brother bear cultural appropriation

"[32] USA Today film critic Claudia Puig gave the film three out of four stars praising the film for its "message of tolerance and respect for nature rings loud and clear. Moana takes inspiration from Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and Tahiti. It is adapted from a story set in India and written by a British-Indian author. actress Kristen Bell recalled asking her young daughters in an interview with Parents.com. Many replies to Stenberg's response of the original poster demeaned Amandla for making an argument about race as many bystanders were . On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 37% of 131 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.5/10. Cultural appropriation is the "adoption or taking of specific elements of one culture by another without substantive reciprocity, permission, compensation, understanding, or appreciation" (Chepp, 2012). [24][25] By January 2005, the film had earned $169 million in home video sales and rentals. "The Emperor's New Groove's" Kuzco, and "Brother Bear's" Kenai all have one thing in common they're main characters of color in Disney movies who spend almost all of their respective stories . "Brother Bear" reflects this reality of real-life American Indian shamanism. It seems unlikely that Disney would show children drinking in one of their new releases today, but older animated films depict exactly that. "It feels like the culmination of a whole story's worth of emotional abuse and grooming.". I also read that the story was inspired by a supposed gap in the navigation history of the Polynesian peoples. Her trip to England and marriage to John Rolfe are bizarrely portrayed in the direct-to-video sequel. At the end of the movie though, an Indian girl appears wearing a bindi and she sings a strange song that seems to imply that things never really change in the jungle. killed in an altercation with a bear, another brother kills the bear to avenge his brother's death. Collins, who had never written a score before, was excited to learn and the end result is wonderful. After Sitka's funeral, an enraged Kenai blames the bear for Sitka's death. The movie has left me with a lifelong interest and appreciation for real life Inuit culture so it would make me sad to find out it was offensive, but if it was I guess I'll just have to accept that. Our modern understanding of cultural appropriation is highly individualised. I would love to see Disney make a movie set in India with human characters. Typically, queer-coded male villains tend to be effeminate, flamboyant, and/or talk with a lisp, while queer-coded female villains tend to be more masculine and brash than the movies' heroines. As in The Jungle Book, the animals reflect the local fauna, but not the local culture. "To characterize an entire region with this sort of tongue-in-cheek bigotry, especially in a movie aimed at children, borders on barbaric," The New York Times said of the song in 1993. Many parents (including celebrities) have voiced their concerns over sharing the scene with their children. We have over 500 surviving tribes over here in the Americas, and they all speak different languages and have different cultures and religions. [5] Around 2000, the story evolved into a tale in which the transformed Kenai is taken in by an older bear, Grizz, who was to be voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan. [14] Byron Howard, supervising animator for Kenai in bear form, said that earlier in production a bear named Grizz (who resembles Tug in the film and is voiced by the same actor) was supposed to have the role of Kenai's mentor. Of course, the former is a much larger portion . Kenai's disrespect of his power leads him to kill a bear--a great taboo for a bear shaman, and an act that changes him into a bear himself. Now imagine if they did an animated movie like Moana, but with a black African Disney princess. [19], Brother Bear was originally slated for a spring 2004 release, while Home on the Range was scheduled for a 2003 release. India has a ton of filmmakers already and a huge demographic. [6] In 1997, veteran animator Aaron Blaise came on board the project as director because he "wanted to be attached so that [he] could animate bears",[7] and was soon joined by co-director Robert Walker. The spirits call upon Tahana to reveal to each member of her tribe their totem spirit power. In the halls of academia, discourse regarding cultural appropriation arose in the late 1970s, sparked by the publication of Edward Said 's famous book "Orientalism.". The local shaman disagrees with this action, and transforms the brother into a bear. Last century they dubbed themselves the "forgotten minority." The crowd, waiting to see B.B. The film, which was released in the United States on November 1, 2003, received mixed reviews from critics and received a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 76th Academy Awards, losing to Pixar's Finding Nemo. [22], On October 20, 2003, Brother Bear premiered at the New Amsterdam Theatre where fellow attendees included New York Governor George Pataki and cast members Michael Clarke Duncan and Estelle Harris. He loves it, learned a great, new, easy-to-pronounce vocabulary word, and, most important, it looks adorable in the house but can go outside at any time. I don't know if this is the right place to ask about Inuit culture as I am from Australia and have no clue about anything lol, but Brother Bear affected me deeply for whatever when I was a kid and although it isn't the best Disney movie ever made it is one of my favourites. In that sense, every person in the tribe is a shaman in his or her own right. The cartoon characters include a Brazilian parrot, a penguin from Patagonia and a Mexican rooster. The Evolution of Anthropomorphism in Animated Movies. To fully understand its consequences, though, we need to make sure we have a working definition of culture itself. It's called The Bears. "The Princess and the Frog's" Tiana, "The Emperor's New Groove's" Kuzco, and "Brother Bear's" Kenai all have one thing in common they're main characters of color in Disney movies who spend almost all of their respective stories