Brother Bear - Production Notes
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
The powerful and playful bond between brothers, and man’s bond with nature, are explored with great drama and comedy in Walt Disney Pictures’ “Brother Bear,” an exciting new animated tale of brotherhood, bears, and breathtaking outdoor adventure. Driven by six great new songs from Academy Award® winner Phil Collins (including a sensational performance by legendary singer Tina Turner on the Collinscomposed tune, “Great Spirits”), the film follows the incredible adventures of a young man named Kenai who is transformed into a bear. From his new perspective, Kenai discovers the world through the eyes of another as he is befriended by a bear cub named Koda, has a hilarious encounter with a pair of misguided moose, and finds himself pursued by his own sibling. A colorful cast of animals adds to the fun and excitement of this third motion picture created by Disney’s Florida Animation Studio (“Mulan,” “Lilo & Stitch”). In addition to writing the songs for “Brother Bear” (his first film effort since “Tarzan”), Collins makes his scoring debut as well, working in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning composer Mark Mancina.
Inspired by a timeless tradition of transformation stories found in many world cultures, “Brother Bear” is an original story set 10,000 years ago in an idealized Pacific Northwest at the end of the Ice Age. Guiding the film from its inception were producer Chuck Williams and directors Aaron Blaise and Bob Walker. All three of the principal filmmakers have been with Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida since its very first day of operation – April 17, 1989.
Williams, who played a key role in developing “Brother Bear,” has served as associate producer and producer for many of the Disney-MGM Studio’s films and special projects and began his career as an editor (“Roller Coaster Rabbit,” etc.). Blaise’s animation credits include supervising roles on characters for “The Lion King” (Young Nala) and “Mulan” (Yao) plus character animation on “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Rescuers Down Under,” and “Aladdin,” among others. Walker has helped to stage and light some of Disney’s most popular features in his role as layout artist on “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Rescuers Down Under,” “Aladdin,” “The Lion King,” and “Lilo & Stitch,” and head of layout on “Mulan.” The screenplay for “Brother Bear” was written by Tab Murphy (“Tarzan”), and Lorne Cameron & David Hoselton, and Steve Bencich & Ron J. Friedman.
A talented ensemble of actors and actresses joined the “Brother Bear” family to bring the characters to life and inspire the animators with their vocal performances. Academy Award®-nominated actor Joaquin Phoenix (“Gladiator,” “Signs”) lends his voice to the character of Kenai, a headstrong young man who finds himself in an unbearable situation when he is transformed into a seven-foot grizzly bear. Jeremy Suarez (who plays Jordan on “The Bernie Mac Show”) is perfectly cast as Koda, a personable young bear cub in search of a friend who will help him get to the Salmon Run for a family reunion. Comic actors and “SCTV” alumni Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas team up for laughter and some mammoth adventures as the voices of Rutt and Tuke, two misguided moose with noses for trouble. D. B. Sweeney (the voice of Aladar in Disney’s “Dinosaur”) is heard as Sitka, Kenai’s oldest brother and the guardian of his two younger siblings. Jason Raize (who originated the role of Simba in the Broadway production of “The Lion King”) gives voice to the middle brother Denahi, who is driven to avenge his brother. Michael Clarke Duncan (“The Green Mile”) lends his deep distinctive voice to a grizzly bear named Tug, and Broadway veteran Joan Copeland provides wisdom and guidance as the voice of Tanana, the spiritual leader of the tribe. Estelle Harris, Greg Proops, and Daniel Mastrogiorgio and Paul Christie round out a fun cast of assorted animals that Kenai meets along the way.
In order to capture the scope and grandeur of its Pacific Northwest setting, the filmmakers embarked on several research trips to Alaska, California, and Wyoming. Blaise, Walker and Williams accompanied key members of the creative team to Denali National Park (home to the 20,000 foot-tall Mt. McKinley), Sequoia National Park, and a volcanic area at Katmai National Park called Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (which became the inspiration for the Valley of Fire sequence in “Brother Bear”). Art director Robh Ruppel, background supervisor Barry Kooser, layout supervisor Jeff Dickson, and a team of Disney artists trekked into the mountains of Wyoming to soak up the vistas and paint landscapes. They also visited the Grand Tetons, Yosemite, and Yellowstone National Park.
Giving the film an added sense of drama and excitement, the filmmakers chose to open up the screen to a wide Cinemascope format following Kenai’s transformation into a bear. In this way, the audience gets to see the world through Kenai’s eyes in a new and exciting way with expanded vistas. Blaise and Walker enlisted the support of the film’s artistic supervisors to help pull off this bit of cinematic magic. The first third of the film is seen in the more common 1.85:1 format. As Kenai comes to the realization that he is a bear, moviegoers will also experience a change in the way they perceive the world. A richer more saturated color palette, enhanced camera movement, and fuller sound also help to create Kenai’s “bear’s eye” view.
