Brother Bear: Lying Reviews and The Lying Liars who Write Them

[Peter Pirate]

Just back from Brother Bear and I think...Wow! This was a very solid movie quite unlike usual Disney fare and a lot different than Atlantis, Treasure Planet & Lilo & Stitch.

Much criticisim has been placed on the simitlarities between BB & LK and I have to say that other than one or two very minor details I didn't see it. Sure there was a stampede scene, but it was necessary in a formulative way and yes Koda sings into a touching scene ala Simba and the heavens and what they hold do come into play but really the similarities are slight.

The music of Phil Collins has been much debated as well and personally I think it blended beautifully and helped to move the story along (as it should).

All four in our family laughed out loud many, many times at the clever one liners (more than most Disney movies) and was surprised at the tears we all shed (sensitive to family & friendship issues, I guess).

Visually this movie was stunning! The Florida group gets another big "way to go"!! I hope this goes over big and we won't be seeing the end to the much, warmer and visually appealing 2D drawing.

The theatre was mostly full with LOTS of young children who sang along with the main song and repeated the "Ko-Da" line with Koda. The theatre filled with resounding applause at the conclusion.

Brother Bear, if judged on its merits and not seen through any anti-disney bias has to be reviewed glowingly, IMO...

Note: The thread title is intended to be satirical.

 

[mmapwright]

We had a great time at this movie today. I couldd not believe it when the theater in unison said "Ko-Da." The moose were tops. I especially liked when the Rick Moranis moose wanted the wheat, hops, and malted barley combination. Did anyone stay till the VERY end of the credits?

 

[year2late]

We were impressed by the movie as well. Yes, it reminded me a little of Lion King, but so what.

The entire audience was captivated...even the younger members of the audience that were obviously frightened at some of the scarier parts remained to enjoy the remainder of the movie.

Thumbs up!!!

 

[wdwguide]

*Pet Peeve Alert*

Why do people keep calling it "2D" (vs. "3D") animation? Walt would be spinning in his grave after all that work he did on the multiplane camera to give traditional animation a feeling a depth. It maybe computerized now, but they still use the same principle. CGI animation may allow some more fluid camera moves, but when it comes down it it's doesn't have any more or less dimensions than any other movie that you don't wear polarized glasses to see. Now Mickey's PhilharMagic or It's Tough to be a Bug, that's 3D animation.

*Now resuming regular programming*

I am glad to hear so many people here like the movie, and hope it does very well. But lots of people here liked Emperor's New Groove and Treasure Planet as well, and those movies utterly failed at the box office (and failed to impress me). I am not questioning your judgment, I just do not think that the opinions expressed on these boards are representative of the general public. Neither are mine - Tron, Atlantis and the Black Cauldron rank among my favorite Disney films ever.

 

[Peter Pirate]

guide, from now on I shall attempt to be more accurate by referring to the old form animation as HDA (hand drawn animation)...

I admit that this is only my take and although I was correct on recent successes like L&S & POC, I utterly missed the allure of Shrek and I thought (still think) Treasure Planet was pretty darn good (certainly a few notches beter than Atlantis although the box office doesn't reflect that). But I believe there is a lot of bias in the critical arena against Disney and I think this may be reflected in the reviews of Brother Bear. If I'm wrong and America hates it and it's a box office bomb, I'll admit it...Heck, I'm still admitting to missing Shrek by about 100 light years!

mmapwright, I'm so glad to hear someone else got a kick out the McKenzie Brothers "going out for a beer", eh? That was killer!

As year2late mentioned, I don't think there is a thing wrong of being vaugly reminiscent of another movie but the reporting of blatent LK rip-offs are just plain wrong.

 

[wdwguide]

I misjudged the appeal of Shrek as well... I still don't understand it...

In any case, I am not planning on seeing BB in the theater, but I may just have to look into getting the DVD if these positive opinions keep coming in and the numbers at the box office reflect that it has an appeal that most of the early reviewers missed. I like CGI animation for the most part, but I feel that it doesn't hold up very well in the long term. I am not sure if BB is made of the material that will be remembered 50 years from now, but any HDA success now is crucial to prevent the traditional style from going the way of the dodo, at least in the medium term.

 

[Planogirl]

There's nothing wrong with a bit of formula when it comes to these movies. After all why change what works?

I don't see the anti-Disney bias myself. Weren't the critics quite kind to Lilo & Stitch? I agree with wdwguide about the bias here too. Of course, we're biased, at least I am and I'll continue to defend Pocahantas forever.

 

[HB2K]

Pirate-

I agree that the similarities were few and far between...but isn't Disney the one who tried to push this (the moose in the commercial saying this is just like Lion King...just with different characters?)

I liked, not loved, the movie. I think it was done well and we'll have to see if it will have legs going into competition (Looney Toons, Haunted Mansion, etc). We'll see.

 

[DancingBear]

HB2K--That moose thing, that was a JOKE.

Shrek---now that's a derivative movie! Just watched it for the 100th time this week with my 3yo son (okay, that's a bit of exaggeration, but he sure wants to watch the dragon in the castle scene over and over and over...) and they stole bits from all sorts of fairy tales, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty. Sheez, couldn't these guys come up with something original?