physically transformed into animals. Appreciation is when someone seeks to understand and learn about another culture in an effort to broaden their perspective and connect with others cross-culturally. Frozen features Norwegian traditions ranging from rosemaling on walls and dresses to trolls, Fjord horses and saunas. "[34], Writing for Variety, Todd McCarthy summarized that "Brother Bear is a very mild animated entry from Disney with a distinctly recycled feel [because] the film's characters and narrative simply fail to engage strong interest, and tale is probably too resolutely serious to enchant small fry in the way the better Disney titles always have. His being is caught betwixt and between: he is a bear with a stupid human mind. It's a controversial topic, one that activists and celebrities like Adrienne Keene and Jesse Williams have helped bring into the national spotlight. However, upon realizing that Koda needs him because of his own mistake, Kenai asks Sitka to transform him back into a bear with Denahi's support. For the parade, the song had slightly changed lyrics and was performed by an ensemble. "[11] After the filmmakers heard his audition tapes for Finding Nemo, Jeremy Suarez was cast as Koda. [10], In March 2001, Joaquin Phoenix confirmed he was cast in the film, exclaiming, "Oh, but forget the Oscar nomination (for Gladiator). Still, what most people think of today as cultural appropriation is the opposite: a member of the dominant culture an insider taking from a culture that has historically been and is still . Pocahontas rewrites history and kind of falls into the noble savage trope, wherein the good indigenous character has not yet been corrupted by the evil of civilization. These teepees are not only the perfect place for a child's imagination to run wild, but also add a whimsical design touch to the room . The depiction of Native American culture is homogenous and stereotypical: The characters speak in gibberish instead of an actual indigenous language, smoke excessive amounts of pipe tobacco (which they even offer to the children), and sing an offensive song called "What Made the Red Man Red.". Disney has gotten off us to a good start. Eventually, Kenai and Koda reach the salmon run, where a large number of bears live as a family, including the leader Tug. Kenai and his brothers pursue the bear, but a fight ends on top of a glacier, during which Sitka gives his life to save his brothers by dislodging the glacier, although the bear survives the fall. ", A few examples of Disney villains people believe are queer-coded include Scar from "The Lion King," Jafar from "Aladdin," Hades from "Hercules," King Candy from "Wreck-It Ralph," and Ursula from "The Little Mermaid.". 19. bow", "Brother Bear / Brother Bear 2 (3-Disc Special Edition) [Blu-ray / DVD] (2013)", "FILM REVIEW; To a Grizzly, Humans Are the Hairy Monsters", "Nothing Scary About Brother Bear's Roaring Start", "An Elf and a Bear Trip Up the Final 'Matrix', "O Brother Bear, Where Art Thou? While riding on the backs of a mammoth herd, Koda reveals that his mother is missing. Jeremy Suarez, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas were to reprise their respective roles while Will Friedle would have replaced Joaquin Phoenix as Kenai. an act of cultural appropriation. A lost cub bear, named Koda (taken perhaps from the Kodiak Eskimos, the enemy of the Tanaina) plays the role of a Zen koan becoming the key to Kenai's realization process. at the start of 2020, nearly two years after teaching herself to sew a pair . Your email address will not be published. Not offensive, but then again, the tribe portrayed in the movie isn't mine. Essay about Cultural Appropriation. The cats' entrance is even marked by the sound of a gong. Cultural Appropriation, by some it's seen as an adoption culture being stolen away from a dominant group. In a scene where Dumbo is being bathed, a clown runs in with a bottle of champagne and the ringmaster protests, "Hey, no booze near the baby.". Cultural appropriation definition, the adoption, usually without acknowledgment, of cultural identity markers from subcultures or minority communities into mainstream culture by people with a relatively privileged status. Best. Someone might prefer The real pinnacle is that I'm playing an animated character in a Disney film. A solution to mitigate those risks is to hire consultants from the concerned groups, or better yet, hire creators from the concerned groups and let them tell the stories they want to tell. Unless there's a personal connection to the culture, these tattoos could be seen as cultural appropriation. Moana's music is subject to appropriation, an echo of how colonial resources were exploited in ways that prioritize benefits to cultural outsiders. Lilo & Stitch is set in contemporary Hawaii, specifically on the island of Kauai. I haven . The Mongolians, though, not so much. Disney transposed the story to Jazz Age New Orleans and added voodoo magic and bayous. Tahana reveals that his spirit helper is the bear. The series would have taken place directly after the events of the film and would have seen Kenai and Koda adopt other orphaned animals into their family. But . Queer-coding is when writers consciously or unconsciously include stereotypes about LGBT people as characteristics of a character without their sexuality being part of a broader story. We also get a specific hint about location: Kenai, the name of the film's star, is also the name of an early-known native village on the east side of Cook Inlet in southwestern Alaska. If you haven't watched 1940's "Pinocchio" in a while, you might mainly remember the movie for its lovable titular puppet and the song "When You Wish Upon a Star." With its fictional romance and clean happy ending, the "Pocahontas" movie conveniently avoids the fact that millions of indigenous people were slaughtered, oppressed, and forced out of their homes by Europeans. The film revolves around relationships between humans and their spirit helpers, and the beneficial magical powers derived from such relationships. The film's music collaborators, Nate "Rocket" Wonder and Roman GianArthur, voice them, and they sing a new song called "What A Shame.". The lead crow is even named Jim Crow in an obvious reference to the racist Southern segregation laws that lasted until the mid-1960s. Collins's lyrics for the song were first translated into Iupiaq. