Brother Bear Rating Steadily Improving

[All Aboard]

Now up to 16 Fresh, 24 Rotten - 40%. Of the last 12 reviews, 8 have been positive, 4 negative. Next week, the major dailies will review and another 100 or so reviews will roll in.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Let's hope the (sometimes typical) rush to judgement comes back to bite a few people on the a@@. (Note - I hope that because I want to see Disney succeed........not because I like to see people get bitten on the a@@. Well, ok........maybe a few )

I have no idea what to make of Bear. From what little I have seen it does seem to have more similarities to animation sequences and techniques used in the Lion King than I'd like, but if the story is good and original I can get past that. I'll let you know what I think after I've seen it.

Anyone know if a slow Rotten Tomatoes start is unusual for films that ultimately do well, or is it a common occurance?

 

[KNWVIKING]

Don't all animated feel good stories have similarities ? How different can a "good vs evil" , root for the underdog , good guy gets the girl in the end, type of movie be. They all need cute,cuddly charactors, at least one meaningful Phil Collins song, the dopey but loveable sidekick, the wise old someone/thing and at least one tragidy. The movies are the same, the only difference are the meat products they dress up as.

 

[HB2K]

Not all stories revolve around good vs. evil, and there are definitly ways to make movies unique.

Example A would be Toy Story. There isn't really any good vs. evil (unless you call Sid evil)...just a story about Woody coming to grips with Andy growing up and his place in the world.

It can be done.

As to Brother Bear...we're going to see it tomorrow. I hope it does well because Disney needs to have a 2D animated flick really pop sooner or later...but I'm afraid that this isn't going to be it*. I just haven't personally heard the buzz about this film compared to the last "success" of Lilo & Stich. But I hope I'm wrong...

* Please note this is just my opinion...not a statement of fact.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Don't all animated feel good stories have similarities ?

Vike - I agree that there may be similarities in theme, but that can be done with diffeent stories. However, it isn't similarity of theme or story I was referring to with the Lion King comment. Just seems that the stampede (reminiscent of the LK stampede), the transformation (?) or wahtever other part of Bear that has whoever looking to the sky and seeing a bear in the clouds/background/whatever (I can almost hear Mufasa saying..."Remember who you are............you are more than what you have become..................". Those are the similarities I was referring to. Again, I've just seen previews and snippets, so I don't know exactly how widespread it is.

 

[raidermatt]

Has anyone seen the trailer on TV where the two moose have the following conversation? (I'm doing this from memory, so it may not be exact)

Moose 1: Its (Brother Bear) like the Lion King.
Moose 2: Yeah, except its got different characters, different songs, and a completely different story!

Interesting...

I'm sure Disney wouldn't mind if Lion King and Brother Bear are mentioned together frequently, but on the other hand, it can't be seen as just a remake with different animals.

I really am hoping its a winner.

 

[lenshanem]

From what i've seen I'm not impressed, but we got the sing along DVD for my littel ones and they seemed to be very interested! Regardless, we'll go see any movie that appears to be kid friendly. They are so far and few between. If they enjoy then it is a winner to me even if I'm yawning...

On a side note, that sing along DVD has the WORST WORST WORST animation I've ever seen! The two elks narrate the DVD and never once do they show their faces, only their backs while walking. And the walking!!! Looks liek a ten year old animated it!
My hubby and I got a laugh out of it at least. I can't even believ they put that out looking like that!

 

[crystalb]

We saw BB this afternoon. Like Nemo, the place was kid packed. And from what we saw and heard, BB was doing VERY well at the theatres here.
The animation is beautiful. It really makes you appreciate animation as an art form.
Sure CGI is good -- but not as special.
The storyline is good. It didn't seem slapped together. A few slow spots. And a few segments kids wouldn't appreciate, but adults do. And visa versa.
I was not expecting a lot, and only went because we had free tickets. But I would say this is a movie well worth the $.
The audience was even clapping at the end. And the people leaving were very happy and telling other patrons coming from other movies to make sure to see BB.
I predict good news from BB's $. Not on a Lion King level. But still good.
I would not mind seeing it again and be a paying customer.

