It's innovation month over here at Burning Door (December is Weapons month, cant wait!), and to celebrate innovation, I took my daughter Rose to see the highly imaginative and innovative Disney film "Brother Bear" this weekend. First, let me say that Rose really loved this film. She really did, and God bless Rose for loving this film and for everything else about her; she's my heart's darling. Now, why was this film innovative? Well, for one thing it was TOTALLY different from the lion king in the following ways:
< warning purists, spoilers ahead >
A) We watch in horror early on as a stately animal is killed during a particularly violent battle. This is WAY DIFFERENT than the lion king in which the same thing happened. for instance, in THIS movie, the killing happens on ice instead of on not ice as in the lion king.
B) We watch in stunned awe as a bewildered bear is visited by the spirit of his departed relative. This is WAY different than the lion king, in which Simba is visited by the spirit of his departed father, not some other relative like in brother bear.
C) We listen in appreciation to majestic tribal songs that have a westernized beat. This is WAY different the lion king, in which the tribal songs have a westernized beat but there was one less of them in total than in brother bear.
D) Brother bear's music featured STRAIGHT aging british rocker Phil Collins, which is WAY different than the lion king, which featured GAY aging british rocker Elton John.
E) At the end of brother bear, our hero learns a valuable life lesson and takes his rightful place in the animal kingdom, thus fulfilling his role in the circle of life. This is WAY different than in the lion king, in which simba takes his rightful place on TOP of the animal kingdom, thus filfilling etc. etc.
F) Our hero in brother bear is joined on his adventure by a couple of wise-cracking other species of animal, in this case two moose, who serve as comic relief. This was EXTRAORDINARILY different than the lion king, in which the wise-cracking other two animals that served as comic relief were NOT EVEN THE SAME SPECIES.
There were other innovations too numerous to mention, so i'll stop there. I've heard that Disney is considering ending their relationship with Pixar (whose movies Rose also adores) because Disney thinks pixar wants too much money. WELL I CAN SEE WHY THEY THINK THAT. Who needs the bright creative folks at pixar around when you're practically rewriting the animation genre on your own with films like brother bear?!
Thinking of taking Rose to see "school of rock" next. It can't be too bad if the kids are in 5th grade in the movie, right? Rose is only five though. Ah, she'll love it.
Posted by Dick at November 17, 2003 09:45 PM | TrackBack