100 Facts About Brother Bear

Aloha my wonderful merfolk!

This week’s theme is Brother Bear and although a lot of people are not too keen on this movie, I absolutely love it. IN my opinion, it’s another completely underrated Disney movie. I love the story, I love the soundtrack and some of the scenes are just beautiful!

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1. Brother Bear was released on November 1^st
2. It is the 44^th film in the Disney Animated Canon
3. The lines, ‘I don’t care that you and Binky found the worlds biggest pine cone or whatever’ and ‘first of all it’s not Binky it’s Bucky and it wasn’t a pine cone, it was a pine nut’ said by Kenai and Koda was an accidental improvisation after Joaquin Phoenix messed up his line.
4. Disney/Pixar prepared a special trailer for Brother Bear to show before Fining Nemo during its theatrical release.
5. The moose characters, Tuke and Rutt suggest that if the audience only see one film that year that it needed to be Brother Bear.
6. Tuke then reminds Rutt that if the audience only see one movie in the year then it’s too late.
7. Both the moose then encourage the audience to leave the theatre.
8. As the screen fades to black, Rutt says, ‘I see some of them leaving’ which Tuke replies with ‘Maybe they’re off to find that Nemo guy?’
9. In the German version, Tuke and Rutt are called Benny and Bjorn after the two male members of ABBA.
10. In the weeks running up to the movie, they appeared in funny short clips telling the audience to switch off cell phones during the movie.
11. In the Italian, German, Spanish and French releases of the movie, Phil Collins sings in the local languages.
12. He also performs No Way Out in Japanese.
13. Originally Kenai was supposed to have an older bear named Grizz guide him through thr woods and become like a brother to him.
14. He didn’t work out and was replaced by Koda.
15. The moose Rutt and Tuke are voiced by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas
16. The same two played the Mackenzie Brothers in their shows and movie Strange Brew.
17. They even act out Rutt and Tuke as the same nutty personality types as they did as the brothers.
18. They even use the same type of language, like their over-use of the Canadian expression ‘eh’.
19. The moose were even designed to resemble the actors,
20. Rutt has Moranis’ wide eyes and lower lip.
21. Tuke has Thomas’ thick eyebrows.
22. When Rutt and Tuke make up after their fall out, Rutt suggests ‘Hey you know what this calls for? A pile of delicious barley and amber wheat on a cool bed of malted hps’, which is a rough ingredients list for beer.
23. The leader of the bears in the salmon run is a clear caricature of his voice actor, Michael Clarke Duncan.
24. An idea to do an animated televisin series spin-off for Rutt and Tuke characters was eventually scrapped by Disney.
25. Most of the characters are named after actual places in Alaska, where the story is set.
26. For example, Kenai is named after the Kenai Peninsula.
27. The third and final film to be fully produced at Disney’s Orlando, Florida animation facility at Walt Disney World Disney-MGM Theme Park.
28. The only traditionally-animated movie in the Disney Animated Canon to include the black and orange Walt Disney Pictures logo in its initial release.
29. Alex Kupershmidt served as the supervising animator for Koda.
30. Several of the bears in the salmon run strongly resemble The Country Bears from the eponymous movie.
31. Jeremy Raize’s final film, released 3 months before his death with Denahi being one of his only 2 acting roles.
32. Jaoquin Phoenix provided the voice of Kenai.
33. Jeremy Suarez who voiced Koda, also had a cameo in Treasure Planet.
34. The painterly background styling is inspired by te landscapes of Albert Bierstadt.
35. Then Disney CEO Michael Eisner, a collector of Bierstadt’s work, lent the animators some of his own paintings to study.
36. One of the few animated Disney films to take place in America.
37. Michael Clarke Duncan provide the voice for Tug the bear.
38. His character in Armageddon was called Bear.
39. The cliff where Kenai kills Koda’s mother and is then turned into a bear is shaped like a bear’s head.
40. Sitka’s spirit can be seen throughout the movie following Kenai being changed into a bear.
41. The first time we see his spirit is after Kenai wakes up following his transformation into a bear; we see an eagle sitting on a tree branch, watching Kenai before he flies off.
42. When Kenai and Koda are riding on the mammoth’s tusks, Koda says ‘I always wanted a brother’, meanwhile they’re being watched by an eagle.
43. When Kenai and Koda are going through the lava path, and eagle flies after them as they walk off screen.
44. An eagle meets up with Denahi on the mountains.
45. While Kenai is falling of the ledge before he goes into the ice cave, his rope completely disappears.
46. When Rutt claims Koda as his new brother, he is sitting right next to him but after Rutt and Tuke have their brotherly moment, Koda is positioned farther away from both moose.
