Disney hides the morality tale behind a rip-roaring soundtrack, goofy moose sidekicks and enough bear slapstick to delight any child.

| Jan 23, 2019

While the animation itself (from the same team as Mulan) is charming and at times beautiful, the script is banal and uninspired.

| Jan 11, 2018

Lackluster story only for kindergarteners.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 22, 2010

Modest but guileless.

| Nov 16, 2009

Brother Bear is a very mild animated entry from Disney with a distinctly recycled feel.

Full Review | Jun 6, 2008

Another watchable, old-fashioned, uninspired Disney animation.

| Jun 24, 2006

A lame duck of a movie.

Full Review | Jul 21, 2005

Skirts self-parody in its rigid adherence to the cartoon-epic template.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jan 15, 2004

Run-of-the-mill fare like this only gives more power to the pixel-pushers.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 2, 2003

It feels like a project that got quietly pushed through the pipeline while the studio gears up for bigger and better things.

| Original Score: C+ | Nov 21, 2003

Disney animation's attempts to recover from the collapse of its renaissance have come to an end not with a bang, or even a growl, but with a whimper.

| Original Score: D | Nov 17, 2003

Give one chef eggs, cream, and sugar, and he'll produce creme brulee. In another kitchen, you'll get plain old vanilla pudding. What we have in Brother Bear, for all the potentially tasty ingredients, is pudding.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 16, 2003

But Brother Bear kept aspiring to be so much more. In the end I wanted the more, and Disney just couldn't give it to me.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 8, 2003

The characters are mechanisms who move along the plot arc from point A to point B.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Nov 2, 2003

It's hard to avoid concluding that Brother Bear was pitched as Pocahontas meets The Lion King since it recycles the themes of both, not to mention a character or two.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 1, 2003

The hand-drawn animation is alternately static and inconsistent, and the story may be too downbeat for younger kids, who are most assuredly the target audience.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 1, 2003

An uninspired and lackluster story told with some visual flourish and a few cute moments but without much energy.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Nov 1, 2003

It's not that the movie is bad. It's just innocuous.

| Oct 31, 2003

The good news is that this is mostly good old-fashioned hand-drawn Disney animation. The bad news is that it relies too much on old-fashioned formula, hackneyed plot and cookie-cutter characters.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 31, 2003

Brother Bear is bearable, but just barely.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 31, 2003