Here is my review but I wanted to know what you guys thought of the film which opened Friday:
Disney's The Country Bears
Released July 26th, 2002
Starring: Christopher Walken, Haley Joel Osment, Diedrich Bader, Julianne Buescher, Charles S. Dutton, Daryl Mitchell
Screen Writers: Mark Perez, Paul Rugg
Director: Peter Hastings
Premise: 11-year-old Beary Barringtons favorite musical group is The Country Bears the greatest bear rock band in history. Even though the group broke up decades ago, Beary is their number-one fan and has listened to all their old records over and over again. The Bears have their differences now, and havent spoken to each other in years, but to Beary, nothing is more important than his quest to reunite the group for a benefit concert to save Country Bear Hall, the legendary venue where the band got its start.
The Country Bears is the first of many quick fix movies rolled out by the Mouse House which include orignal ones based on theme parks attractions like The Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion as well as remakes like The gy Dog and Freaky Friday. The Country Bears is based on the Walt Disney World theme park attraction of the same name which opened in 1971. The show was so popular that many years later Disney decided to make a feature length film based on the bears. Will the movie be just as popular as the Walt Disney World show or will people avoid it like the show at Disneyland?
The story goes that Beary Barrington has just found out from his older brother that he is a real bear adopted by his parents and that he doesn't fit into the family. He sets out on his higher purpose in life to find the former members of The Country Bears and bring them together so they can play at a benefit concert to save Bear Hall which will be destroyed if $20,000 is raised in time. The story of the Country Bears seems very unoriginal and resembles that of the Blue Brothers 2000 movie which wasn't seen by many people either. The plot seems very slow and doesn't get many giggles out of many people except a laugh or too from the small children. As the story goes on it just seems to be on a one way street to nowhere which disappoints much of the audience.
The characters in the film are mostly, well, bears! They are audio animatronic characters who have their facial expressions controlled by puppeteers. Though there are some human characters, they don't offer as much depth or emotion as the audio-animatronic bears do. Beary's family is just another typical Disney family that has a loving father and mother and a punky older brother. Nothing really new here or of anything of interest. Deidrich Bader and Daryl Mitchell who play Officer Cheets and Office Hamm (Ha...Ha!) were intended to be the comic relief of the film but they really aren't as funny as the trailers made them out to be. They even seem to just plain disappear as the film rounds to the end of the film which begs me to ask where they went. The only funny part of the film was Christopher Walken who never seems to disappoint me. He brings out a very serious character as the beginning of the film and makes him funny in the long run. He was probably the highlight of the entire film.
Overall, The Country Bears is just very unoriginal and too predictable. The bad points beside the story and stale characters included the musical numbers. The main problem with them was that they felt way too staged. Somebody would make a one line comment and then they would suddenly brake out into a song and dance number. I thought Disney was better then this but I guess this proved me wrong. Though the musical numbers do seem way too staged, that doesn't mean I hated them. The numbers were well chorographed and the music had my foot tapping every once in awhile. But if you want to go for the music then just go to the local store and buy the soundtrack. Beside the music and Christopher Walken, The Country Bears doesn't leave much to the imagination. Note that the film is intended for children and thus my opinion my be meaningless to them. Take this into consideration when taking the children to the film. But if you are a parent and hate to be dragged to this then follow my suggestion: Sit back, relax, pay attention when Christopher Walken comes on screen, tap your foot to some of the music and thank God that they didn't make an It's A Small World movie.
My Rating: *** out of 5
Disney's The Country Bears
Released July 26th, 2002
Starring: Christopher Walken, Haley Joel Osment, Diedrich Bader, Julianne Buescher, Charles S. Dutton, Daryl Mitchell
Screen Writers: Mark Perez, Paul Rugg
Director: Peter Hastings
Premise: 11-year-old Beary Barringtons favorite musical group is The Country Bears the greatest bear rock band in history. Even though the group broke up decades ago, Beary is their number-one fan and has listened to all their old records over and over again. The Bears have their differences now, and havent spoken to each other in years, but to Beary, nothing is more important than his quest to reunite the group for a benefit concert to save Country Bear Hall, the legendary venue where the band got its start.
The Country Bears is the first of many quick fix movies rolled out by the Mouse House which include orignal ones based on theme parks attractions like The Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion as well as remakes like The gy Dog and Freaky Friday. The Country Bears is based on the Walt Disney World theme park attraction of the same name which opened in 1971. The show was so popular that many years later Disney decided to make a feature length film based on the bears. Will the movie be just as popular as the Walt Disney World show or will people avoid it like the show at Disneyland?
The story goes that Beary Barrington has just found out from his older brother that he is a real bear adopted by his parents and that he doesn't fit into the family. He sets out on his higher purpose in life to find the former members of The Country Bears and bring them together so they can play at a benefit concert to save Bear Hall which will be destroyed if $20,000 is raised in time. The story of the Country Bears seems very unoriginal and resembles that of the Blue Brothers 2000 movie which wasn't seen by many people either. The plot seems very slow and doesn't get many giggles out of many people except a laugh or too from the small children. As the story goes on it just seems to be on a one way street to nowhere which disappoints much of the audience.
The characters in the film are mostly, well, bears! They are audio animatronic characters who have their facial expressions controlled by puppeteers. Though there are some human characters, they don't offer as much depth or emotion as the audio-animatronic bears do. Beary's family is just another typical Disney family that has a loving father and mother and a punky older brother. Nothing really new here or of anything of interest. Deidrich Bader and Daryl Mitchell who play Officer Cheets and Office Hamm (Ha...Ha!) were intended to be the comic relief of the film but they really aren't as funny as the trailers made them out to be. They even seem to just plain disappear as the film rounds to the end of the film which begs me to ask where they went. The only funny part of the film was Christopher Walken who never seems to disappoint me. He brings out a very serious character as the beginning of the film and makes him funny in the long run. He was probably the highlight of the entire film.
Overall, The Country Bears is just very unoriginal and too predictable. The bad points beside the story and stale characters included the musical numbers. The main problem with them was that they felt way too staged. Somebody would make a one line comment and then they would suddenly brake out into a song and dance number. I thought Disney was better then this but I guess this proved me wrong. Though the musical numbers do seem way too staged, that doesn't mean I hated them. The numbers were well chorographed and the music had my foot tapping every once in awhile. But if you want to go for the music then just go to the local store and buy the soundtrack. Beside the music and Christopher Walken, The Country Bears doesn't leave much to the imagination. Note that the film is intended for children and thus my opinion my be meaningless to them. Take this into consideration when taking the children to the film. But if you are a parent and hate to be dragged to this then follow my suggestion: Sit back, relax, pay attention when Christopher Walken comes on screen, tap your foot to some of the music and thank God that they didn't make an It's A Small World movie.
My Rating: *** out of 5
