Brother Bear (2023 live-action/CGI remake)

Brother Bear is a 2023 American fantasy road buddy comedy-drama film directed by Travis Knight and David Lowery, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Whitaker Entertainment, Burr! Productions, and TaylorMade Productions. A live-action/CGI remake of Disney's 2003 film of the same name, Brother Bear would be produced by Knight, Brigham Taylor, Kristen Burr, and Jim Whitaker, with Justin Marks, Christina Hudson, Kelly Fermon Craig, Jennifer Lee and Toby Halbrooks writing the screenplay from an story by Marks, Hudson, Fermon Craig, Halbrooks, Lee, Chris Butler, Shannon Tindle, and Lowery. The film would star Paul-André Brasseur, Sebastian Stan, Johny Issaluk, Irene Bedard, and the voices of JD McCrary, James Earl Jones, and Alfre Woodard.

Plans for a Brother Bear remake would be first revealed in July 2020, with Knight and Lowery set to direct the project, while Brasseur would sign up to star as Kenai in early 2021. The prduction team would create new software systems in order to create the Great Spirits. The production team would also draw inspiration from deleted concepts from the original film while developing the remake's story. Composer/songwriter Phil Collins would return to co-compose the score alongside Dario Marianelli, as well as to re-write his songs for the previous films and to write new songs.

Brother Bear would be released in June 30, 2023, and would become a critical and comercial success, grossing 1.3 billion dolars over a budget of 189 millions, and being praised for its direction, story, thematical depth, performances (particularly Brasseur, McCrary, Stan, Bedard, and Jones's), faithfulness to the original film, visual effects, and songs, with many critics prasing it as an improvement over its predecesor. The film would also have Academy Award nominations for both Best Visual Effects and Best Picture.

Synopsis
Kenai, a young boy who sees bears as killers, finds himself walking on somebody else's shoes when he, after killing a bear out of revenge for his brother's death, is turned into a bear by the Great Spirits. Now Kenai must find a way to turn back to normal before his midle brother kills him. Kenai soon crosses path with a young bear cub named Koda, whom he soon begins to see as his little brother.

Plot
Many centuries ago, shortly after the ice age, in Alaska, lived an Inupiaq tribe. According to their culture, those who died become part of the "Great Spirits", who make magical changes around the world. In the aformentined tribe, lived three brother: Sitka, the oldest, Denahi, the middle, and Kenai, the youngest. The three brothers watch the aurora in which the Spirits can be seen as their father explains them that the Great Spirits create totems, which determine what their owner must do to call himself a man. Kenai declares that his totem will be the greatest of them all, before watching his father go to fight a bear.

The years passed, and the brothers grew together, with Kenai developing an intense hatred for bears, as he believes them to be killers and thiefs, in spite of Stka's attempts to convinvce him to see things from their point-of-view, while Denahi teased him for various reasons. Still, Kenai and his brothers had a very close bond to each other. Eventually, Kenai turned 16, meaning it is time for him to finally gain his totem. At the end of Kenai's ceremony, he's given "The Bear of Love", much to his annoyance.

The next day, Kenai watches a bear near the tribe, which he instantlly tries to kill. Sitka and Denahi follow him, earing he may get killed if he goes alone. The three fight the bear, and their battle soon reaches the edge of a glacier, which Sitka eventually has to stab in order to stop the bear from killing his brothers. Both Sitka and the bear survive, but Sitka, unable to got back with his brothers, tells them to meet him in the woods. After a two day journey, they reach their meeting spot, but they instead find Sitka dead lying dead in the ground.

Believing the bear to be responsible for Sitka's death, and fnally puged over the edge, Kenai chooses to go on a quest to kill all the bears, startng with the one he holds responsible for Sitka's deah. He tries to convince Denahi to join him, but he refuses. Right before leaving, Tanana tries to warn Kenai to not to kill out of hate, nor to go against his totem, as it may anger the Great Spirit, but Kenai angrily ignores her. Kenai then goes to the forest, with both Denahia and Tanana separately following him, fearing he may be killed or worse.