In addition to vocals by Collins, Turner and Jeremy Suarez (in his role as Koda), the film boasts performances by two other renowned musical groups. The multiple Grammy Awardwinning gospel group, The Blind Boys of Alabama, lend their soulful sound to the joyous song “Welcome.” Bringing an ethereal otherworldly sound to the “Transformation” song and the “voice” of the Northern Lights is the 20- member Bulgarian Women’s Choir. “Transformation” takes on an even more diverse cultural flavor with its lyrics translated into the Inuit language and performed by the Bulgarian group.
According to Williams, “Aaron and Bob had a great feel and intuition for what the tone of this film should be from the very beginning and they’ve been true to that vision. They wanted this to be a naturalistic film that conveyed nature and animals in a fairly realistic way. They wanted it to look very painterly and have a rugged outdoor look. We knew from the beginning that the film had to have an emotional core to it. The directors and I have practically become brothers during the making of this film. With Bob’s background in layout, Aaron’s in animation and mine in editing, we all had lots of ideas for how to give the film a great cinematic look.”
David Stainton, president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, observes, “’Brother Bear’ is one of the most beautiful and heartfelt animated films our Studio has ever made. It is dramatic, funny, exciting, and lends itself to the things that animation does best. Chuck, Aaron, Bob and the entire team at Disney’s Florida Studio have once again proven that they are first-rate filmmakers with a great sense of story and impeccable artistic skills. We are very proud of ‘Brother Bear’ and feel that it follows in the tradition of Disney’s best animated features.”
THE STORY
This is the story of three brothers who lived long ago – when the great mammoths still roamed the magnificent, unspoiled American Northwest.
Kenai, the youngest of three brothers, is about to receive his totem – a symbol revealed by the Great Spirits to help guide him through life. When Tanana (the village Shaman) presents him with a carved bear – the symbol of love – he is deeply disappointed. He had been hoping for something a bit more important – like the eagle totem (representing guidance) received by his oldest brother Sitka, or the wolf totem (for wisdom) of his brother, Denahi. Sitka tries to comfort him, but Denahi teases him mercilessly.
Shortly after, Kenai discovers that a bear has stolen his basket of fish, and he impulsively charges after the animal. His brothers pick up his trail and race off to protect him. Trapped in a fierce confrontation, Sitka makes the ultimate sacrifice to save his siblings by breaking off a piece of glacier. The brave brother plunges to his death while the bear emerges unharmed from the waters below.
Ignoring Denahi’s advice and the village teachings of brotherhood, Kenai tracks down the bear he holds responsible for Sitka’s death. Against overwhelming odds, he ultimately battles and kills the bear. At that moment, the Great Spirits, in the form of the Northern Lights descend on Kenai and transform him into the very creature that he most despises. Meanwhile, Denahi, having discovered his younger brother has gone after the bear, comes upon the scene just after Kenai has changed. Seeing the bear standing over his brother’s torn clothes and broken spear, he assumes the worst – another brother has fallen to a bear. Forsaking his peaceful philosophy, Denahi is enraged and vows to track down the bear who killed his brother.
Kenai has trouble adjusting to his new bear body. Tanana, the Shaman woman of the tribe, appears and informs him that it was the spirit of Sitka who was responsible for the transformation and that Kenai can find him on the “mountain where the light touches the earth.” Kenai has no idea where to begin his search. Frustrated and afraid, his first encounter is with two dimwitted Canadian-accented moose – Rutt and Tuke. When Kenai tries to explain his predicament and asks them where to find the mountain, the moose siblings think he’s crazy and try to ignore him. Kenai’s fortune goes from bad to worse when he gets caught in a trap and finds himself dangling upside down from a tree. When a talkative bear cub named Koda comes along and offers assistance, Kenai’s pride gets in the way and he stubbornly refuses – the last thing he wants help from is a bear. Koda has been separated from his mother, and was told to meet her at the annual Salmon Run. He needs a big bear to take him to her. Kenai finally agrees to take Koda to the Salmon Run if he helps him get down from the tree. The two are soon “on their way” to adventure and discovery.
Denahi aggressively pursues the bear he thinks killed Kenai, not realizing that the animal and his brother are one and the same. Meanwhile, Koda and Kenai make their way across the northern country through glacial caverns, frosty tundras, a sulfurous geyser field, and treacherous gorges.
