Brother Bear (DVD)

Brother Bear wasn't exactly given a warm welcome to the theaters by movie critics, but I found it to be one more of those Disney movies filled with colorful characters and delivering that message of brotherly love to the little children.

Now we come to the DVD release and Disney has not skimped in any way bringing a feature filled 2-disc event to Disney DVD fanatics, and in expected Disney fashion it will be fun for the whole family.

With three ways to enjoy the film including the original theatrical presentation, which presents a small screen for about the first half-hour depicting the world Kenai sees before he is transformed into a bear.

Since it is a little hard to give an audio commentary on an animated feature Disney has taken it to the next level by bringing in the two star moose, Rutt and Tuke, to give what is more of a "Mystery Science Theater" commentary as they laugh and joke throughout the movie.

While, this is funny in the beginning it does get a bit tedious and boring as you can only hear the word "Eh" so many times. The moose may have been the comic relief during the film, but Disney wore out their welcome with this far too long feature that most kids won't really want to pay attention to and adults will quickly get bored.

While most of the features are focused on the children there are still plenty of features aimed toward adults, the best of which would be the 40-minute featurette "Paths of Discovery: The Making of Brother Bear."

This was probably my favorite feature of the disc as it covers every aspect that goes into making an animated feature from the artists going out in the wild to paint the landscapes to the musical genius of Phil Collins as he writes the songs and assists with the score for Brother Bear. Most often behind-the-scenes featurettes are long and tedious, but what Disney has done here is broken up the pieces of the feature into 16 separate sections, which really helps move the feature along and keeps you interested along the way.

Now we have the fun for the kids with two animated games that are easy enough for most kids to play and if they are too young to do it themselves parents will have a fun time helping them out especially on the feature where kids can find their own totem, playing directly off the movie.

To go along with the games their is a sing-along feature, one on both discs, where kids can sing along with Phil Collins as he sings the "On My Way" song with Koda and Kenai and on the other disc they can sing along with the "Transformation" song.

Another feature kids will enjoy along with adults is the feature titled "Making Noise: The Art of the Foley" with Jeremy Suarez the voice of Koda. Jeremy goes into the studio and learns how the sound effects are made for Brother Bear and even lays down his own sound effects track. We have all seen something like this, but it never fails to be interesting to see what these people will use to bring an animated movie to life.

And if you like seeing what goes into bring animation to life you will also enjoy the feature "Art Review" which goes in depth into the creation of the artwork and landscapes of Brother Bear.

Now, while the features I have just mentioned are well worth the view I was not overly satisfied with the Deleted Scenes section of the DVD, just as I have been on the majority of animated DVDs I have viewed. For the most part the deleted scenes consist of storyboard artwork and unfinished animation put together into scenes that you couldn't care less about.

One deleted scene that is promoted on the DVD insert is the introduction of Muri, a squirrel that didn't make the final cut, and while it was interesting to see it could have easily been put into the behind-the-scenes segment and it wouldn't have mattered either way.

Now, to offset my dislike of the Deleted Scenes segment Disney added an Outtakes reel, which is an excellent addition. Much like the segments that role during the credits at the end of the movie this is more of a gag reel with scenes such as Kenai throwing Koda into the camera and the lens breaking, mammoths stomping a little chipmunk, and Denahi falling all over the place. The segment is short, fun and good for a few laughs.

This is a good DVD for both adults and children, which is something I think Disney has done extremely well with all of their films, making sure that there is a little something for everyone. For the most part, the movie is the main reason to buy this DVD as it is filled with great songs from Phil Collins and plenty of laughs from the supporting cast, the special features can get a little weighty but then again you don't have to watch them all at once, just take your time and you are sure to find something you will like.