 

[DancingBear]

DW took DS(3) and DS's grandfather yesterday, and gives BB a big thumbs up. She said the colors were magnificent, particularly sunset and the aurora borealis, the soundtrack worked with the movie (although she's not a Phil Collins fan), and the story was inspiring. DS sat through most all of it, except he took to wandering the aisle in one short stretch, but was enraptured by the climax.

 

[DisneyKidds]

The Rotten Tomatoes rating seems to have stalled at 39% positive at this point. I'm still not quite sure what that means as far as this picture is concerned. I did find this interesting.................the top 4 box office performers this week are all "Rotten". Too early to tell if it that is due to a stupid public that doesn't know quality.............or reviewers who might have a different definition of quality than the rest of the world. We'll have to wait to see if any of these films have legs before we can decifer that one.

Let the debate on what will constitute BB legs begin..................... .

 

[KNWVIKING]

I'm still waiting for some to finally admit PoC had legs

 

[All Aboard]

Analyzing the numbers on this are a little tough right now, with the Saturday opening. Also, didn't the marketing for this film say "opens November 7th???" even though it went fairly wide on the 1st??

$11m on Sat and $8m on Sunday is not bad if you figure it would have gotten another $8 to $10 if there was a third day. So, give it an adjusted $27m opening.

Legs may indeed be a problem with this film. Is it just me, or has Disney already scaled back promo?

If you use the adjusted $27m (next weekend will tell a lot) and assume a fairly strong leg factor of 4.25x opening, the movie reaches $115m. If so, that's way over my initial guess of $85m (based on a weaker opening.)

 

[All Aboard]

Vike, PoC had great legs. 6.5x on a $46m opening - that's pretty darn good. Best of the $275m+ blockbusters in the past 3-4 years (potter, rings, spidey, matrix, etc.)

 

[Planogirl]

Originally posted by DisneyKidds
The Rotten Tomatoes rating seems to have stalled at 39% positive at this point. I'm still not quite sure what that means as far as this picture is concerned. I did find this interesting.................the top 4 box office performers this week are all "Rotten". Too early to tell if it that is due to a stupid public that doesn't know quality.............or reviewers who might have a different definition of quality than the rest of the world. We'll have to wait to see if any of these films have legs before we can decifer that one.

Let the debate on what will constitute BB legs begin..................... .

Keep in mind Mr Kidds that reviewers virtually ALWAYS dislike horror movies. It doesn't matter if they're well-made or not, they automatically get a negative mark for being of that genre.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Keep in mind Mr Kidds that reviewers virtually ALWAYS dislike horror movies.

PG - At first I thought I agreed with you on this..............kinda makes sense. But then.......................

Using the Rotten Tomatoes 'Tomatoe Picker' to search for horror flicks shows that during the 90's thru today there are quite a few "fresh" horror flicks, so I think quality does matter for the genre when it comes to ratings. As such, I might just have to disagree with you when it comes to your statement relative to the Rotten Tomatoes ratings we are discussing.

 

[HB2K]

I'm still waiting for some to finally admit PoC had legs

I'm guessing this was directed at me so I'll bite.

I believe I told people that declaring a movie to have legs after one weekend was premature. As it turns out the movie did indeed have legs.

 

[Planogirl]

Originally posted by DisneyKidds
PG - At first I thought I agreed with you on this..............kinda makes sense. But then.......................

Using the Rotten Tomatoes 'Tomatoe Picker' to search for horror flicks shows that during the 90's thru today there are quite a few "fresh" horror flicks, so I think quality does matter for the genre when it comes to ratings. As such, I might just have to disagree with you when it comes to your statement relative to the Rotten Tomatoes ratings we are discussing.

I'm glad that you pointed this out. Even among movie buffs, critics are presumed to generally dislike horror movies but I guess that there are more exceptions than many realize. From just scanning over the 90's list there do seem to be more "rottens" (and several N/A ) than "fresh" reviews but it's not as slanted as I would have expected. For example "A" has 37 movie titles listed if I request only those that got the "fresh" reviews while the same letter has 121 results if I ask for 0% or higher. I wish that there was a way to request only totals but I don't see it if there is.

Oh well, this is all irrelevant.

 

[KNWVIKING]

Actually HB2K it wasn't intended for anybody in particular. Just a broad statement meant as a joke.