NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!
Blucher One of the worst movies I've ever seen
ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises
Pluskylang Great Film overall
John Panagopoulos I imagine that when Disney launched their DisneyNature movie department, some people expected them to produce nature documentaries chock-full of saccharine, corny sentiment, with animals presented basically as four-footed people with fur. While DisneyNature's "Bears" doesn't completely avoid that anthropomorphic expectation, it is surprisingly largely realistic and comprehensive in its portrayal of a mother grizzly bear named Sky and her two cubs, the rambunctious, independent boy bear Scout, and the more cautious "mamma's girl" Amber. The film begins in a winter mountain den, where Sky is nursing her newborns.As spring struggles to break forth, the cubs have developed enough to leave the den. Skye then proceeds to lead them over majestic mountain scenery to plains and coastal lowlands to find food – especially the bear mecca Golden Pond swarming with salmon that have migrated from the sea to lay their eggs and die. The three bears' goal in life is to eat enough, especially fat and protein, to put on enough weight to hibernate through another winter."Bears" chronicles the first year of these three bears' lives and the adventures and obstacles they encounter on their way to their promised land. They meet two male bears, the sneaky rogue Chinook and the lordly, territorial giant Magnus, both willing to make a snack of Scout and Amber. The bears also meet a solitary light-colored wolf named Tanaka, who would also like to take a bite out of the cubs. Sky has her paws full defending her cubs from these predators, even daring to tackle Magnus in a ferocious fight. She also has to make sure the mischievous Scout doesn't wander too far away and get lost. Sky, Scout, and Amber have to be careful not to be swept out to sea as they dig for clams. They have to find a safe, salmon- fishing spot along the river on the way to the pond, away from other fishing bears. Most importantly, they need to find Golden Pond to harvest the fatty salmon and pack on enough pounds to survive another winter. Clearly, these three bears' lives are no fairy tale. Will they succeed in their trek? Well, this IS a Disney movie after all.Again, "Bears" should be commended for showing how bears really live and interact and mostly resisting the temptation to make them too human. Every so often the narrator, John C. Reilly ("Stepbrothers", "Ricky Bobby: Talladega Nights", "Wreck-It Ralph") gives in to this temptation and makes the cubs seem like little kids (e.g. "Wait for me, Mom!" "He's got his game on.") but his narration is mostly otherwise straightforward and informative. We learn about the bears' diet (including grass), their dexterous claws (used to pry open clams), their acutely sensitive noses, their fishing techniques (including grabbing salmon in mid-air), and how a mother bear protecting her cubs is the most terrifying creature in nature. Although "Bears" does show some fierce animal brawls and attacks and salmon being eaten, these scenes are muted enough to merit the "G" rating. Not least important, the natural cinematography is stunningly magnificent. During the end credits, we witness the hazards the daring cameramen endured to get close enough to the bears and other creatures to film them.Therefore, I think "Bears" is an exciting, suitable, and accurately educational nature film for all people ages 7 and up. Even for people, like myself, who have seen more than their share of "National Geographic" wildlife documentaries, "Bears" reinforces the harshness, rawness, splendor, and grandeur of nature. It may even convince the hidden environmentalist in all of us that bears and other wild animals richly deserve our respect and protection.
StrayFeral I it I was not familiar with the Disneynature brand, until one day I purchased a Disney blu-ray disk on which there was a trailer for "Bears". The trailer impressed me so much, that when I saw the "Bears" blu-ray disk, it was no brainer to buy it.We just watched it last night, the whole family. The movie it a total triumph of technology in every way, so if you are an audio- and videophile, this disk is simply a must-have. First we begin with breath- taking views of nature in high-definition. Everything we saw was a pure honey for the eye - things we could not imagine to see on a screen when I was a kid. The movie uses a combination of different filming techniques for showing different sceneries, starting with aerial breath- taking landscapes of the Alaskan mountains, amazingly shot close-ups of different animals and wonderful slow-motions of swimming salmons.Unfortunately I cannot say very much for the audio, as my two-years-old kid was making too much noise while we watched and also sometimes there was a narrator voice, however there was a pleasurable sound, especially I liked very much how the water and the footsteps in the shallow waters were recorded. Kudos also for the stone-falling and the claw-scratched mussels sounds.As for the movie itself, kudos for Disney for few things. First, as this is a family movie, they managed very well to get rid of the violent scenes - animal fights were gently censored and only few delicate scenes were shown. Second, the bloody scenes were censored - there were almost no blood shown in the entire movie, with only very few exceptions - I noticed just one scene where a bear caught a salmon, but this scene was not really bloody. In general it is still appropriate movie for the whole family. Then we come to the story, which of course in a 100% Disney style was told very well, with both tension, some drama, action, humour and finally a nice happy ending, even with a moral of the story. The main keywords however, are "cute" and "heroes".I cannot miss to mention, that this must be a well budgeted movie, as they seem to had plenty of good resources to use, both technical and human talents. The result is that we have the chance to see a movie about the brown bears, showing their life in a way only few other movies succeeded (like "The Bear" 1988). So for what I paid for this disk, it worth every cent, as I had a wonderful experience watching it.I recommend this movie to every one, regardless the age. I will definitely look for the old Disneynature movies and I cannot wait for the "Monkey Kingdom" blu-ray disk to come out!
dieselmechanic Hello, I am from the Yukon Canada, and having seen Brown Bears in the wild, I was looking forward to viewing these wonderful creatures filmed by Disney Nature. I was looking forward with great excitement to seeing the Movie based on the movie trailer. However the Narration was at a preschool level, and yes i understand Disneys desire to appeal to family audience. However less narration and more overall scenery and how the scenes were filmed would have been enjoyable. Overall great Film except for narration, i will be enjoying the film once again on DVD with sound in mute mode, over and over as the bears are still the most majestic creatures.
Matt Greene Disney has been putting out a nature documentary on Earth Day for the past several years in order to raise awareness and funds for wildlife conservation. It's an extremely noble ambition, creating docs that are appropriate for children to help raise a generation of environmentally conscious people. Unfortunately in their latest, what we get is the Disney-fication of natural science. Instead of just giving us stunning visuals and fascinating facts, we're force fed a personified, half-hearted narrative, leaving Bears to be neither entertaining nor informative. Bears follows a mother and her two newborn cubs as they live out their first year, looking for food and trying to survive the dangers of the world. This mostly amounts to walking around. Animals strolling along beautiful scenery can be nice for a 30 minute TV episode or short doc, but not for a full length movie. The movie is somewhat aware of this and tries to construct a story to fill the space, but it's syrupy in its sweetness. While Reilly does a decent and mildly funny job with the voice-over, the script is too on-the-nose and corny. Worst of all, I'm not sure it's wise to personify animals by making them heroes (bears) or villains (wolves/bad bears) when their natural state is engaging enough. As a fan of Earth and Oceans, I think I expected more from Bears. Our world is a wondrous and complex place, and we get that in Bears with some awe-inspiring cinematography and some engaging natural moments. Nonetheless, while Bears is undeniably gorgeous, unfortunately it's also undeniably dull.