At the Salmon Run, Kenai finds a warm “welcome” from the bears who have gathered for the annual festival and begins to put aside his deep-seated hatred for bears. As a result of his journey, Kenai has come to question everything he knows and learns many important lessons about the true meaning of brotherhood. Ultimately, he comes to realize that his physical transformation is insignificant compared to the change that has occurred within himself. When Denahi arrives on the scene, the stage is set for a dramatic finale.
TRANSFORMING A LEGEND: ORIGINS OF THE PROJECT
“Brother Bear” is a project that Disney’s Florida Animation Studio likes to refer to as “home grown.” The idea for this film was developed there and was to become the first project to go from conception to completion almost entirely through that facility.
Disney’s Feature Animation team first began exploring a film about bears nearly a decade ago around the time that “The Lion King” was still in production. Early versions of the feature had a very dramatic storyline with elements of Shakespeare’s “King Lear.” Under the working title of “Bears,” the project was revisited and actively developed by veteran animator Aaron Blaise and Chuck Williams in his role as development executive for the Florida Studio. Blaise began working on the project in 1997, and was soon joined by co-director Bob Walker.
Williams recalls, “It’s basically an original story. Aaron and I started from scratch by reading a lot of Native American myths and transformation stories. We discovered that practically every culture around the world had some kind of story about people transforming into animals. Many of them were about boys changing into bears as a coming of age ritual. Some of the stories even had humans pretending to be bears for a period of time and then they’d come out and be considered men of the tribe. Our original idea was a father-son story about a rebellious son who was changed into a bear and had to make amends with his father in order to change back.”
Blaise adds, “The transformation myths were designed to teach life lessons and that’s why they were passed down all these years by different cultures. They’re structured in ways that are unlike Western storytelling, with the idea that you could go from one culture to another, meaning one animal world to the human world. They felt that the animals were just people in different clothing. We thought it was a cool idea that you could cross over from one culture to another.”
Screenwriter Tab Murphy (“Tarzan,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Atlantis: The Lost Empire”) came on board to write an early draft of the script. Lorne Cameron & David Hoselton, and Steve Bencich & Ron J. Friedman added further to the story structure and dialogue through their subsequent screenplays. In Florida, Steve Anderson served as story supervisor and worked closely with the producer, directors and a team of story artists to storyboard the film.
A “BEAR” OF AN ASSIGNMENT: BRINGING THE CHARACTERS TO LIFE
For the animation team at Disney’s Florida Studio, “Brother Bear” presented a wide range of new challenges and rewards. Having previously created the features “Mulan” and “Lilo & Stitch,” this latest project gave them their first real chance to animate a cast made up primarily of animals. With colorful characters ranging from big horn rams and chipmunks to bears, moose and mammoths, the animators had fun boning up on unusual anatomy and locomotion. An assortment of experts and guest lecturers visited the Studio to assist the team in their task, while bear cubs and other animals also dropped by. Bear researcher/preservationist/author Timothy Treadwell (Among Grizzlies: Living with Wild Bears in Alaska) also came to the Studio to offer his firsthand accounts and insights about these magnificent animals.
Supervising the animation for Kenai as a bear was Byron Howard, a ten-year veteran of Florida’s animation team whose most recent assignment was the character of Nani and Cobra Bubbles in “Lilo & Stitch.”
“I’ve never animated an animal before,” confesses Howard. “And even though bears can have a remarkably human-like figure when they stand up on their hind legs, they have a very different build from humans. When Kenai is first transformed into a bear he tries to maintain a two-legged posture, but he just can’t pull it off. He’s too awkward; his body has changed too much. Eventually he figures that four-legged locomotion is the easier way. Bears are actually easier to animate than most quadrupeds because they walk on the flats of their feet instead of on their toes. Also, their anatomy is wrapped in huge round snowman-like shapes, which allows for broader actions and is more forgiving. In the case of Kenai, where you have a human who’s actually a bear, you want to be able to use some of those human gestures.
“Kenai is a mid-size younger bear that is probably about six or seven feet tall and weighs about 900 pounds,” adds Howard. “We learned a lot about bear anatomy and locomotion from Stuart Sumida (a biology professor specializing in animal movement) and his wife, Beth Rega. An artist named Terryl Whitlatch (who had worked on the last two “Star Wars” films) did about forty or fifty pages of beautiful drawings of bear anatomy, which really helped us. We also made a field trip to the Silver Springs nature theme park in Florida where we got to spend time about two feet away from several full-size Kodiak bears. They have tremendous energy and we had to learn how to make them move with all the weight and power as well as the momentum and inertia of the real animals.”
Joaquin Phoenix’s vocal performance provided both Howard and Jim Jackson (the supervising animator of Kenai as a human) with great material.
