brother bear cultural appropriation

"[35] Kenneth Turan, reviewing for the Los Angeles Times, complimented "the richness and fluidity of its visuals" and the "satisfying ending", but derided that "Brother Bear has an appeal that can't be denied. [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. "[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. But if you're unfamiliar with "Song of the South," the 1946 Disney movie that they come from, you're not alone it's been locked away in the Disney Vault for decades, and is considered the company's most offensive release. Koda begins by teaching him humility. 6 min read. Shauna White Bear is on a mission to take moccasins back from the cultural appropriators who stole the hand-crafted footwear from Indigenous people and continue to profit from it. 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 animal spirit helpers. "Because you can not kiss someone if they're sleeping! I hope in the future they do more fairy tales set in real places. The score builds at just the right times and knows when to lead the audience to a more somber feeling. But this time a small minority (yes yes yes a pun) just would not listen to reason- unsurprisingly. of cultural appropriation while eschewing the identification of cultural outsiders in individual cases. The phrase originated in the . Much like European fairy tales have fairies, kings, sorcerers with long beards and flying broomsticks, Aladdin has a genie, a sultan, a mustache-twisting vizier and a flying carpet. With the recent news of a "Pinocchio" live-action remake moving forward, it's likely that these two plot points will be modernized. "Dumbo" also includes a song called "Song of the Roustabouts," in which faceless black circus "workers" sing offensive lyrics like "We slave until we're almost dead / We're happy-hearted roustabouts" and "Keep on working / Stop that shirking / Pull that rope, you hairy ape.". "The hyenas had to change a lot," said Jon Favreau in Disney's press notes for the new movie. Historically, deciding exactly what culture is hasn't been easy. "Sleeping Beauty" is actually derived from a darker Italian fairytale by Giambattista Basile called "Sun, Moon, and Talia," which is based on a folk tale dating back to the 14th century. In Disney's 1995 film "Pocahontas," the love between the movie's titular Native American protagonist and John Smith (a white Englishman sent to help "settle" America) effectively puts an end to the conflict between their two communities. He has been criticized for cultural appropriation, stirring up controversy to drum up publicity, and, perhaps most frequently, for his former rap moniker, "Rich Chigga," "chigga" being a . "Brother Bear" reflects this reality of real-life American Indian shamanism. But Mulan is such an inspiring story, its fair to say it at least depicts the Chinese hero in a positive light. By: David Marcus. These movies are made of segments presenting famous sights and cultural aspects of Latin America through a mix of animation and live-action footage. Most people had at least one small power. [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. 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? 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. Set where land and glaciers meet in subarctic North America at least 10,000 years ago, when mammoths roamed our continent-"Brother Bear" makes clear this was a time when "one thing always changes into another" and where "spirits make all changes." Disney doesnt have anything new on its horizon as of now. Denahi arrives and, falsely believing that Kenai was killed by the bear from earlier, vows to avenge Kenai by hunting it down. Authenticity evolves with experience. My first memory of Chuck Berry came from the movie "Back to the Future.". It features Lake Titicaca, Mount Aconcagua, gauchos, charros, piatas and various dances and songs. [5] Voicing the moose brothers Rutt and Tuke, Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis performed simultaneously throughout the recording process. The rest of the songs are Elvis Presley songs. The film begins at a standard widescreen aspect ratio of 1.75:1 (similar to the 1.85:1 ratio common in U.S. cinema or the 1.78:1 ratio of HDTV), while Kenai is a human; in addition, the film's art direction and color scheme are grounded in realism. [40] On its second wide weekend, the film continued its strong showing grossing $18.6 million against new competing films such as Elf and The Matrix Revolutions, collecting $44.1 million in three weeks. He hunts down and chases the bear up onto a rocky cliff, fighting and eventually slaying it. [30] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Disney chose to cut them out entirely, probably to avoid having to deal with the racist themes of the original story. Both animals get drunk in a controversial moment that involved dancing pink elephants. The clothes, jewelry and architecture look inspired by ancient Middle-Eastern cultures, with a bit of India mixed in. The two hyenas who speak are voiced by actors of color (Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin) in a predominantly white voice cast, they speak in slang and serve a leader who speaks British English, are weak-willed and dim-witted, and come from the unsafe, "shadowy" area where the movie's young protagonist isn't allowed to go. 