Weak movie

It's by no means the worst feature film that Disney has ever done, as it's not offensively political, but it is indeed quite unremarkable.

The pity of it is that it doesn't begin that badly. The relationship of the brothers as humans is a mildly interesting one, as is the village community.

The idea of a brother who wishes to be a great warrior and is disappointed to be given nothing better than a love totem is quite understandable.

The visuals of the Northern Lights are truly spectacular, evincing real Disney greatness. In general, the depictions of the Northern climate are impressive.

And the initial battles with the bear are dramatic and exciting. The idea that the brother could kill a bear with nothing but a spear is quite thrilling -- a truly heroic act at a time when humans would have been desperate for food and vulnerable to bear predations.

However, the film veers sharply towards the disappointing when the brother is transformed into the bear. The animation seems to become less realistic, the humor is quite poor throughout, and the bear cub isn't particularly appealing. Also, the episodic incidents that happen after this moment lack tension. It becomes just another road-trip movie.

The songs are unmemorable, some even trivial.

And the finale is pathetic. First a transformation into a human, then back to a bear? It loses all emotional force. "Make up your mind."

And the idea of man/bear cohabitation is ridiculous. Indeed, while the theme that man should live in harmony with nature is a reasonable one, it's rendered absurd when animals don't behave like wild animals anymore.

Although this is yet another entry into Disney's seemingly endless string of politically correct movies that began with Pocahontas and continued through to at least this film (with Princess and the Frog as a late addition), it at least isn't as actively offensive as films such as Hunchback and Mulan and Tarzan. But nevertheless, it suffers from story weaknesses and not particularly engaging characters.