Howard notes, “Joaquin’s voice was so expressive and emotional. It’s got this nice raspy quality to it and he was able to give the character the range it needed. He was very funny, and also able to give Kenai the dramatic side to his character as well. His performance was so empathetic. I would listen to the recordings over and over and try to get the acting and the expression to match the vocal track. I try to build the animation from the inside. Once you understand the thinking and acting, you work on the physical stuff – the gestures, the anatomy, the posture, and the right weight. You just build from there.”
Alex Kupershmidt, a 21-year Disney veteran who most recently oversaw the animation of the mischievous alien Stitch in “Lilo & Stitch,” was the supervising animator for the irrepressible bear cub Koda.
He explains, “Stitch and Koda are alike in that they’re both little boys. Stitch, however, was a dysfunctional boy who grew up not knowing his family. Koda is a really well-adjusted kid. He’s a straight arrow, true blue character who is very confident and secure in himself and his views. And of course he’s a realistic bear cub.
“I think every animal presents its own difficulties,” adds Kupershmidt. “Every animal is distinct. Our job is to find what it is about the way they move that makes them distinct. That’s what you exaggerate when you animate. Bears tend to rock from leg to leg when they walk and because they’re so massive, their legs are spread wide. It appears clumsy, but it’s just the way they transfer their weight. Our starting point on this film was to watch a lot of documentaries about bears. They’re the largest carnivores in North America and fascinating to study.
“Bear cubs like Koda are lighter and a lot more playful,” observes the animator. “Their movements are kind of raw and unpolished, much like human kids. We tried to have Koda move the way a child would – a little off-sync. Spending time with bear cubs that came to visit the Studio was really helpful. And Jeremy Suarez was a terrific voice for the character. He has a machinegun fire way of speaking and the words just tumbled out one after another. We had to work hard to get the lip synch just right and when you have rapid speech you have more drawings.
Kupershmidt concludes, “This was a very hard film to animate because of its realistic animal movements. For the Florida Studio, it was a great step forward. If ‘Lilo & Stitch’ was our ‘Dumbo,’ this film was our ‘Bambi.’ I’m particularly proud of the way the heavy emotional moments in the film are handled with restraint, as they are in such great Disney films as ‘Dumbo’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ The audience has come a long way with these characters and will let their emotions flow if we provide the blank canvas.”
Adding great comedy and entertainment to “Brother Bear” are two comical moose characters, whose voices have more than a passing resemblance to comedians Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas. According to director Aaron Blaise, “Most of the recording sessions with Rick and Dave were done together. Everything they do is so dependent on riffing off of each other. They would really go to town with the script and have lots of fun with it. Their role continued to grow into something more than comic relief. They became part of the thematic about brothers and forgiving and change. They actually help Koda make the leap to go to the top of the mountain to free Kenai.”
Supervising animators Broose Johnson (Tuke) and Tony Stanley (Rutt) were the lucky duo in charge of these battling brothers. Johnson recalls, “Early on we had bantered around the idea of having these two Canadian moose in the film with the voices of Rick and Dave. In the dreamland possibility that that could actually happen, these moose were made with them in mind. I am an enormous fan of their comedy and with these characters we were able to pay homage to them. I spell my name ‘B-r-o-o-s-e’ and ever since high school people have been saying ‘Broose the moose.’ So a moose just has become my favorite character, and has been forever. There was a scene in ‘Pocahontas’ where the dog, Percy, runs past a moose, and I persuaded the director to let me animate him. So Rutt and Tuke are not my first moose characters.”
Stanley adds, “In designing the characters, we tried to take our visual cues from Rick and Dave. Rutt, the Rick character, is smaller and a bit more slouched. He tends to look a little sad and he squints a bit too. Tuke, Dave’s character, tends to do a lot with his eyebrows. He thinks he’s the leader. There really isn’t a straight man. They go back and forth in that role.”
Johnson got to see some moose in person during a field trip to Alaska. Stanley had to settle for studying documentary footage for reference and studying some of the taller animals (like Okapis) at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Moose can stand as tall as 7-1/2 feet to the shoulder, weigh over 1000 pounds and have an antler spread of six feet from tip to tip. Antlers proved to be one of the most difficult challenges for the Rutt and Tuke animators and CG animation provided just the right solution for dealing with them.
Johnson explains, “The big mystery element that threw Tony and I into a tizzy were the antlers. It’s very hard to draw something solid like that from frame to frame and have it maintain its shape and look believable. We finally discovered that if we worked a bit backwards and figured out all the details on the computer, we could spend more time in the end doing some beautiful drawings. We would carefully plan our scenes with the moose talking and interacting, then scan our rough drawings into the computer and use CG to animate the antlers in the right place. Once the antlers were created as digital images, we took stats of them and traced them back onto paper so we could finish our animation. We discovered early on that the whole skull had to move in perspective with the antlers and the eyes had to be locked down in order for the antlers to look right. Once we got the head and antlers where we wanted them, we could concentrate on the performance and expressions.”
