The 44th film in the
Disney Animated Canon, and the second-to-last traditionally animated theatrical film produced by Disney for five years, until 2009's
The Princess And The Frog.
The story tells the tale of Kenai, a young man growing up somewhere in the Alaskan wilderness about 10,000 years before it was actually Alaska. He is busy preparing for his coming-of-age ceremony along with his two brothers, Sitka and Denahi, but when said ceremony actually occurs, he is... less than thrilled that his "spirit animal" turns out to be "The Bear of Love." In an attempt to prove his toughness, he attempts to hunt and kill a bear who has stolen some of the food from the ceremony. His brothers rush after him to try and bail him out — Denahi gets out, but Sitka dies saving them. Later, Kenai catches up to the bear and slays it. The spirits of the land are none too pleased with his acts, and, in an attempt to teach him a lesson,
turn him into a bear.
In order to change back, he needs to find
a certain mountain to converse with the spirits. But while on his way there, he picks up a hanger-on in the form of a small,
energetic, orphaned cub named Koda. Initially, Kenai is just as annoyed with this as he has been with everything
else that's happened to him, but he slowly grows to like the cub, and as the two bond, Kenai grows and begins to see the error his ways. Now, how to explain this to Denahi, who has mistaken him for the bear who is apparently responsible for the death of Kenai and is now going on a
Roaring Rampage Of Revenge to avenge him?
Was followed by a
Direct To Video sequel, appropriately enough called
Brother Bear 2.
This film provides examples of:
- Animal Talk: Lampshaded. "You know I don't speak Bear!"
- Animorphism
- Art Shift: The film begins with an aspect ratio much closer to Academy than to Cinemascope, the colors are more drab, and the subject matter presented more seriously. Once Kenai becomes a bear, the film goes to full-blown widescreen, grows more colorful, and takes on a more comedic tone.
- Better Than It Sounds
- Bilingual bonus: The foreign bear who starts ranting in another language is Croatian and he's basically saying "I almost froze while I was crossing a huge icy passage. It was something I only barely survived. BARELY!". Later he comments "These (two) are going to make me sick.".
- Canada Eh: The Moose brothers
- Children Raise You: Looking after Koda eventually brings out the best in Kenai.
- Did Not Do The Research: Bears do not work that way!
- According to the DVD, Disney did do research, but decided to go for fantastical portrayal of the bears for dramatic and thematic purposes.
- Everything's Worse With Bears: Inverted, of course. Here, the bears are the good guys, and even represent "love."
- Expy
- Flashback Cut: Happens to Kenai while Koda tells his story at the salmon run and he learns that the bear he killed was Koda's mother.
- Friend Or Idol Decision: Kenai can either change back into a human, or be with Koda. He decides to stick with Koda.
- Furry Fandom: Ohhh, did they ever latch onto this one, especially the therians.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Sitka's dislodging of the glacier to save Kenai and Denahi from the bear.
- Hilarious Outtakes: During the credits. The DVD included a second set of outtakes, as well.
- Interspecies Romance: In the sequel, Kenai, as a bear, falls for his childhood friend, Nita, who is human. At the end of the movie, she becomes a bear so they can be together.
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold
- Karmic Transformation
- Mama Bear: Very literally. Kenai messes with her. He wishes he'd lost. At first.
- Meaningful Echo: Not anything spoken, but actions. The scene of the bear advancing on Kenai, who raises his spear in self defense at the last second with a sharp turn, is repeated later with Denahi raising his spear to strike bear-Kenai.
- Meaningful Funeral: Sitka's.
- My New Gift Is Lame: Kenai wasn't too happy receiving The Bear of Love at first.
- Nakama: The various bears consider themselves all family. And, well, if you couldn't guess by the title...
- Nice Job Breaking It Hero: Koda's mother? The bear Kenai killed.
- No Cartoon Fish with a Carnivore Confusion chaser: This movie has a musical number about how bears aren’t the monsters they seem to be, which depicts them joyfully killing fish and playing with their corpses. And this was released the same year as Finding Nemo! On top of that there's a very nasty subversion of both tropes in the post-credits scene. Enjoy the Fridge Logic.
- Not So Different: "Those monsters are really scary. Especially with those sticks."
- Ominous Fog: The cloud cover used to prevent Denahi from seeing Kenai undergoing his metamorphosis. Given the Aesop being learned, it's probably intentional on the spirits' part.
- Ominous Inuit Language Chanting: "Transformation." Also, completely awesome.
- Our Souls Are Different: Apparently, your spirit takes the form of your totem animal. Awesome if your totem is an eagle. Maybe not so much if it's a salmon...
- Pinky Swear: Koda asks Kenai for this.
- Pop Star Composer: Like Disney's earlier Tarzan film, this one has songs by Phil Collins.
- Rite Of Passage
- Scenery Porn: If you do not want to visit northern California after watching this, you are a strange person.
- The Scream: When Kenai realizes he's become a bear.
- Also later at the salmon run, when his being surrounded by all the other bears finally sinks in.
- Tear Jerker
- Those Two Guys: Rut and Took, the moose brothers. (Voiced by Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas, who play the ultimate Those Two Guys Bob & Doug Mackenzie.)
- Tongue On The Flagpole: Koda relates a story to Kenai wherein some bear licked an iceberg and got his tongue stuck to it. It then floated away, so to save him "They had to, like, rip his tongue off, so now, he hath t'talk like dis alla time..."
- Well Intentioned Extremist: Denahi.