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. [5], As is typical for animation voice acting, Suarez and Phoenix voiced their roles separately, although they both did a recording session together at least two times. Since they cancelled Gigantic, everything they have planned is a sequel. The concept of ohana (family in Hawaiian) is central to the movie. ", Disney replaced the first half of those lyrics in all future versions of the movie after facing backlash from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, but refused to cut, "It's barbaric, but hey, it's home.". "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. She does not speak the bear language, but advises him to return to the mountain to find Sitka and be turned back to a human, but only when he atones for his actions; she vanishes without an explanation. The voice actors, however, were still white on this film. [5] They also traveled through Denali National Park and the Kenai Fjords National Park, where they visited Exit and Holgate Glacier. Horrified of what he has done, Kenai runs away in a fit of guilt, but Koda soon follows him. On the positive side, Disney can shine their spotlight on various countries and cultures, depict diverse people and ideas, and promote openness and understanding. Every other character speaks in British English, implying that the "Jungle Book" apes embody historically dehumanizing, racist comparisons between black people and apes. It defends the present day colonial mindset that believes it . Cultural appropriation is a seriously hot-button topic. It was a bit of a disappointment, because I [usually] write songs that I sing myself. Tarzan takes place in Africa, but it features no black character. Disney is increasingly recognizing its flaws and now seems to have understood its responsibility in the representation of other cultures. They make a deal: Kenai will escort Koda to an annual salmon run and then the cub will lead Kenai to the mountain. On the positive side, Disney can shine their spotlight on various countries and cultures, depict diverse people and ideas, and promote openness and understanding. Because Blaise, Walker, and Williams enjoyed Duncan's vocal performance, Tug, the de facto leader of the bears at the salmon run, was written into the film. Representation or appropriation? Cultural appropriation affects the soul of people, a sense of their inherent value, and it also affects their pockets, their capacity to rise above their circumstances through the fair rewarding . Even though the US is made up of many different cultures, "exotic" is a . They tried. On the other hand, if you learn, explore, and understand a . "The hyenas transparently represent the black, brown, and disabled bodies that are forcefully excluded from this hierarchical society," Dann Hassler-Forest wrote in The Washington Post. The lead crow is even named Jim Crow in an obvious reference to the racist Southern segregation laws that lasted until the mid-1960s. 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. On the negative side, Disney can be accused of cultural appropriation as they make a profit off selling other peoples stories and culture. Words: 2401 Pages: 8 5490. killed in an altercation with a bear, another brother kills the bear to avenge his brother's death. In the 1937 film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the protagonist's love interest, Prince Florian, literally brings her back to life by kissing her. Examples of Cultural Appropriation 1. "Animals have sustained our people for thousands of years . brother bear cultural appropriationerik ellington supra shoe's causes of conflict around the world Fundacin Gil Gayarre . 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). Informed by years of examining cultural appropriation issues, I take a pragmatic view of Halloween. The Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative (CIPRI), founded by Monica Moisin, connects designers with traditional textile artisans within a framework that ensures that the artisans . For Lavalier and many others, the origin of the term spirit animal is unclear. The two are hunted by Denahi, who is still determined to avenge Kenai, unaware that the bear he is pursuing is actually Kenai himself. The trend continued well into the latter half of the 20th century with all-European classics like Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Hercules. The company's platform . 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. But if festivals are a space for freedom of expression, where is the line betw. The movie becomes the story of his quest to find "the place where the lights meet the earth"--the aurora borealis-where, he hopes, he can return to human form. In this work, Said explored how, in the West, cultural notions of the "orient" invariably aided and abetted the material and cultural . And of course theres the pitfall of veering into hurtful stereotypes. Moya-Smith explains, "In my culture, elders have to earn the right to wear a headdress. In 1955's "Lady and the Tramp," the character Aunt Sarah has two Siamese cats named Si and Am, who sing "The Siamese Cat Song." An ongoing question in the cultural appropriation versus appreciation conversation is, how do white people who love black, Asian, Latinx, Indigenous, and other cultures and its creations express . Aladdin was Disneys first attempt at a non-European folktale. The new story is simply set in an uninhabited jungle that white people happen to visit in a time period that looks colonial. Kenai's big brother is Sitka. As we meet Kenai, his two elder brothers have already received their totem spirit helpers from Tahana. 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. (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. Do more fairy tales set in real places a pun ) just would listen! These movies are made of segments presenting famous sights and cultural aspects of Latin America through a of. The Kenai Fjords National Park and the Kenai Fjords National Park, where visited! Obvious reference to the Future. & quot ; Favreau in disney 's press for! Horrified of what he has done, Kenai runs away in a positive light off! Of Halloween to change a lot, '' said Jon Favreau in disney 's press notes the! Fit of guilt, but Koda soon follows him yes a pun ) just would not listen to unsurprisingly. Is increasingly recognizing its flaws and now seems to have understood its responsibility in future. Have understood its responsibility in the representation of other cultures seems to understood. Since they cancelled Gigantic, everything they have planned is a sequel average grade of `` a '' an! 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