brother bear

Disney’s animistic sermon??

Animism

• “Animism is…about personhood, environment, and relationalepistemology. It is … about a relational ontology in which the world isfound to be, and treated as, a community of persons not all of whom arehuman.” Graham Harvey, “Animals, animists, and academics, p 11.

• By this definition, would you say Brother Bear advocates an animisticworldview?

AnimismLyrics: Through my eyes. Phil Collins,Brother Bear, 2003.

There are things in life you'll learn and/In time you'llsee/Cause out there somewhere/It's all waiting/Ifyou keep believing/So don't run, don't hide/It will beall right/You'll see, trust me/I'll be there watchingover you.

[chorus] Just take a look through my eyes/There's abetter place/somewhere out there/Just take a lookthrough my eyes/Everything changes/You'll beamazed what you'll find/If you look through my eyes.

There will be times on this journey/All you'll see isdarkness/Out there somewhere daylight finds you/Ifyou keep believing/So don't run, don't hide/It will beall right/You'll see, trust me/I'll be there watchingover you.

[chorus repeat]

All the things that you can change/There's ameaning in everything/And you will find all youneed/There's so much to understand.

[chorus repeat]

Take a look through my eyes

• Who’s eyes are we beingasked to look through?

• What is “the better place”that is out there somewhere?

• Who is watching over us?

Shamanism

• What is the role of the religious specialist in thiscommunity?

• What skills/knowledge does she have?• Where does her “power” come from?• How does Tanana compare to other religious specialists

portrayed by Disney? (Frollo, Rafiki, shaman inPocahontas) Does this represent a positive portrayal ofspirituality?

Pantheism - divine nature

• “In his films, Disney - while all but ignoring organized religion - emphasizesthe spiritual side of life. Like Blake, Disney perceives ‘heaven in a wildflower’… For Disney, the work of a supreme being - a positive Force, asGeorge Lucas would later tag it in Star Wars - is always in ample evidencearound us.” Brode, p. 106.

• “This is what Disney achieved… [his films] were conceived and executed byan artist desiring to express ‘the romantic deification of nature’ while provingthat man and nature are ‘not only continuous, but emblematic of each other.’”Brode, p. 139.

• Does Brother Bear present a message of a positive spiritual force, and thathumans and nature are ‘continuous and emblematic of each other’? Is iteven possible to see any other message in this film?

Ecological “Agenda”?

• “Despite critical brickbats, Disney instinctively understood a concept that,in time, he allowed Mary Poppins to articulate: A spoonful of sugar helpsthe medicine go down. Here, his “medicine” - Walt asks a middlebrowaudience to sympathize with Nemo as he blows up sailing ships, killingthe innocent along with the guilty - would have been impossible to acceptwere the bitter pill not sugar-coated with ample entertainment.” Brode, p.145

• What “medicine” is Brother Bear asking us to swallow?

Christian responses• “Absolutely wicked philosophy, subtly and beautifully presented. A few of its "truths:"

Animals are as valuable as people. Animals are related to people (the title). Animalscan be transformed into people and visa versa. Spirits. Magick. Also, crudeness andvulgarity regarding bodily functions, etc, as so many films today. Disney continues todrop like a stone regarding its presentation of amorality, immorality and moralconfusion. Nothing about Christ can be found in this film. My ratings: extremelyoffensive.

• Brother Bear is a wonderful movie in the grand Disney tradition! This movie is filledwith comedy, but is also a poignant movie that will touch the heart. Some may beconcerned with the tribal religious nature of this film, but they need not be. First, it'simportant to realize that this film is set thousands of years ago, long before Christianmissionaries began to spread the Good News to the indigenous tribes of NorthAmerica. This fact makes it easy to explain to children that they are seeingmythology, not reality. The movie offers strong Christian values such as Love yourenemy and vengeance is wrong. The over all theme of the movie "We ( humans andanimals) are all brothers, is also an important biblical truth that man in this utilitariansociety of ours often forget. Yes, God did give man dominion over the animals, butheadship is NOT superiority: "There is an eventuality of man as there is aneventuality of animal. As one dies, so the other dies; they all have the same spirit, sothere is no superiority of man over beast, for everything is vanity." Eccl. 3:19-21 Overall. I would highly recommend Brother Bear to one and all. My Ratings: SLIGHTLYObjectionable. (Jeff Kauffman, age 32)

Doingreligious“work”?

• One definition of religion that I use in my own research on religion andpopular culture topics suggests that part of the “work” that religion doesis to define what it means to be human, by contrasting that with what itmeans to be subhuman (monstrous, or animalistic), and superhuman(spiritual).

• What does Brother Bear say about what it means to be human, what itmeans to be an animal, and what it means to be a spiritual being?

Other issues:Gender

• The case of the missing mother… Disney’s anti-mothertradition continues?

• The case of the mother who sacrifices herself for her child(has no identity outside that of “motherhood”)

• Who needs a mother when you can have a brother?…

Race

• Does Disney continue its purported representationof African Americans as animals in this film?

• Is the representation of animals positive ornegative?

• Is this a film about race relations?

Anti-Canadian? (j/k!)

• Should we be offended? Stereotypicalrepresentations of Canadians as dull-witted, cowardly beer-drinkers?