Okay, that preceding paragraph is a joke, too.

 

[Peter Pirate]

BB may not be the next LK but I'm concerned that too many people (around here and critics) expect every effort to hit this level. Sure, it's nice to strive but there is nothing wrong with a good, solid movie hitting its mark either, is there?

Also, there is that 'striving point' attitude that Disney should always somehow strive to give us something new and unpredictable...Fine sentiment but Treasure Planet was all of those things but we (the masses/fans on the whole) didn't like the effort. Damned if they do, damned if they don't?

 

[WDWHound]

Originally posted by Peter Pirate
BB may not be the next LK but I'm concerned that too many people (around here and critics) expect every effort to hit this level. Sure, it's nice to strive but there is nothing wrong with a good, solid movie hitting its mark either, is there?

Also, there is that 'striving point' attitude that Disney should always somehow strive to give us something new and unpredictable...Fine sentiment but Treasure Planet was all of those things but we (the masses/fans on the whole) didn't like the effort. Damned if they do, damned if they don't?

But Treasure Planet was not all those things in my mind. In fact, it suffered from many of the problems Brother bear does (though Brother Bear is a better movie). Both movies are really beautiful, both movies had predictacle plots (of course, Teasure Planet's plot was already well known, so that not really their fault) and both movies had characters I didn't care about most of the time. Its hard to describe, but both movies seemed to be lacking heart. Disney has proved that they can still successful strive for quality. Lilo and Stich would be the most recent example. They may have trying for that with Brother Bear, but I feel they missed the mark.

As I said in my review that I posted in a seprate thread, Brother Bear is an OK movie, but I was hoping for more from it. However I will say that it is a step forwards from Atlantis or Treasure Planet.

 

[Evil Princess]

Originally posted by wdwguide
*Pet Peeve Alert*

Why do people keep calling it "2D" (vs. "3D") animation? Walt would be spinning in his grave after all that work he did on the multiplane camera to give traditional animation a feeling a depth. It maybe computerized now, but they still use the same principle. CGI animation may allow some more fluid camera moves, but when it comes down it it's doesn't have any more or less dimensions than any other movie that you don't wear polarized glasses to see. Now Mickey's PhilharMagic or It's Tough to be a Bug, that's 3D animation.

You are correct, 3D animation would be something like It's Tough to be a Bug. And I agree with you, "3D" animation like Toy Story should not be called that, it is 2D animation that is computer generated and very realistic.

However, I don't think that Walt would be spinning in his grave after perfecting the multiplane camera and calling it 2D. Multiplane or not, it just gives a FEELING of depth, and is therefore still two dimensions

Sorry, I'm an art major who just had all this drilled into my head

 

[AllisonG]

I have to say that I loved BB. We saw it Saturday afternoon and everyone in my party fell in love.
Now I heard all of the comments before I went and I wasn't expecting too much. I assumed it would be too much like LK and I wasn't too excited.
But being a native American fan and a wilderness lover I just fell head over heels in love with this movie.
The characters were great, the soundtrack was outstanding and the animation was unbelieveable.
Can you tell I like it a little bit?

and Yes, we stayed until the very end of the credits and it was all so cute. We can't wait to go and see it again!

 

[Prince Eric1]

I think that the problem is that Disney films are now being held to a higher standard than those of other companies. That being said, I hope BB is good because we are taking a group of 6 year olds there Saturday for a birthday party and the reviews have been so mixed.

 

[Planogirl]

Disney films were at a higher standard than other studios, at least I think so. Beauty & the Beast, the Lion King and some of the others really set the later standard and now Disney seems to be having trouble meeting their own standard. Again like the parks, other studios are coming closer too.

JMHO.

 

[Peter Pirate]

Just because Disney movies have/are/will be/could be made to higher standards than the rest doesn't mean they should be judged from a different vantage point, IMO. I would think it practically impossible to expect each offering to be greater than the next. It is great to strive for this but how often will/can the truly GREAT offering actually come along?

 

[Buzz2001]

I suggest you see it in the theater. It was a great movie. I went in expecting an average movie after reading all the expect reviews here but came out saying it was an awesome movie. My 10 yr old DD and her friend where laughing through the whole thing. They loved it. Make sure to watch the credits too.

 

[YoHo]

As I see it, the biggst issue isn't whether a Movie is as good as another one per se, it's how much it costs and traditionally animated films are stupid expensive (you can blame whomever you find fashonable for the large bump in amimator Salaries)

Sure, Atlantis and TP aren't the creme de la Creme, but movies like Lilo should be considered successes and would be were it not for their crippling price.

 

[Peter Pirate]

My Scurvy friend! How nice to have you back.

Very salient points. I did not know that TDA was so much more costly than CGI. Please shed more light, if you please. Also, a question I posed earlier (maybe elsewhere) can CGI be done to resemble handrawn nuances?

 

[DancingBear]

Pirate, see the Wall Street Journal article from 10/23 (not available on-line w/o subscription, unfortunately) for lots of insight into how Disney is working on just those issues.