McKenzie moose? Now you got my attention.

For decades, the Walt Disney Company made a whole bunch of animated movies for their Animated Canon. Some of them, like Beauty and the Beast, are timeless classics. Others, like The Black Cauldron, are pitiful additions to the Canon. And then there's those that fly under the radar; that last category not only applies to Oliver & Company, but also to Brother Bear.

At first, I, like the rest of the world, passed up any chances of seeing it, but then we found out who voiced the characters. Our main character Kenai is voiced by Joaquin Phoenix, Koda is voiced by Jeremy Suarez from The Bernie Mac Show (and he'll be in the new AVGN movie), and the moose Rutt and Tuke are basically animal versions of the McKenzie Bros. from SCTV; no really; it's them! Now where was I? Oh, I thought this would be some lame rehash of The Emperor's New Groove, but actually, it really isn't. The difference between these two movies is that while Kuzco was very egotistical, the reason for Kenai's transformation was because he killed a bear in cold blood after his eldest brother Sitka dies protecting him and other brother Denahi from it.

From what I can tell, in addition to the movie's messages about loving your family and that revenge has consequences, there is a third message that is about fate. Sitka was destined to sacrifice himself to save his brothers. Kenai was destined to turn into a bear. Koda was destined to be Kenai's surrogate brother even after Kenai killed his mother. And Rutt and Tuke were destined to live in harmony with the bears, animals that are normally predators to moose. Yes, even though this movie didn't do so hot initially, it's actually pretty deep, and the ending always has me shedding at least a single tear. The movie is a case of "Don't judge a book by its cover", meta or not.

My rating: 8/10