Brother Bear 2

The original Brother Bear was a neutral object that never quite justified its existence and was like watching studio groupthink in action. Three years later comes a direct-to-video sequel, imaginatively titled Brother Bear 2, and it’s just as much of an indifferent object as the first. Hell, this one loses its movie star, Joaquin Phoenix, for a TV performer on a comeback, Patrick Dempsey, and a pop star mid-transformation into an actress, Mandy Moore. It’s this spirit of settling that pervades throughout Brother Bear 2. If you enjoyed those Canadian moose from the first film, then here’s an entire subplot about them trying to romance a pair of females, played by SCTV alumni Catherine O’Hara and Andrea Martin. I guess this one is as good as the original, or maybe a little better? I don’t know, honestly, as spending more time with this group of characters was an indifferent proposition from the jump. So, here’s a romance where the female gets turned into the beast and it expands upon the main character’s (human) backstory with plenty of stuff about the great spirits and not a single native voice actor to be found.