47. In the opening scene of the DVD subtitles identify the narrator as Sitka, when it is actually Denahi.
48. Ruben A. Aquino served as the supervising animator for Denahi.
49. Harold Gould provided the voice of Old Denahi.
50. In 2002, Digital Media Effects reported the title of the film as Bears.
51. An article in IGN in 2001 also mentioned an upcoming Disney release with the title Bears.
52. Jim Hall of Ain’t It Cool News also reported this.
53. The film is traditionally animated but includes some CG elements such as the salmon run and the caribou stampede.
54. Armand Serrano said that ‘we had to do a life drawing session with live bear cubs and also outdoor drawing and painting sessions at Fort Wilderness in Florida, three times a week for two months’.
55. Originally, Denahi was originally meant to be Kenai’s father.
56. Art Director, Robh Ruppel stated that the ending of the film originally showed how Kenai and Denahi get together once a year to play when the northern lights are in the sky.
57. The film made $85, 336, 277 during its domestic theatrical run.
58. It went on to earn $164, 700, 000 outside the US.
59. This brought it’s total gross to $250, 383, 219 which is considered successful.
60. Greg Proops provided the voice for the male lover bear in the salmon run.
61. Pauley Perette gave her voice to the female lover bear.
62. The film’s March 30^th 2004 DVD release brought in more than $167 million in DVD and VHS sales and rentals.
63. This is the fourth Disney film to have dust, following The Lion King, Pocahontas and Tarzan.
64. Brother Bear was dedicated to Disney writer Chuck Jones.
65. This was the seventh film to have a dedication to a Disney employee that had passed away during the credits.
66. This was the first Walt Disney Animation Studios film to be scored by two composers.
67. It was scored by both Phil Collins and Mark Mancina.
68. It would be the last animated film made by Disey to do so up until The Good Dinosaur by Pixar.
69. This is the ninth Disney animated classic to have the 2006 Walt Disney Pictures logo with just Disney at the end of the movie.
70. This was the first Walt Disney Animation Studios film to be broadcast on STARZ.
71. Brother Bear was nominated at the 76^th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature.
72. It lost to Finding Nemo.
73. John E. Hurst and Byron Howard served as the supervising animators for Kenai in human and bear form respectively.
74. Brother Bear came about due to Michael Eisner, then CEO, wanting more animal-based animated features.
75. The original idea for Brother Bear was insired by King Lear and would have told the story of n old blind bear who travelled the forest with his three daughters.
76. Story artists embarked on a research trip in August 1999 to visit Alaska.
77. Phoenix and Suarez who voice Kenai and Koda respectively only recorded their lines together on a couple of occasions.
78. For the role of the Inuit Narrator, Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley translated the dialogue In written form into Yup’ik and faxed the translation back to the Disney studios.
79. Tina Turner shared the vocal performances with Phil Collins for the movie.
80. The Blind Boys of Alabama and the Bulgarian Women’s Choir performed the sonf ‘Transformation’
81. Phil Collin’s lyrics were translated into the Inuit Eskimo language for the performance of the song.
82. This was arranged by Phil Collins, Mark Macina and Eddie Jobson.
83. Brother Bear was originally going to be released in Spring of 2004 with Home on the Range to be released in Spring 2003.
84. These dates were switched.
85. The release date switch was originally claimed to be due to Home on the Range suffering from story re-writes.
86. However, Jim Hill stated that it was simply because they wanted to promote Brother Bear on the Platinum Edition release of the Lion King.
87. The film received mixed reviews from critics.
88. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 38% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 125 reviews.
89. This gave Brother Bear an average rating of 5.5/10.
90. B Sweeney gives hi voice to Sitka, the oldest brother.
91. Brother Bear was released on VHS and two-disc DVD on March 30^th
92. The DVD release presented two versions of the film, the theatrical widescreen and an anamorphic presentation.
93. The DVD also included an audio commentary track by Rutt and Tuke.
94. In April 2004 alone, 5.51 million copies of the film were sold.
95. The film was released on a Blu-Ray special edition combined with Brother Bear 2 on March 12^th
96. The song ‘Welcome’, written by Phil Collins was later used as the theme song for Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams during the Happiest Homecoming on Earth.
97. This celebrated the 50^th anniversary of Disneyland.
98. For the parade, the song had slightly changed lyrics.
99. It was performed by an ensemble.
100. Brother Bear had a game released to Game Boy Advance, for mobile phone and for Microsoft Windows on November 2003.

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a mermaid be waiting for you, in mysterious fathoms below