“There’s a scene where Rutt and Tuke get their antlers locked together and we were dreading animating it,” observes Stanley. “We figured it out sort of like one of those Chinese finger traps, where if you just relax, it would separate. We worked side by side on this one and actually animated both characters on the same piece of paper.”
Johnson concludes, “What we really liked about drawing these guys was that they actually played an important role in the film besides comic relief and helped Koda to realize an important lesson in brotherhood. I’ve always found that my favorite comedy movies have moments that are pretty heart-wrenching and Rutt and Tuke have one of those really sweet poignant moments towards the end of this film.”
For the three human leads on the film, a whole different set of challenges came into play.
Ruben Aquino, one of Disney’s top animators for many years and the supervisor of such memorable characters as Ursula (“The Little Mermaid”), Adult Simba (“The Lion King”) and Pleakley (“Lilo & Stitch”), was in charge of the character of Denahi.
“Denahi was an interesting character because he goes through so many changes during the film in relation to his state of mind and appearance,” explains Aquino. “In the beginning of the movie, he’s very happy-go-lucky and enjoys horsing around with his younger brother. When Sitka is killed by a bear, Denahi becomes more somber and sad. Later, when he thinks Kenai has met the same fate, he becomes angry. There is a lot of emotion, a lot of pantomime. Throughout most of the movie, Denahi doesn’t even speak; so the challenge is to make the audience know how he’s feeling through his actions and facial expressions. As the story progresses, he becomes more and more savage and driven, which is reflected in his costumes and hair. Jason Raize gave us an excellent vocal performance to work with. “
Anthony Michaels, the supervising animator for Sitka, notes, “Sitka is like the all- American guy. He serves as the voice of wisdom and tries to keep his two other brothers in line. He’s the biggest and strongest of the bunch, with broad shoulders. D.B. Sweeney had a nice little chuckle in his voice at times and other little nuances that brought a sympathetic and personable quality to the character. The action scene where Sitka is fighting the bear pushed me as an artist and I would say I’m most proud of that.”
NATURE CALLS: CREATING A NATURALISTIC LOOK FOR “BROTHER BEAR”
Directors Blaise and Walker were well suited to their assignment on “Brother Bear.” Both are nature lovers who spend a lot of their spare time hiking, boating and enjoying the great outdoors. They quickly realized that the art direction for this film would have to be as truthful to nature as possible.
Art director Robh Ruppel explains, “The directors wanted a very naturalistic look for the film. By that I mean, they wanted it to be based on nature but interpreted through art. It was extremely helpful for our artists to visit Alaska and take a painting trip to Wyoming. We were struck by how raw and primitive the landscapes were with huge ranges of mountains upon mountains upon mountains. The sky had so many layers and so many different types of clouds. We drew and painted and took lots of photos. When you sit there and draw something you have a much more intimate connection with it. You’re actually looking at it really intensely and studying it. Part of what makes art great is when you interpret something with your own eyes, you’re translating three-dimensional space and color and form into the language of drawing and painting. You become much more acquainted with what’s really going on around you.
“Our goal in the art direction for ‘Brother Bear’ was to make it look believable and we tried to accomplish this with the way the film was lit and composed,” adds Ruppel. “It doesn’t look like a stage play. It feels like it’s outdoors or like it was shot on location. We tried to get real air and light into it and keep the light sources believable.”
The filmmakers made their first trip to Alaska in August 1999 and returned for a second field trip one year later. They spent time at Denali National Park and the Kenai Fjords National Park, where they visited Exit and Holgate Glacier. The artists painted mountain ranges and observed semi-extinct volcanoes in the setting sun. They practiced a style called “plein-air” (or open air), in which the artist works in natural light and careful attention is paid to how light appears on subjects.
Ruppel says, “One of the legendary artists who inspired us was Albert Bierstadt, a famous 19th Century painter who specialized in Western scenery and immortalized the Rocky Mountains and Yosemite with his grand romantic paintings. He was part of the Hudson River School, known for their awesome images of the wilderness, and the use of dramatic light effects to portray such elements as mist and sunsets. That was the look we tried to capture with ‘Brother Bear.’”
