Brother Bear Reviews
Brother Bear is a very mild animated entry from Disney with a distinctly recycled feel.
Time Out
Top CriticAnother watchable, old-fashioned, uninspired Disney animation.
It feels like a project that got quietly pushed through the pipeline while the studio gears up for bigger and better things.
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| Original Score: C+
Give one chef eggs, cream, and sugar, and he'll produce creme brulee. In another kitchen, you'll get plain old vanilla pudding. What we have in Brother Bear, for all the potentially tasty ingredients, is pudding.
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| Original Score: 2/4
It's hard to avoid concluding that Brother Bear was pitched as Pocahontas meets The Lion King since it recycles the themes of both, not to mention a character or two.
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| Original Score: 2/4
The hand-drawn animation is alternately static and inconsistent, and the story may be too downbeat for younger kids, who are most assuredly the target audience.
| Original Score: 3/5
It's not that the movie is bad. It's just innocuous.
The good news is that this is mostly good old-fashioned hand-drawn Disney animation. The bad news is that it relies too much on old-fashioned formula, hackneyed plot and cookie-cutter characters.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
There's a nagging sameness here that dwarfs the film's noble intentions and rather striking cinematics.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
The film can be recommended to parents of headstrong children who are up for a wild, frequently entertaining, but not always coherent ride. Everyone else might want to download the Disney screensaver.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
The name may be Disney, but the result falls short of a classic.
| Original Score: C+
Disney has turned the call of the wild into the stultifying murmur of group therapy.
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| Original Score: 1.5/4
While the result may seem a departure for Disney, it's a stirring new direction in storytelling well suited for a new and more emotionally complex world.
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| Original Score: B+
Children and their parents are likely to relate on completely different levels, the adults connecting with the transfer of souls from man to beast, while the kids are excited by the adventure stuff.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Messages about appreciating the world around you and a reworking of The Lion King circle-of-life riff are likely to be warmly accepted.
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| Original Score: 2.5/4
A generally upbeat and engaging tale of friendship and understanding.
| Original Score: 3/4
There's something vanilla about the whole enterprise.
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| Original Score: 2/4
Brother Bear does have a satisfying ending and it's nice to see a G-rated film without bathroom humor, but there is too much formula and not enough reason to pay attention here.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
A pleasant experience that is more appropriate for families than for adults unaccompanied by young offspring.
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| Original Score: 3/4
... an old-fashioned animated adventure with all the time-honored Disney story elements ...
A sweet celebration of brotherhood in its many forms.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Though Brother Bear is as beautiful as any of Disney's hand-drawn features, the gang-written script is deadly flat.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
An uninspired recycling of themes that were far more gripping in The Lion King and countless other earlier Mouse House classics.
| Original Score: 1.5/4
If Brother Bear aspires to be The Lion King Plus, that plus is the infusion of ethnographic kitsch recycled from earlier Disney hits like Mulan and Pocahontas that adds moral tone, but no extra entertainment value.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
A play- it-safe pastiche of familiar Disney tropes, from the senseless killing of a poor animal to the headstrong young adventurer to the ragtag comic relief to ... well, you can fill in the rest.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
The film blatantly strip-mines The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and anything else its makers can get their paws on.
Full Review
| Original Score: C
A playful movie that celebrates nature and the spirit world with striking imagery and a smooth blend of drama and comedy.
Tykes may giggle at the Rick Moranis/Dave Thomas-voiced moose, but there's little for adults.
