and her son, when she could've just as easily caught some. Sitka's death was an accident - it can't really be said that it was specifically Kenai's or the bear's fault, yet him killing the bear in retribution is supposedly unjust enough for the spirits to transform him into one as punishment? It's not like Kenai just tried to kill the bear for no reason, thereby needlessly endangering the lives of his brothers when they tried to go after him.
  • Sitka's death was an accident. Kenai didn't go after Koda's mother out of any concern that there was a bear in the area; he threw rocks at her because he was angry and wanted to look like a big man after his brother made fun of his girly totem. He attacked her again, and killed her, purely for revenge rather than accepting the horrible accident and his part in it.
  • Koda's mother didn't 'steal' the fish. Stealing is mostly a human concept. The bears clearly don't even grasp that humans are anything other than 'monsters'. They found tasty fish lying around. Nobody seemed to be interested in it. So they ate it. Kenai simply doesn't see it from their perspective.
  • That's kind of the point. Kenai saw bears as thieving monsters who kill people for no good reason. He's treated as wrong for this, and is promptly punished by being shown their points of view. Koda's mother ate the fish because she thought humans were monsters who hunt and kill bears for no reason...and that's better/more forgivable from what Kenai thought, for some reason?
  • Maybe Kenai being transformed wasn’t just so he could learn a lesson, but also so Koda could do the same. During their discussion about hunters, Koda tries to play the Humans Are the Real Monsters card just as much as Kenai insists the opposite, even though his mother angered them by stealing their fish, and Sitka doesn’t change Kenai back on the mountain until Koda shows up to protect him, proving that he’s seen the error in his way of thinking and come to terms with the idea that humans aren’t all bloodthirsty monsters, just like Kenai came to accept the same with regard to bears. The only thing is that this raises the question of what would've happened if Koda hadn't shown up, since nothing happened to ensure that he would be there, assuming his witnessing the moose brothers' argument was mere happenstance.
  • You seem to be missing the main point here, so let me lay it out in the most cohesive way I can here, forgive me if I mess anything up: From Koda's Mother's point of view, as best I can guess anyway, humans are some sort of animal/monster that act and exist in a way that are mostly beyond her, and our reasons for attacking them when they aren't directly threatening us (such as one stealing food, or simply being a source of concern from being coincidentally too close to us, or just killing it for its fur, etc.) and why we would do something like not eat fish we'd caught and just leave it would likely not occur to her, or, if she did think about it, nature is a more "finders keepers" thing, you eat what you find/catch, and usually animals will just leave each other alone, and find other food. Not always, but fighting for every scrap of food you lose would be a bad idea. What was wrong with what Kenai did was that, instead of just owning up to his mistakes with the basket of fish and leaving it alone (unlike the bears, a tribe of humans can much more easily find food, whereas bears in the wilderness have to take what they can get, even if they might be able to catch more. Koda and his mom need to eat as much as they can to keep up their strength, whereas we humans keep stores of food for the most part, and can work together to get more), he chose to chase down and provoke a dangerous animal, without any plan or backup, which led to his brothers having to save him, and Sitka dying in the process, and then blamed the bear on something that was an accident at best, and the outcome of a set of circumstances that he was as much to blame for, as he escalated things that he didn't need to. He then learns nothing from that, and actively wants to and does kill the bear because he blamed it for his brother's death, without any concern for the fact that he can just LET IT GO, or that she might say...have had a cub (bears are just monsters after all, so who cares)? To put it in a different perspective, imagine you have a solid amount of money, and you get a new addition to it, but you don't properly keep it safe, and no one can tell that there would be any consequences for stealing it. Someone steals it to feed themselves and their family. Is it right of you to chase them down, get into a fight with them, and if you lose a family member due to that fight (without the thief being responsible mind you) and you refuse to admit your mistakes and part in the situation, and instead think "they're just a thieving monster" and hunt them down again and kill them? The problem was not just Kenai's Fantastic Racism towards bears, it was that he didn't care about killing one because he considered his own pride and anger more valid than anything else. Kenai had to learn that not only was he wrong about bears, he had to learn that what he did had consequences for others, and that you need to move on from your grief, not hurt others because of it, nor persecute others for something they can't see as wrong. Essentially, bears are likely oblivious to human concerns, and like most animals, are no threat if we just stay apart. Kenai wouldn't let it go, and kept making more problems, but wouldn't accept that and instead outright murdered another being because of it, when he had no real reason beyond his own grief and rage. He killed out of want, rather than a need for food or fur or what else, and because of everything I just laid out, and the Great Spirits needed Kenai to learn the true depth of what he did, that just as he saw the bears as monsters, they saw him as one...but the bears only do what they do because they need to and don't see or often have any other options, whereas he had other choices, and could've just left well enough alone. I would wager Koda learning better was just a bonus...though the idea that the Great Spirits at least were pleased with Kenai helping the cub he orphaned wouldn't be hard for me to see...