Another major influence on the look of the film was a talented background stylist on the Florida team by the name of Xiangyuan (or “Jay”) Jie. “This guy is one of the most amazing painters I’ve ever met,” says Blaise. “Bob and I saw a show of his paintings and immediately decided that we wanted the movie to look like that. You can see the strokes in his paintings. They’re very rugged, painterly, threedimensional backgrounds. We basically adopted his personal style of painting for ‘Brother Bear.’ Robh melded everything together in a great way.”
Background supervisor Barry Kooser and his team of artists took a painting trip in 2001 to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to study with renowned contemporary Western landscape painter Scott Christensen. He taught them how to simplify objects by getting the spatial dimensions to work first and working in the detail later. For this film, eighteen artists created about 800 backgrounds ranging in size from a twelve-inch field to dynamic vistas measuring two-feet high by fourfeet long.
Kooser explains, “The backgrounds in this film are quite different from the watercolor approach we used in ‘Lilo & Stitch.’ Our style here is very much like oil painting. It is similar to the style of ‘Bambi,’ where the brushstrokes are more implied. It’s an indicative approach that is rougher and sketchier as opposed to being fully rendered and overworked. There are parts of our backgrounds where there’s quite a bit of detail, and then other parts where it’s just left up to the individual’s imagination to fill in the rest.”
Adding to the depth and dimension of the film is a process called “Deep Paint.” This highly effective and direct approach to painting 3-D models was used in half a dozen key scenes to bring a sense of extra movement and drama. Examples of scenes using “Deep Paint” include the first view of the fishing area when Kenai and Koda come over a ridge and see a great big beautiful vista of the bears fishing. Another scene, where Kenai makes an emotional confession to Koda, is punctuated by a “helicopter shot” that rotates around trees, rocks and other objects.
One of the most impressive scenes in the film from an art direction standpoint is the transformation of Kenai from human to bear. To enhance the emotional impact of this scene, the creative team relied on an imaginative approach to the color palette and spectacular special effects.
Ruppel says, “Just before Kenai is transformed into a bear, we gradually drain the color out of the scene. The backgrounds become slate gray, blue and black so that when the change happens there is a real peak in color. Your eyes have been neutralized so when the transformation hits, it really has a tremendous impact.”
Effects supervisor Garrett Wren and his team of thirty specialists added to the impact of the transformation scene by creating a spiritual Northern Lights aurora complete with animals running through it. They also contributed a wide range of 2-D and 3-D effects to the overall film.
Wren observes, “This was a very complex film from an effects perspective. One of our biggest efforts was the glacier sequence where a cliff edge collapses and plunges down into the water. We integrated 3-D elements such as chunks of rock and debris with big splashes that were done in 2-D. At the Salmon Run, we have about 70 different waterfalls, which are all done in 3-D. The film also has volcanic mud pots and geysers at the Valley of Fire. For the big snow scenes, the directors wanted it to be blowing this way and that. The snow is a CG effect using random particles and the characters are 2-D, which meant we had to pop the levels of snow from in front of him to behind as he was running. I don’t think there was any effect that didn’t go into this movie.”
CREATING A BEAR’S EYE VIEW: SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH THE EYES OF ANOTHER
One of the most innovative aspects of “Brother Bear” is the aspect ratio itself. The film starts off in the standard 1.85:1 format commonly used for most of today’s releases. One third of the way into the film, when Kenai discovers that he has been transformed into a bear, the screen opens up to a widescreen Cinemascope or 2.35:1 format.
Walker, whose background is in the area of layout, says, “To me, this was a great layout movie, with its Pacific Northwest setting. With Cinemascope, we had much more screen to play with and we were able to show the enormous scale of the settings. When Kenai is transformed into a bear, we thought maybe the audience should go through the same thing.”
Blaise adds, “We thought that since Kenai was being enlightened by his transformation, why not widen the audience perspective as well. Our color palette changes from muted tones to bright, saturated, beautiful colors. It’s basically a much more mild version of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and a lot of people won’t even be aware of the change.”
Layout supervisor Jeff Dickson explains, “This film really demanded Cinemascope more than any other film that we’ve done before. Having gone to Alaska, we were struck by how big everything was. It’s bigger than anything you could have imagined before and the vistas seem to go on forever. There’s one mountain range stacked after another way into the horizon. With the widescreen format, we could enhance the vastness of this world. The basic philosophy to composing shots for ‘Brother Bear’ was that this is a world too vast for the camera to contain. We were trying to give the impression that it goes way beyond the frame edge. In many shots, the mountains rise right out of frame so you get the sense that you’re only seeing a little narrow aspect of this humongous world. To compose that kind of scale into a 1:85 format is almost impossible.”
Dickson and the layout team came to understand the advantages and restrictions of Cinemascope.