Upon arriving to the forest, Kenai quickly manages to find the bear, whom he instantly attacks. After a long fight, Kenia manages to gravely wound the bear. Unable to fight anymore, the bear is slowly and painfully killed by Kenai. Angered by Kenai's actions, the Great Spirits appear in front of Kenai, who then sees Sitka's spirit. Dissapointed at his younger brother's actions, Sitka turns Kenai into a bear as punishment. Denahi arrives shortly after and, unaware of what happened and upon watching Kenai's destroyed clothes, assumes Kenai to be dead and that his bear form is responsible. However, Kenai falls to the river before Denahi attacks him, througth the Spirits save him from drowing. Tanana, who was told of everything by the Spirits beforehand, finds Kenai unconscious, and nurses him

The next day, Kenai is woken up by Tanana, and discovers he became a bear. Whie eunable to understand him, Tanana tells Kenai that, in order to turn back to normal, he must go to the mountain where the lights touch the earth in rder to talk to Sitka's spirit, who then should help Kenai "correct the mistakes [Kenai] did", much to Kenai's confusion, arguing that he did no wrong. Tanana then leaves, arguing that she must stay with the tribe, as the spirits said that Kenai "must find his way without her".

While on his own, Kenai discovers that animals are able to communicate between themselves, much to his shock. As he tries to find someone who may help him find the mountain, Kenai is captured by a hunter's trap. Then, a young bear cub named Koda shows up. Koda asks Kenai if there's some hunter around, which he denies. Then Koda is relieved, and begins to talk about the hunter traps he manged to avoid during his life, much to Kena's annoyance. Kenai then asks sarcastically if Koda has to go somewhere else, to which Koda responds by revealing he has to go to the local salmon run. Koda then says that, if he frees Kenai, they should go together, but Kenai refuses, only to reclutantly accept once his attempts to free himself prove futile. Much to Kenai's surprise, Koda frees him quickly, but Koda suddenly runs away.

Upon watching the bear cub run, Kenai shows happiness since he won't have to follow his promise, only to find an armed Denahi behind him. Kenai is glad that his brother found him, but Denahi, still believing Kenai was killed by his bear form, angrily attacks Kenai. Kenai then tries to ru away, but his inexperience as a bear proves to be a problem, througth he manages to escape Denahi, and eventually hides in a near glaciar. Unaware of where Kenai was hiding, Denahi leaves. Koda, who was also hiding in the glaciar, asks if the hunter left, which Kenai confirms. However, Kenai is thougthful, wondering why Denahi would want to kill him without a reason, to which Koda states that its what hunters do.

Changing the subject, Koda tells Kenai that they should get ready to go to the salmon run. However, Kenai refuses to keep his promise, even when Koda reveals that he lost his mother. However, Koda, thinking that Kenai fears getting lost, then reveals that is near the mountain where the lights touch the earth. Upon hearing this, Kenai, reclutantly agrees to take Koda to the salmon run.

Once out of the glaciar, Kenai once again experiences difficulties while adapting to his new form, but he refuses Koda's help, thinking the bear cub won't be of help because he's a bear. As the two travel, Kenai grows more disgusted and horrified to have been turned into what he sees as a monster, incrementing his desesperation to return to normal. Eventually, Kenai snaps out at Koda, accusing him of lying to get what he wants. However, Denahi manages to hear him. Denahi then attacks them again, forcing the two to run. However, Denahi eventually manages to corner them, but Kenai ends up failing to a river near. Having never knew how to swim, Kenai almost drowns, but Koda manages to get help to get Kenai out of the river. Kenai is shocked that a bear cub just helped saved him, levaing him confused.

Curious to know why Koda saved him, Kenai asks him why he did it, to which Kda explains that his mother always taught him to do the right thing. However, Kenai refuses to believe this, still believing that bears are killers. Koda and Kenai argue, with Koda being angry that Kenai is insulting his mother, but Kenai dosent' care about what he says, and angry moves away. Hungry after expending days traveling, Kenai tries to find and get food, but fails miserably. Koda shows up and offers to help, but Kenai refuses his help, througth he eventually relents after it becomes clear that he knows more about life in the forest than Kenai. Koda agrees to help him, on the condition of no longer trying to leave, as well as no lies and no secrets. As Koda teaches Kenai about the forest, the two slowly begin to bond during the process.

