Disney keeps talking about shutting down its hand-drawn animation department altogether because recent entries like "Treasure
Planet" and "Atlantis" have failed to set the box office on fire. In typically twisted Hollywood logic, Disney figures that if the computer-animated films are doing better than the hand-drawn ones, then it must be because hand-drawn animation is unpopular. It couldn't be that the films are just BAD; no, it must be the way they're DRAWN. "Brother Bear" would have been a lame movie either way. The fact that a team of animators sat there and drew it rather than computerizing it doesn't change the fact that the story is just rehashed man-and-nature, circle-of-life, colors-of-the-wind, "Pocahontas"-style conservationist claptrap. It has a human turned into an animal so he can learn a lesson ( "The Emperor's New Groove" ), a talking-animal sidekick who annoys his grumpy partner ( "Shrek" ), a prehistoric journey involving several disparate species ( "Ice Age" ), a beloved relative who dies after being pushed from a great height ("The Lion King") and missing or dead parents (every cartoon ever made). The good news is: The kids will probably like it, and the adults will tolerate it. If that doesn't sound like a glowing endorsement, it's not.
To read the rest of this review, click on the relevant link below.