Irmão Urso 2

Well, to start off, I adore the original Brother Bear. So, as you can imagine I was a little ticked off when I heard Disney was making yet another one of their trashy sequels. I've seen some, Hunchback of Notre Dame 2 for instance...terrible, absolutely horrifying. And to find out that this might be done with one of my favorite movies was not the greatest piece of news. I decided to see it, actually buy it, encouraged by the positive early reviews it got. I was surprised. It's pretty good, but I have to admit the ending was cheap and easily guessed from the very beginning. I didn't like Nita, and Rutt and Tuke got on my last nerves. If you liked the first Brother Bear you'll like this one. I give this a 5/10.

I will admit I was not sure whether I wanted to see this sequel. I am not saying that all Disney sequels are terrible, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Rescuers Down Under, Simbas's Pride, Enchanted Christmas and Bambi 2 were surprisingly good. However, Cinderella 2 and Jungle Book 2 were below par; both had average animation and a decent voice cast but everything else ranged from mediocre to poor, Cinderella 2 in the music and Jungle Book 2 in the plot.

What were my thoughts on Brother Bear 2 exactly? Well I was surprised. This sequel is above average, and you know what that is quite an achievement. Why do I say that? Well, the first Brother Bear has to be hard to beat in terms of quality. Like another Disney film like Pocahontas, it was visually stunning and I thought the music was awesome. Plus I found the characters engaging and the story heart warming. In fact, despite the flaws the first Brother Bear had, it is beautiful and very underrated.

Back on track, this sequel is inferior in quality to its original, but I admit I wasn't expecting otherwise. The story is a little thin on the ground, and not as well written and heart warming as the one in the first film. Also while there is some humour with the two Moose, the writing isn't quite as inspired. My next problem applies to a lot of the sequels come and gone, it is too short so there isn't quite enough character development.

That said though, a lot does compensate. Well for one thing, the animation is very nicely done. True it isn't as gorgeous or as detailed as the original's animation, but like Bambi 2, Ariel's Beginning and Cinderella 3 it's style is fluid and it is colourful. Some of the beginning scenes especially were like looking at a watercolour painting. Also the soundtrack is very nice, maybe not as catchy as Phil Collin's lively and fun one, that is good as the one he did for Tarzan, but the theme song is beautiful and very memorable. The characters are still likable, if we forgive the fact that Koda isn't quite as adorable anymore, and Nita reminds me in terms of looks of Mulan. And the voice acting is good, Patrick Dempsey is above decent as Kenai, but I do think Joaquin Pheonix put more heart and spirit into the character, and Mandy Moore is surprisingly emotive as Nita. Then like the original, there is some nice messaging.

All in all, not the best sequel there is, but it is above average and definitely worth the look. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The original 'Brother Bear' deserves better recognition as a good Disney animated film, so I was looking forward to seeing this straight to DVD sequel.

Now, these tend to be a bit hit and miss, but thankfully this is one of the better ones. There's a lot of heart, there's some lovely messages in there too.

I thought this worked well, I enjoyed it.

This is a sequel to the 2003 Disney movie staring the voices of Joaquin Phoenix and Harold Gould. But neither returns for this movie which picks up some time after the first. This time Kenai ( still a bear) must team up with his old love Nita vicoed in swedish by singer Ana Johnsson to travel to Hokani Falls to break a bound they made as kids. They are joined by the annoying cub Koda. The Only other returning characters are the moose Rutt and Tuke. Neither Kenais brothers nor the old shaman fron the first movie return. Instead we are joined by a host of new characters like a sassy medicine woman., Two female moose and Nita's two aunts all well voiced at least in Swedish which was the language i saw the movie in by the likes Eva Bysing and Babben Larsson. One a famous old time singer and the other a well known comedian. The Medicine woman is particularly amusing.

This movie unlike the first one is a love story. And it's a decent if unremarkable one. Maybe this stems from me not being such a big fan of the original. . So i hade low expectations. So i find this to be about on the same level. If not a little better. The animation is good especially for a Direct to DVD movie

There are no big twists or turns. But it's not a bad plot. As love stories go it's a good one for kids and it's not too stupid for adults. One good scene is between Nita and her father voiced by Nikolas Falk from the swedish tv show Tre kronor. The songs are nice if nothing special. No characters sing just like the first movie instead it's inspirational pop tunes played over the scenes. All sung by Ana Johnsson , who has a great voice !

The moose could have been funnier. But on the bright side they could have also been a lot more annoying.

And speaking of annoying Koda actually becomes likable in the end when he makes a really selfless offer. Of course the offer isn't taken. But it's a nice gesture and it woerks out fin in the end. Although i think you could have included some more characters from the first movie at the end wedding scene.

The end is also a bit silly with the bears as guests stading side by side with humans and the raccoon is really nasty and mean spirited before suddenly at the end celebrating the wedding with the others like they somehow became friends off screen. But those are the big flaws.

Overall it's a good kids movie. But not a spectacular one with above average swedish voice acting and good animation. But not a classic.

Fun fact: Eva Bysing who does a voice in this movie played Velma Kelly in thee Orginal Swedis hproduction of Chicago. A role played on broadway by Hispanic star Chita Rivera who gott a Lifetime Achievement award from the Tonys in 2018 and a Kennedy Center Honors award in December 2002. That's quite big shoes to fill.

5,5 of 10

I loved "Brother Bear" back during it's theatrical run in 2003...and thought that it should have been recognized as a high water mark in hand drawn animated films...and I was deeply saddened when it failed to find a huge audience...and became one of the last masterworks of the art...( which was replaced in audience favor by often lumpy, clunky, and distressingly flat and "realistic" computer generated cartoons.

I was very upset that line drawn was shoved aside and forgotten except for low quality TV animation...and what looked to be shoddy direct to video sequels...which I initially refused to watch because I feared that these "follow ups" would just be graceless rip offs of the original films.

When I began collecting the original Disney Classics on Blu-Ray (which really IS the best way to appreciate them since they are no longer re-released to theaters) (such a shame)...I ended up with the sequels in my library...and decided that I might as well watch them after re-savoring the original classics.

I was a bit surprised to find that most of them are respectable efforts that might have deserved theatrical release if a bit more polishing had been applied to the writing...and I was pretty much shocked when I watched "Brother Bear 2" and found it to be just as visually stunning as "Brother Bear"...almost as well written...and if anything even more moving thanks to some absolutely lovely songs by Mellisa Etheridge.

Why this was relegated to "Direct to Video" status is beyond me...but it deserves to be re-evaluated and rediscovered as the masterpiece it is...