Cast
A young man who, after killing a bear out of hate, is tranformed into one by the Great Spirits in order to teach him to see throught others' eyes. As well as filming his scenes when Kenai is a human, Brasseur would also record Kenai's voice as a bear. Director Travis Kight would say that "the film shows Kenai's journey to become a man, in more ways than one. Througth the film he finds out what being a man is truly all about". Brasseur would describe Kenai as "a fascinating and complex character because he is both loving and hating at the same time", so he would "try to deliver a performance that could go straight to the middle, and make every action he does to feel consistent" Kenai's middle brother brother, who hunts him as a bear after mistaking him for dead. Stan would inspire his performance on his MCU character Bucky Barnes / The Winter Soldier, as "he had to be a silent killer during parts of the film, like in The Winter Soldier, and a friendly fellow in other parts of the film, like in The First Avenger", througth he would also aim to "not to make Denahi look like the film's bad guy, cause he's far from that". A shaman form Kenai's tribe who tries to help Kenai to embrace his totem. Nyong'o would describe Tanana as "everybody's motherly figure" and " a perso who lives in the spiritual side of life, and who gets wisdom thanks to that. And she wants to share that wisdom with the world, even if the world dosen't wanna listen". Nyong'o would try to "perform the character with an air of wisdom and comedy, but in style that is [her] own".
 * Paul-André Brasseur as Kenai:
 * Sebastian Stan as Denahi:
 * Johnny Issuk as Sitka, Kenai's older brother who tries to convince Kenai to see things from somebody else's perspective. Issuk would describe his character as "not a 'leader-first-brother-second' kind of character, but rather someone who's both a leader and a brother first".
 * Irene Bedard as Tanana:

Voices
A young bear cub who is searching for his mother, and who agrees to help Kenai to find the mountain where the lights touch the earth in exchange for him to take Koda to the salmon run. McCrary would improvise several of his lines during recording. McCrary would inspire his performance on Eddie Murphy's performance as Donkey in DreamWorks' Shrek franchise, in order to make Koda "annoying and lovable at the same time".
 * JD McCrary as Koda:
 * James Earl Jones as Tug, an old bear and a friend of Koda's, who is the de facto leader of the bears in the salmon run. Director Travis Knight would cast Jones in the role because he would feel he can "deliver a wamth and gentle voice to this giant character".
 * Alfre Woodard as Koda's mother, a female bear whom Kenai kills out of hate.

Soundtrack
Recurring Knight collaborator Dario Marianelli and the original film's co-composer/songwriter Phil Collins would compose the remake's score. The score would feature classical Inuit instruments and elements, while still drawing themes from the original film's score.

Collins would also be set to rewrite his songs from the original film, as well as to write three new songs, one performed by Carly Simon, one performed by Garfield, and one peforme by Collins, and to write and perform a new song for the film's credits. Collins would also write and perform a new reprise of the song "Great Spirits" from the original film, and would write a new reprisal of the song "Transformation". Additionally, "This Can't Be My Destiny", a deleted song from the original film, would be featured in the remake, with Collins performing the song. Collns would re-write the music for the song "No Way Out", in order to change it from "a big ballad with sad lyrics, to something more personal, more emotional, and more quiet". Collins would say that "[he] had to bring a lot of emotion" while recording his songs, as "essentially [he is] Kenai's singing voice, but without him singing".

