The fine line separating good-hearted family movies from inspirational films that drum in moral values is breached by Brother Bear, a plush Disney animated movie that would like to think of itself as "The Lion King Plus."
Set in the Pacific Northwest at the end of the Ice Age, Brother Bear cobbles ancient cross-cultural myths of humans becoming animals into the coming-of-age story of a hotheaded boy, Kenai (voice of Joaquin Phoenix), who must change into a bear to attain the wisdom of manhood. This opulent movie, with gorgeous rainbow animation, is heavy on message but light on humor. Most of what passes for amusement comes from the forced, not-so-hilarious banter of two squabbling moose, Tuke (Dave Thomas) and Rutt (Rick Moranis).
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BUENA VISTA
Set among pristine glaciers in a land where the northern lights bloom much of the year, Brother Bear, which opens today, imagines a semi-Arctic pre-Columbian paradise where all members of the animal kingdom except humans speak the same language. But that language often has a jarring contemporary ring. Who knew that 10,000 years ago the word dude was as ubiquitous as it is today?
This self-conscious, self-important film has the machine-tooled, market-tested gloss of an A-list Disney product straining to conquer the world the way The Lion King did nearly a decade ago. But a lot has changed in the nine years since that movie began its campaign for world domination. Disney's more visually and conceptually sophisticated Pixar films have raised the bar in animation to such a high level that even The Lion King, were it released today, would probably have a very different reception.
Music floods Brother Bear like a storm surge, and its six songs by Phil Collins are noticeably heavier than Elton John's music for the prototype. Much of the instrumental music, composed by Collins and Mark Mancina, belongs to the same quasisymphonic, pseudo-African mode of The Lion King, whose solemn tribal beats and chants, augmented by what sounded like 101 strings, evoked the Dark Continent with the cast-of-thousands grandiosity of a Cecil B. DeMille soundtrack.
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.
The potpourri of myth and fantasy is swirled into a vague, all-purpose pop sermon whose message of restraint and empathy with all creatures great and small evokes everything from practicing the golden rule and following the 10 Commandments to supporting animal rights.
The story, briefly: Kenai, the youngest of three brothers, is disgruntled when he is presented with a totem of his incipient manhood, a carved bear symbolizing love. He would much rather have an eagle (signifying wisdom), like his oldest brother, Sitka (D. B. Sweeney). After a bear devours a basket of fish that Kenai carelessly tended, the boy pursues the scavenger with a vengeance. When the bear turns on Kenai, Sitka comes to the rescue, but dies saving his brother's life and ascends into the northern lights, where all the ancestral spirits dwell.
Before long those lights come down from above and turn Kenai into a bear who quickly discovers that, from a bear's perspective, spear- and knife-wielding humans are the monsters. Kenai is aghast to find himself fending off the attacks of the middle brother, Denahi (Jason Raize), who doesn't recognize his brother in his new form.
Kenai acquires a sidekick, Koda (Jeremy Suarez), a bear cub searching for his mother, and their adventures culminate on a mountain peak with another visit from the lights (and Sitka's ghost), which usher Kenai, now human again, into a wiser, gentler manhood in tune with nature.
Parents who take their children to see Brother Bear may bask in the illusion that the film is doing a far better job of teaching ethics than they ever could. But I wonder how many children go to any Disney movie hoping to learn values. Fun is what they want.
This month Taiwan received a brutal Christmas present as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) passed all three of its desired amendments, making recalls of elected officials more difficult, gutting the Constitutional Court and altering the budgetary allocations to local governments. The nation at present has no ultimate authority to determine the constitutionality of government actions, and the local governments, largely controlled by the KMT, have much greater funding. We are staring into an abyss of chaos. The amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法), if they become law (as of this writing President William Lai
Dec. 30 to Jan. 5 Premiering on Jan. 4, 1956, Xue Pinggui and Wang Baochuan (薛平貴與王寶釧) unexpectedly packed theaters for the next 27 days. Taiwan’s first 35mm Hoklo-language (commonly known as Taiwanese) movie beat out the top Hollywood blockbuster, Land of the Pharaohs, and the Mandarin-language Peach Blossom River (桃花江) in box office sales, kicking off a craze that lasted until around 1970. More than 800 Hoklo-language films were made despite government attempts to promote Mandarin. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) owned the nation’s three major production houses, mostly creating Mandarin films filled with anti-communist messages and patriotic propaganda. But most
Charges have formally been brought in Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) bribery, corruption and embezzling of campaign funds cases. Ko was briefly released on bail by the Taipei District Court on Friday, but the High Court on Sunday reversed the decision. Then, the Taipei District Court on the same day granted him bail again. The ball is in dueling courts. While preparing for a “year ahead” column and reviewing a Formosa poll from last month, it’s clear that the TPP’s demographics are shifting, and there are some indications of where support for the party is heading. YOUNG, MALE
When the weather is too cold to enjoy the white beaches and blue waters of Pingtung County’s Kenting (墾丁), it’s the perfect time to head up into the hills and enjoy a different part of the national park. In the highlands above the bustling beach resorts, a simple set of trails treats visitors to lush forest, rocky peaks, billowing grassland and a spectacular bird’s-eye view of the coast. The rolling hills beyond Hengchun Township (恆春) in Pingtung County offer a two-hour through-hike of sweeping views from the mighty peak of Dajianshih Mountain (大尖石山) to Eluanbi Lighthouse (鵝鑾鼻燈塔) on the coast, or
RSS