Every preview I’ve seen, in the theatre and on television, for Disney’s new animated film, Brother Bear, leaves me absolutely unmoved by its mediocrity.
My impression of the film: take a trite story that’s been done before and probably better (try T.H. White’s The Book of Merlyn, for example), throw in some Phil Collins songs (from Tarzan to this… huh?), and top off with some sidekicks, this time yet another blatant ripoff of SCTV’s “Great White North” bit… and there you have it.
Looks like we’re headed back to the days of Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame – the Disney formula at its worst.
I know, I know… I shouldn’t judge a whole film by its trailer. And yet, what else is there, until I actually spend the time, effort, and money to see the film? They don’t leave us much choice, and I can’t say that the trailer makes me want to rush to the theatre for this one.
It does indeed look lame; however the sidekicks should be good. It’s Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas doing the voices so it’s the real McKenzie bros and not imposters :).
The end of the trailer was good:
“If you only see one movie this year…”
“Hey, they’re already at that movie!”
On the one hand, Brother Bear looks exceptionally lame. A half-assed remix of Pocahonas and The Emperor’s New Groove, but without the funny.
On the other hand, it’s from the same animation team that did Mulan and Lilo & Stitch, IMO two of the better Disney animated movies in the last few years (and they have been few and far between).
Eh, I’ll probably go see it, just because it’s rare for my family to get a movie that the entire family can go see. But it’s rather depressing to note that the end (for now) of hand-drawn animation from Disney might be this uninspiring film.
Good thing Disney’s still got Pixar pumpin’ out the hits for 'em, at least.
Yeah, that looks awful. And it’s not a good sign that the moose are more prominent in the advertising campaign than any of the main characters. And thank God, because that kid sidekick was particularly nauseating. Glad that’s not the face that’s getting plastered all over America’s theater lobbies.
I might do the same, but my kids aren’t even remotely interested in it, from what I can tell. We saw trailers for Return of the King and Brother Bear at the same movie recently, and they’re far more interested in ROTK. Brother Bear didn’t even merit a mention.
Care to elaborate on this? Is Brother Bear to be Disney’s last hand-animated film?
I don’t think my almost-four-year-old has seen the trailer for it, but he likes cartoons and he likes bears, so maybe he’ll be interested. Only problem is that he dislikes dark theaters…
That’s the scuttlebutt I heard – after Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet tanked, Disney decided to jump on the computer-animated bandwagon (read: Pixar), shifted everything to CGI, and told their animators to either get trained on the computers or get booted. Brother Bear got “spared” only because it was already far enough along that there wasn’t a point in scuttling it.
Interesting info… hopefully Disney is aware of the fact that Pixar movies are successful because of great animation AND great stories. I was actually fine with Disney’s “old” animation style, it was their stories that needed work.
Seems like they’re sort of missing the point. Oh well.
Second to last. Home on the Range, due next spring, is the last hand-drawn film Disney has in production. Of course, if either of the two are huge hits, Dreamwork has a big hit with a hand-drawn feature, or a few more CG films bombs a la Final Fantasy, the pendulum could always swing back.
Actually, as I understand it, there’s a sequence of outtakes during the end credits, a la Toy Story and Bug’s Life, wherein the animated characters crack up, acknowledge the camera, break the “reality” of the scene, and so on. Just seems spectacularly wrong-headed. Anyway, that moment is probably from those clips.
That list is three months out of date, and doesn’t reflect current events, IIRC. I know that Chicken Little is being retooled as a computer-animated movie, for instance.
My press screening for Brother Bear is on Monday. I’ll let you know (and I fear the answer is yes).
I doubt Disney will completely abandon hand-drawn, but it is going to almost completely shift to the feature-films coming out of the TV animation division (like Return to Neverland and Recess).
But it happened before. There was a huge dry spell before The Little Mermaid revived the genre.
I remember sitting there the first time I saw the preview, feeling my eyes rolling as much as they could. And then that Phil Collins song hit…I thought I was going to die. AND they had the obnoxious kid sidekick!
Are these two beloved by Canadians for their SCTV McKenzie Brothers sketches, or reviled for portraying working class Canadians as easily distracted, hockey obsessed, weepily patriotic, beer guzzling caricatures that bring shame on all Canadians?
Is there any truth to the rumor that Disney needed permission from the Berenstains to use the phrase “Brother Bear?” At one point, they were planning to just call the film “Bears,” then reverted back to Brother Bear. The trademarks registered now are for “Disney’s Brother Bear,” which seems to differentiate it from the trademark of Berenstains, Inc. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true.
[sub]The Berenstains, of course, have been writing books for four decades featuring a family of bears-the “Berenstain Bears”-one of which is named Brother Bear.[/sub]
Yeah, Brother Bear does look kinda lame from the trailer alone.
I remember thinking The Lion King looked exceptionally dippy from its trailer, but I ended up liking it quite a bit. Disney has a peculiar affinity for releasing trailers that don’t always do its movies justice. I’m thinking I may be surprised as I’ve been before.