“Close-ups can be a real bear in Cinemascope,” jokes Dickson. “If you have a shot of a full head and maybe a bit of the shoulders, you get all this empty space around the character and you have to do something with it. You have to be careful what you put in back there because you don’t want to detract from the character. This meant using tighter close-ups, like from the forehead to just under the chin. It helped a lot that bears’ heads are basically horizontal.
“Camera movements were also a bit tricky,” he adds. “When the camera moves in Cinemascope, it’s not as forgiving as in the smaller format. Any motion of the camera can tend to overwhelm your processing circuits. We dealt with this by creating more levels than we otherwise would have and being a little more cautious about how quickly we moved the camera. Moving the camera at more of an angle across vertical lines and blurring trees was one method that we used.”
Producer Williams adds, “Act II of the film begins with Kenai waking up for the first time as a bear. We do this sort of double-eye fade-in, where things start out a bit blurry as he looks at the sky and these beautiful trees. The image is now Cinemascope. Not only that, the colors are richer, the sounds are more acute, and the background sounds are turned up. The other thing we do is free up the camera. We’re now moving in three-dimensional space. Act I was flatter and now it’s bigger, more colorful with more movement to it. We tried to keep the camera a bit more static during the first third of the film and very fluid during the next two acts.”
GREAT MUSICAL SPIRITS: THE MUSICAL COLLABORATION OF PHIL COLLINS AND MARK MANCINA
Rock legend Phil Collins found a great new outlet for his musical talents when he joined forces with Disney’s Feature Animation team for the 1999 animated feature, “Tarzan.” His percussive rhythms and distinctive vocals gave that film a musical identity all its own and greatly added to the overall entertainment. On the day that “Tarzan” debuted in England, Collins was first approached about working on “Brother Bear.” He went on to write six original songs for the film and shared a composer credit for the score with three-time Grammy Award-winner Mark Mancina (“Tarzan,” “The Lion King,” etc.).
Collins recalls, “They told me the story of ‘Brother Bear’ and gave me a book filled with paintings that had inspired the look of the film. It had lots of great scenery of the American northwest with wide-open skies. I began looking through the book and writing phrases and impressions that came to me. Things like ‘when the mountains kissed the sky’ and ‘when nature and man live side by side.’ The lyrics to ‘Great Spirits’ came to me that way.”
“Great Spirits” is the first song heard in the film and it gets a spirited performance by the legendary Tina Turner. The song establishes the theme of brotherhood that runs throughout the film with such lyrics as “Show us that in your eyes, we are all the same. Brothers to all creatures. In this world, we remain truly brothers all the same.”
Turner, now retired from touring and living in Switzerland, notes, “The song is great and the music is wonderful. It has a great feeling. When I first read the lyrics, I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a prayer.’ And then as I listened more and more, I started to feel, ‘This is a good song that I could sing. This is a song I want to sing.’ I feel it. It has an undercurrent gospel feeling to it. It started to grow and grow and I had great pleasure learning it. There is a real spiritual quality to it and the message is about love and care and coming together.
“Phil and I go way back,” adds Turner. “He played on my Break Every Rule album and we worked together on ‘The Prince’s Trust Concert’ in London some time ago. It’s always fun working with him.”
The film’s Chuck Williams notes, “Tina’s performance gives the song a real earthy and organic feel. She represents the viewpoint of the Shaman character Tanana, and sings for the Great Spirits about the world and all the change around them. It’s about the connection we have with nature and animals. Tina gives the song a powerful voice of strength and wisdom.”
By far, the most unusual song in the film is “Transformation,” which accompanies Kenai’s change from human to bear form. Collins’ lyrics were translated into the Inuit language and sung by the Bulgarian Women’s Choir. Mancina arranged the song with Collins and Eddie Jobson handled the vocal arrangements.
According to Mancina, “Phil wrote the song and played the demo for us. When I heard it, I was so moved by it and felt like that piece of music provided the perfect opportunity to work with the Bulgarian Women’s Choir. The idea of them singing in a language that is completely foreign to them gave the song a texture and sound that was unique. The sound is crosscultural.”
Collins admits, “I’ve never really written a song like this before. Using a computer to compose music, I was able to move things around and try things that I never would have tried otherwise. You take different notes and move them to see what it would sound like. You never really know what you’ve got until you do it. I wrote the words to this song and assumed I was going to sing it. Then the idea came to use the Bulgarian Women’s Choir. It just developed and now when I hear the song with the choir and the orchestra, I have no idea how I wrote it. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done before and it doesn’t sound like anything that’s been in a Disney film before. It’s kind of a melting pot. It’s definitely world music.”