Differences from the original film

 * The original film opened with an old Denahi telling onscreen the story to the audience, while, in the remake, it would instead open with an off-screen narration by an old Denahi.
 * Instead of stealing the fishes from Kenai's tribe at day while everybody is in his ceremony, Koda's mother woud suddenly enter thevillage, while Kenai would impusively try to attack her, even througth she was clearly harmless.
 * In the original film, Sitka was instantly killed when he breaks the ice to save his brothers, while in the remake, he would instead survive the fall, throught he would instead die from wounds seemingly caused by Koda's mother, througth it would later be revealed that it was caused by an avalanche.
 * Kenai would argue with Tanana instead of Denahi in this version. Additionally, Kenai would also claim the he would kill all bears after killing Koda's mother. Also, Kenai would throw his totem to a river.
 * In this version, Koda's mother would be wounded shortly before being killed by Kenai.
 * In the original film, Kenai simply ended up at the edge of the river after falling. In the remake, Sitka's spirits would save Kenai, why Tanana would heal him.
 * Instead of seemingly disappearing, Tanana would explain to Kenai that she can't go with him, since the Great Spirits determined that she isn't a part in his destiny.
 * Kenai and Koda would do a verbal promise to take each other to their destinies in the remake
 * Rutt and Tuke wouldn't be featured in this version.
 * The montage sequence would be instead focused on Kenai, with the song "This Can't be My Destiny" playing in the background instead of "On My Way"
 * The remake would focus more on Kenai's journey, with some sequences being added or altered:
 * Koda would teach Kenai how to live as a bear in this version
 * The film would feature another skirmish with Denahi, during which Koda would save Kenai from drowning.
 * Kenai would discover the true reason for Sitka's death during the journey, causing him to feel guilt after realizing he killed an innocent creature, leadding to a brief talk between him and Koda.
 * When watching the Great Spirits, Koda would reveal his fears that his mother could be there too, causing Kenai to try to comfort him by acknowledging that he feels as lost as Koda after Sitka's death. Once Kenai reveals his version of Sitka's death, Koda wonders why a "monster" would kill without reason, as his mother taught him that everyone does something for a reason, using bears eating fish as an example. This would cause Kenai to think about how he hated bears only because what he thougth he saw.
 * Kenai and Koda would go to an abandoned village in the night to rest, with Kenai singing to Koda a lullaby Sitka used to sing to him. After singing the lullaby, Kenai would reflect and realize that Sitka sung him that song because he wanted him to look beyond the surface. After that, he would have a daydream sequence in which he would come to terms with him having been wrong about bears, and comes to fully accept Koda as a brother.
 * Kenai and Koda would argue a lot less during the journey.
 * "On My Way" would play after the scene in the village, with this version instead clearly focusing on Kenai's feelings instead of Koda's.
 * The sequence would also feature an additional scene in which Koda suggests a way to move faster, to whch Kenai would agree, having come to trust him.
 * Right before finding the salmon run, Kenai would say to Koda that he dosen't know why hunters hate bears, througth he did thougth why, but he's no longer sure, instead of claiming it was because bears are killers.
 * The "Welcome" sequence would be shown fully from Kenai's perspective. Additionally, Kenai would keep some distance between him and the bears, before choosing to have fun with them, finding his totem in the process.
 * When Kenai admits to Koda that he killed his mother, the two would argue briefly, while "No Way Out" would instead play in a sequence during which Kenai searches for Koda.
 * In this version, Kenai would keep searching for Koda instead of going to the mountain.
 * However, Kenai would indeed be tempted to got to the mountain, throught he would instead let that chance go, feeling that he dosen't deserve his problems to be solved, nor his totem, claiming that he's a monster, and that, while he didn't liked all the bad things that happened to him, he deserves them, before questioning why Sitka saved him in the first place.
 * Koda would choose to forgive Kenai after remembering Kenai's brotherly love for him.
 * Kenai and Koda would reconcile on-screen after Kenai gets caught in a trap while escaping Denahi.
 * Kenai would take Koda to a safe place and try to fight Denahi even throught he would kill him in order to protect Koda. Koda would initially resist adn try to help, but he would ultimately agree when Kenai states he can't lose the only brother he has left.
 * When requesting Sitka to change him back to a bear, Kenai would state not only that Koda needs him, but also that he needs Koda. Also, Kenai and Denahi's last talk would have the original film's dialogue swaped, with Kenai being the one stating that they will always be brothers.
 * The remake's final shot would be an scene in which Kenai and Kda play throught the forest after Kenai's manhood ceremony.

Reception
Rotten Tomatoes would gave the film a rating approval of 90%, with an average rating of 9/10. The website's critical consensus would read: "An emotional rollacoaster journey with awesome visuals and high-quality vocal performances to lead us, Brother Bear takes a sub-par effort by Disney and turns it into an enjoyable experience while keeping its soul, ultimately giving audiences a great combination of timeless story and timely themes". On Metacritic, the film would have a weighted rating of 79 out of ten, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Trivia

 * This would be Travis Knight's first remake of a Disney film, througth it would also be his second film based on an already exisitng property, after Bumblebee (2018).
 * Phil Collins would be the third composer to return for a Disney Remake, after Alan Menken (who returned for Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin) and Hans Zimmer (who returned for The Lion King).
 * However, Brother Bear would be the first film to feature both new and returnig composers.
 * This would also be the first remake to feature a song deleted from the original film
 * Brother Bear would also be the third remake to feature a performer from its original film, after Beauty and the Beast (2017) and The Lion King (2019).


 * The film would mark the second time Jennifer Lee wrote a live-action film, after A Wrinkle in Time (2018), which she co-wrote alongside Jeff Stockwell.


 * Several of the writers previously worked with Travis Knight: Christina Hudson wrote Bumblebee, while Kelly Fremon Craig did uncredited script reworkings for that film; Shannon Tindle co-wrote the story for Knight's Kubo and the Two Strings (2015); and Chris Butler wrote and co-directed the Knight-produced film ParaNorman (2012), and wrote both the story and screenplay for Kubo and the Two Strings.
 * The film would mark the second time James Earl Jones,, JD McCrary, and Alfre Woodard's second Disney remake, with Jones, McCrary and Woodard having co-starred in The Lion King (2019).
 * Brother Bear would mark the first Disney remake to feature a character dying in a very different way than the original film, as in other remakes characters either were killed in a way similar (if not exactly the same) as in the original version, or only died in the remake.