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Brother
Bear
2-Disc Special
Edition
(Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
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| DVD Release Date:
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March 30, 2004
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| Length:
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85 mins.
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| Rated:
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G
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| Format:
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Full Screen/Widescreen (Opens at 1.85:1 then transitions into 2.35:1)
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| Audio:
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English DTS 5.1 Digital Surround Sound (Widescren only) English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (Full Screen only)
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| Subtitles:
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Closed Captioned
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| Extras:
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Rutt & Tuke's Commentary, Fully Animated Outtakes, Deleted Scenes, Games, All-New "Fishing Song" by Phil Collins, Paths of Discovery: The Making of Brother Bear Featurette, "Look Through My Eyes" Music Video featuring Phil Collins, and much more.
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In Brother Bear, we get the story of three brothers, Sitka, Denahi and Kenai. When Sitka is killed by a bear, Kenai goes hunting for the bear, feeling responsible for his brother's death. But, after coming face-to-face with the bear, he is magically transformed into the bear. The lesson here - he must walk in another's footsteps until he learns his lesson. Trouble is, hot on his footsteps is his brother Denahi, who thinks the bear has also killed Kenai, and he's out for some revenge of his own.
The movie is okay. From what I understand, a lot of people didn't go to see this one because it was too old for the kids. A movie like Finding Nemo - kids will flock to it because their parents bring them - but this movie, I suspect, parents stayed away from because it just wasn't geared towards the younger audiences. It wasn't really a bad movie - it was just geared towards the wrong audience. Maybe it will find it's voice on the newly released DVD.
Available in a 2-Disc Special Edition, we get the movie in both full screen (disc 1) and widescreen (disc 2). The widescreen version is actually presented in two different aspect ratios. The first 24 minutes, before Kenai becomes the bear is available in 1.78:1 and after that, we get a 2.35:1 presentation. The widescreen disc is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 (English and French) and DTS 5.1 (English only). For the full screen disc, you don't get the DTS track, but you do have a Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 option.
Of course, with any Disney DVD, you get a lot of bonus features. On disc one, you get some outtakes from the movie. Some of these are pretty funny, and some of them are just juvenile. Enough with the fart jokes. For the most part though, they are pretty entertaining.
The next feature is a great commentary featuring Bob and Doug McKenzie aka Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas aka Rutt and Tuke from the movie. You have the option of watching the movie with or without visuals. The visuals come in the form of something Disney seems to be working on (ala Lion King 1 1/2) where the participants in the commentary appear to be watching the movie MST3K-style. There really aren't a lot of visuals, but it's enough to make it worthwhile. Without the visuals, you of course just get the commentary. The commentary is pretty funny. I don't really know who it's geared towards, because I can't see too many kids sitting through a running commentary, but for fans of these two, this is definitely worth the listen.
Next up on the disc is a music video for "Look Through My Eyes" by Disney's latest go-to guy, Phil Collins (replacing Elton John), some games and a sing along song for "On My Way". Finally, on disc one, you get three featurettes. The first, titled "Bear Legends" is a look at some Native American Tales. It's pretty interesting and may have some educational value for the kids. The next two featurettes deal with some behind-the-scenes stuff. The first, "Making Noise: The Art of Foley" looks at sound effects from the movie and the second, "Art Review" looks at concept art and the design and evolution of the characters.
On disc two you'll find some more special features. First, there's a "making of" featurette. Running at 45-minutes, this feature is pretty extensive, going over most aspects of the movie, including story, characters, songs and voices just to name a few. You have the option of watching individual chapters, or checking out the feature in its entirety. Next, there's 3 deleted scenes each with their own introduction. On top of that, there's a brief introduction to this section by the film's directors. The deleted scenes are just sketches of scenes that were originally done up for the movie, but which didn't make the final cut. More features include a never-before-heard song (titled "Fishing Song") with an overly long introduction by Phil Collins and a look at the making of the song "Transformation" featuring original lyrics by Collins and with the Bulgarian Women's Choir.
Overall, taken for what it is, Brother Bear was an okay movie. The one problem is that it is too old for younger audiences and too young for older audiences. But, there is an audience for this movie. It has a great message, and it's something we can all learn from. Although it wasn't a huge hit in theaters, I'm sure it will find it's niche on DVD.
| The Movie: |
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6.5/10 |
| The Extras: |
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6.5/10 |
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Liam Cullin - Editor
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