Williams adds, “The voices on this song are from the point of view of the Spirits that are changing Kenai. It says, ‘Take my hand, let me show you a world you’ve never seen before, let me show you a world through another’s eyes.’ “
The film’s next musical offering is the joyous, optimistic “On My Way,” sung by Collins and Jeremy Suarez. It signals a new direction for Kenai and Koda as they join forces to face their destiny.
Collins observes, “The song starts off from Koda’s point of view as he sings about being on his way, but in fact, Kenai is also moving forward too. He’s found this guy that’s going to take him to the mountain and Koda has a new friend to take him to the Salmon Run to meet up with his mother. They’re both starting journeys and you can see it through both of their eyes. When I write a song for a film, I always try to make it live outside the film and this one seemed to meet that criterion.”
At the Salmon Run, Kenai and Koda meet up with a large group of bears gathered together to fish and swap stories. Collins captured this happy moment in the film with the song “Welcome.” Helping to give the song its soul and spirit is the legendary vocal group, The Blind Boys of Alabama. This acclaimed vocal ensemble, which won back-to-back Grammy Awards in 2002 and 2003 for their gospel albums Spirit of the Century and Higher Ground, has been together for 60 years with three of the original members still performing.
“I was in the swimming pool a few summers ago, and I started singing ‘welcome to our family time, welcome to our happy to be time, this is our festival, and best of all…’ and I thought that’s that, I’m becoming a Disney writer,” explains Collins. “I made a note of those lyrics. The filmmakers wanted the song to have a mood that was really soulful as opposed to the frat party thing. Having grown up in the ‘60s, soul meant the Motown and Stax sounds to me. So I took some of this and a bit of that feel and went from there.”
The song “No Way Out (Theme from “Brother Bear”)” is a beautiful ballad sung by Collins and accompanies the emotional moment in the film where Kenai and Koda share a sad truth. Weaving dialogue and song, the lyrics express Kenai’s innermost feelings. “There’s nothing I can say to change the things I’ve done,” sings Collins, as the camera shows Kenai turning to face Koda. This scene marks a major arc for Kenai as he comes to realize the full impact of his actions and attitudes.
“Look Through My Eyes,” is heard over the end credits and is once again performed by Collins. This upbeat ballad captures the philosophy of the film through its lyrics and rhythmic melody.
Collins sums up his songwriting assignment on “Brother Bear” in this way: “The eternal challenge is to do something better than the one you’ve done before and I love doing things that are new. This film has been totally different from ‘Tarzan’ and I loved the themes of forgiveness, compassion and understanding that it dealt with. My job as a songwriter is to create songs the people will like and that will carry the story. The opportunity to get involved in the score also made this a very exciting project for me. I couldn’t wait to go to the studio everyday to work.
“Scoring the film with Mark was great fun,” he adds. “Working with an orchestral palette and a lot of ethnic instruments was something new to me even though I already knew a lot about orchestration. At the end of the day, when you’ve got forty-five seconds or a minute cue and you watch the picture with all the things in the right place and it makes you feel the way it’s supposed to make you feel, there’s a great deal of satisfaction.”
Mancina observes, “I love to collaborate and this film brought Phil and me together in a very close partnership to write the score. A lot of times on animated films, the composer and the songwriter come from two different areas or there is one person doing both. In this instance, we’re kind of blending into each other’s work. Phil writes the songs, but I’ve been co-producing and arranging with him.”
Known for using unusual instrumentation in his scores, Mancina was able to have some fun with a film set at the end of the last ice age.
“We started this film with eclectic woodwinds made from ostrich eggs and animal bones drilled with holes, because we wanted the score to have a very primitive sort of sound,” says Mancina. “I did some research and went to my collection of instruments. We used Hopi instruments and Native American drums. The idea was to create a hybrid sound. For example, we combined a giant whale drum, a metal drum and a Taiko drum to give it a sound of its own. The orchestra is basically strings and woodwinds and brass with all sorts of little flavors from these hybrid instruments blended in.
“The idea of using vocals for melodies also helps to give the score a special feeling,” he adds. “Phil does some ethereal vocals and the Bulgarian Women’s Choir has an other-worldly quality. That made it very exciting.”
Mancina concludes, “Film scoring is a very lonely job. You take the film home, you sit at a keyboard, you stare at the film. Everybody is expecting magic, and it’s just you sitting there. Working with Phil has been fun because there is somebody else to share it with. He’s a fantastic drummer so the rhythmic ideas come easily. But he’s also been able to open up his instrumental writing, which comes from his days with Genesis, and this score has given him a chance to revisit that and use his melodic sense. With my background as a songwriter and musician, we’ve been able to shift jobs to each other. It’s been a really good interaction.”
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