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. "She loves singing more than anything but she won't be able to do that anymore because she has to make things work with the first dude she sets her eyes on. [23], Brother Bear was released on VHS and DVD on March 30, 2004. After Kenai transforms into a bear twenty-four minutes into the picture, the film itself transforms as well: to an anamorphic aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and towards brighter, more fanciful colors and slightly more caricatured art direction. (I'm sorry if this is not the right place to ask about Inuits, but I couldn't find a different sub to ask this in. If you show love and appreciation for parts of a culture, such as clothing, hairstyles, or accessories, but remain prejudiced against its people, that's appropriation. In the 2016 live-action remake of the film, King Louie is not an orangutan, but a gigantopithecus (a now-extinct primate native to the Indian jungle where "The Jungle Book" is set). I must go to fetch the water / Till the day that I am grown / Then I will have a handsome husband / And a daughter of my own / And Ill send her to fetch the water / Ill be cooking in the home. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. I loved the live-action Disney film Queen of Katwe, which was set in Uganda. But Mulan is such an inspiring story, its fair to say it at least depicts the Chinese hero in a positive light. Additional vocals by Patrick Pinney, Bob Bergen, Rodger Bumpass, Roger Rose, Debi Derryberry, Randy Crenshaw, Phil Proctor, John Schwab, Bill Farmer, Pamela Adlon, Hope Levy, and Sherry Lynn. In 2001, Background supervisor Barry Kooser and his team traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and studied with Western landscape painter Scott Christensen, where they learned to: "simplify objects by getting the spatial dimensions to work first and working in the detail later. In 1994's "The Lion King," Scar's accomplices are three hyenas Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed. Status. Aug. 30, 2017. I will go over the movies that either take place outside the United-States or focus on minorities of the United-States (but I will skip Songs of the South!). With the recent news of a "Pinocchio" live-action remake moving forward, it's likely that these two plot points will be modernized. Tangled marked a return to classic European fairy tales. 'Big Brother 24' houseguest Matt 'Turner' has faced backlash regarding his use of words including 'bussin' as many viewers believe it's cultural appropriation. Tahana reveals that his spirit helper is the bear. The company's platform . The film stars the voices of Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Suarez, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Jason Raize (in his only film role), and D.B. Children and their parents are likely to relate on completely different levels, the adults connecting with the transfer of souls from man to beast, while the kids are excited by the adventure stuff. "Noticeably marked by their ethnically coded 'street' accents, the hyenas blatantly symbolize racist and anti-Semitic stereotypes of 'verminous' groups that form a threat to society.". Every other character speaks in British English, implying that the "Jungle Book" apes embody historically dehumanizing, racist comparisons between black people and apes. [27], The film was released in a Blu-ray special edition combined with its sequel, Brother Bear 2, on March 12, 2013.[28]. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.". [13] Layout artist Armand Serrano, speaking about the drawing process on the film, said that "we had to do a life drawing session with live bear cubs and also outdoor drawing and painting sessions at Fort Wilderness in Florida three times a week for two months []". These movies are made of segments presenting famous sights and cultural aspects of Latin America through a mix of animation and live-action footage. As for the talent involved, one of the music producers was South African. Saludos Amigos (1942) & The Three Caballeros (1944). Native American war bonnets are among the most instantly recognizable artifacts of Native American culture, and for this reason, often the most appropriated items of Native American culture.. A war bonnet is a piece of headgear made using eagle feathers and beads and worn either during battle or on special ceremonial occasions . Cultural Appropriation: "Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else's culture without permission. kiss kiss kiss! In 1941's "Dumbo," the elephant encounters a pack of crows who are some of the only characters who are friendly towards him in the movie. Big Hero 6 is based on an American comic book set in Tokyo, but the movie is set in a fictional city called San Fransokyo. Kenai quickly discovers that the wildlife can now speak to him, meeting a pair of moose brothers named Rutt and Tuke. The terminology we find amongst proponents of cultural appropriation - "homage", "borrowing", and "sharing" - centers the desires of those who take artistic expression for profit. My favorite quote from Brother Bear: "Hey baby! They received little positive attention, and I don't ever recall seeing an American Indian sit-com on television. Take the characters in Walt Disney Pictures' new animated feature. Contrary to speculation, news writer Jim Hill stated the release date switch was not because Home on the Range was suffering from story rewrites, but to promote Brother Bear on the Platinum Edition release of The Lion King. But the overuse of the term obscures offenses that might actually deserve more censure . Ed, the third hyena, doesn't talk, but cackles and spasms in a way that was reminiscent to some of Tourette's Syndrome. In nearly every American Indian culture, the bear is right up there with the eagle, the buffalo and other creatures as the most powerful of .

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brother bear cultural appropriation