Thursday, March 27, 2014

Brother Bear by Ernesto Perez


Ernesto Perez
Waggoner 9:30TR
English 20803
27 March 2014

                                                                Brother Bear

            Watching animated films is and used to be the most exciting attraction for young children. Children pay complete attention to the cartoon or film they are watching. They understand what is going on in the movie, which leads to learning directly and indirectly about the real world. When I red the assignment, I instantly decided that brother bear, a movie from Walt Disney Productions, had a great ethical message. Since Walt Disney Productions is globally known for its amazing children’s movies, I was excited to watch this movie again and understand what the producers really are trying to communicate to their target audience.



            First of all the movie Brother Bear takes place in the post ice age North America where a tribe of Native Americans live where Kenahi (a member of the tribe) and Kodak (a young bear) are the protagonists. The main message of the movie is about brotherly love. Several scenes show this message. In the beginning of the movie, Kenahi chased a bear because it ate all the fish that was collected for the tribe’s supper. After being almost assassinated by the bear, Kenahi’s big brother sacrificed his life for the safety of his two young brothers. This scene shows how an older brother should always take care of his little brothers and that family is the most important thing in people’s life. The rest of the movie has several other scenes about how important it is to have someone who will always be there for you. Another important message of the movie is forgiveness. At the end of the movie Kodak the young bear finds out that Kenahi killed his mom in a fight. Kodak runs far away from the Salmon River. After meditating the situation, Kodak understands that his intensions were not bad and that he has to forgive his brother. After this, Kodak saves Kenahi’s life before being killed by his older brother. Furthermore, the reason why Kodak mom died was because Kenahi did not forgive that his brother was dead because of her. This story effectively transmitted these positive two messages, which were really straightforward and understandable for a younger audience.



            Brother Bear has a relatively small amount of negative subliminal messages, which could be understood by young children. This movie has some tense scenes, where two main characters are killed. This is not a good message to children, but it helped to enhance the feelings and emotions of the public audience. As in Everything’s and Argument says, “You may sometimes want to use emotions to connect with readers to assure them that you understand their experiences.” (Lunsford, 51) When Kodak found out that his mother was dead, both the scenario, and the way he reacted were really sad. He left the Salmon River and ran towards the woods by himself. The producers effectively communicated the feeling of sadness in the animation, and enhanced it with excellent music produced by Phil Collins. Furthermore, the way Kenahi was chancing and killed a grizzly bear is not a correct message because bears are protected animals that are in danger of extinction.

            The messages were easy to understand, and were effectively communicated to the public. The producers used a great choice of music and created a great animation that enhanced the public’s emotions. Brother Bear is a really good movie to watch with a great ethical message. The positive messages definitely outweigh the negative so I will award Brother Bear with three slurpees. 


No comments:

Post a Comment