  • I don't think I'm missing anything. You're basically trying to argue that Kenai was more culpable than Koda's mom, apparently because she's a "wild animal" and doesn't know any better, but in this film, animals are just as sapient as humans, and we're never told that there was a fish shortage or something to justify her stealing the fish. Why is it okay for bears to do wrong against humans due to not understanding them, but not okay for humans to retaliate for the same reason? You can't have it both ways.
  • No, that's not what I'm saying, and you clearly are not getting this even though it has been said twice now, and I explicitly laid this out. Kenai had a CHOICE not to do what he did, and it was for extremely selfish reasons when he did do it (revenge and pride) rather than out of need or just ignorance. Kenai was the aggressor in this whole thing, and would not admit that until it smacked him in the face. Koda's mother took the food out of simple ignorance or opportunity, which may be wrong, but it does not warrant being attacked and killed, especially when that endangers her cub. If Kenai had made different choices, all that would've happened is a single loss of fish due to Koda's mother taking an opportunity for food, and then she and Koda would've likely moved on and it would be over. Also, I am not saying it is "okay" I am saying one action is not equal to the other. Kenai did a much more egregious thing than Koda's mother did, which made him the guilty party in all this. I don't understand how you aren't getting this, since I made it abundantly clear that there were a lot of things wrong with Kenai's actions, and all you've said about Koda's mother is just "she may have thought the same as Kenai about humans, so why is just Kenai wrong?". Kenai WAS NOT punished for just his attitude, it was his actions and WHY he did them, and his attitude toward bears was only part of it. If it was just about not realizing bears are more than monsters, than he wouldn't have had to confess to Koda, or even travel with him in the first place (I mean that from a narrative perspective, not the Spirits literally making that happen). He could've traveled with any bear, learned his lesson, mourned what he'd done, and it would've been over. I don't know what else to say really...
• How the heck did the bear/Koda's mom manage to survive that long fall from a glacier and into the water below and not Sitka? She is much heavier! After all, the heavier they are, the harder they fall.
  • Sitka was at the EDGE of the glacier. He was therefore likely crushed by a large chunk of ice. Koda’s mom, being a bear, was a great swimmer and also wasn’t as close to the edge of the glacier as Sitka was.
• Why are mammoths seemingly unable to speak like the other animals? Do they use infrasound communication like their modern relatives, perhaps?
  • Maybe they can talk and we just didn't hear them talking? Or maybe 'modern' animals (the bears, the moose, the rams) speak a different language than the 'prehistoric' animals?
  • In the DVD outtakes, one of the mammoths does talk. It accidentally steps on a mouse, and says "Sorry, is he OK?"
• I get the fact that Sitka wanted to teach Kenai a lesson, but what about Denahi? What is he supposed to be learning from this experience? He spends the whole movie chasing after Kenai for revenge and only stops when he realises Kenai was never really dead. He then says at the end of the movie that Kenai taught him how powerful love is, but isn’t that the exact same lesson Kenai himself was supposed to learn anyway? And he learned it by walking a mile in a bear’s shoes. Denahi’s totem is wisdom, but the movie doesn’t really show how he gains any wisdom, aside from just learning Kenai’s story and in that case you could probably skip the whole revenge plot?
  • One of Denahi's character flaws throughout the film is that he doesn't think things through. He mocks Kenai for his totem instead of stopping and thinking about what it could mean for him, and after he thinks Kenai has been killed, he lets himself be consumed by hatred and revenge instead of using any of the rational thinking he tried to display in the wake of Sitka's death. He could've recognized the deaths of his brothers as a tragic result of unnecessary confrontation between man and nature, and used the wisdom his totem represents to pass that story onto his people; instead he chose to foolishly risk life and limb to try and kill what turned out to be his own brother.
• If the animals can all talk, why weren't those salmon screaming in terror?
  • They get used to it? Alternatively, they're aware that predation is part of natural world. But still, that's kinda dark.
• How did Tanana know that Kenai turned into a bear? And why didn't she tell Denahi?
  • Sitka contacted her in sleep.
• Why didn't Sitka intervene sooner when Denahi tried to kill Kenai? Or why didn't he at least wait until Denahi found Kenai before turning him into a bear? Denahi would've then known that Kenai was being punished by the spirits and not started his quest for vengeance.
• Where is Koda's father or Kenai's parents? They never appeared among the spirits. Koda never even mentioned his dad.
  • Ignoring how bear families work in real life, Koda's father probably died before his mate give birth to Koda. Not so sure about Kenai's parents. Plus, they weren't relevant to the plot.
• Koda's mother had black beady eyes, but when she reunited with Koda at the end of the movie, she had cartoony eyes the other bears had while Kenai was a bear, is this a continuity error?

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