Perspective-Taking, Connection, and Grief in BROTHER BEAR with Director Aaron Blaise

How do you open yourself up to understanding another perspective?

Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are reacting to Brother Bear with co-director, Aaron Blaise, and discussing themes of grief, connection, and figuring out who you want to be. They focus on Kenai’s journey of self-discovery and how he comes to embrace his love totem in an unexpected way. Jonathan explores Kenai’s grief and his literal perspective taking when Kenai becomes a bear. Aaron talks about the writing process with a room full of people with brothers and how surprisingly therapeutic it was.

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Cinema Therapy is:
Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker, and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright, Alan Seawright, and Corinne Demyanovich
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis

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[AaronBlaiseArt]

It was so wonderful to be a guest on your show! Thanks so much for having me and thank you to everyone that enjoys the video and the movie!

[musicallydisneyamvs]

Something I love about what the writers did for Koda is the profound grace he displays towards Kenai. Kids are kids but also aren’t stupid & also are capable of such in-depth emotions.

[adrianwagner]

One of the most mature Disney movies. There's no real villain, just the prejudice in the heart of our main character.

[LovedayJourno]

A part of me appreciates that Sitka’s ghost was silent. He said so much through his facial expressions, fantastic animation.

[WastelandrZyria]

As an indigenous child this movie meant everything to me. The story, the brotherly love, the music.... it really is a gem, thank you for this!

[davidspence]

What’s wild is that Kenai’s actions could be viewed as a form of love, the love he had for his brother led him to kill the bear, the movie shows that you can’t rely on one thing to make decisions because it could blind you to other paths you could take.

[brianneporchak]

Hearing that Joaquin used his emotions at the loss of River to fuel his acting for the loss of Sitka just added another layer of heartbreak to the movie that has most consistently made me cry since it's release.

[JinxedShapeshifter]

I don't remember if I've commented on this yet but one of my favorite details in Brother Bear is how the aspect ratio of the movie changes after Kenai is turned into a bear, and the colors of the movie are brighter for the rest of the runtime. Even when Kenai is briefly turned back into a human, the aspect ratio stays the same. It's such a subtle detail but it's a perfect representation of how being turned into a bear permanently changed his perspective. I think the audio is slightly different too. Both super fun technical ways to make it clear that Kenai's perspective is changing, both literally and figuratively.

[paulynnkim]

That's so cool to have the director of Brother Bear as your guest!! You guys are awesome!!! :D

[jallen]

I know this video is about Kenai, but I was really struck by Denahi's trauma journey. He went from asserting that killing the bear would be wrong, to losing his entire self in grief and revenge.

[Rembreiker_lychec]

I love the scene at the end, with all three brothers embracing. It's even more poignant, knowing that Denahi's voice actor, Jason Raize, has also since passed on.

[saralee]

"Caring means I hurt, I just don't care anymore." Oof, hit the nail on the head 😢

[Etx-z.]

"I don't like this story." My heart always breaks for Koda when Kenai is forced to tell him the truth about what really happened to his mother, especially since they'd grown to trust each other so much. Though it might have worked a little better without Phil Collins' song in the background, it's still effective, and adds to the emotional scene.

[faanvugeincynicalassassin]

This movie single-handedly taught me how to feel empathy when I was young, primarily because I enjoyed this movie so much I watched it on replay. Ironically, my family did the totem mini-game on the dvd, and I got the Wolf, am the eldest, my younger brother got the Eagle, my baby brother got the Bear. I lost my younger brother a few years ago, took his own life, and my baby brother passed last year, also by his own hand. I will always miss them, but I know they'll be there, watching over me. I promised I'd live life to the fullest for them, no matter how dark this life gets...

[ztslovebird]

The animation in this movie is next level. The Aurora Borealis combined with that score, and Sitka’s spirit seamlessly transforming from human to giant eagle? Chills & tears every time.

[sopianae.]

Damn it, one minute in and I'm already crying. As amazing as Phil Collins was, the Bulgarian Women's Choir deserve a huge shout-out. Their voice is absolutely mesmerising and really sell that emotional scene along with the beautiful animation, of course. It never fails to bring me to tears.
This was a childhood favourite of mine that had a profound effect on me, alongside the undeservedly underrated Treasure Planet and Atlantis. It makes me so happy that my favourite YouTube channel has done a video about two of those underrated gems. Thank you for your work!

[Jonathan_Collins]

The message this movie tells is incredible. Showing the different perspectives of each other, Kenai realizing what he truly did in his own anger, when Koda says "those monsters sure are scary with those pointed sticksT and Kenai realizes that the human is the monster in his story. Kenai's brother being consumes by his thirst for vengeance and very nearly following in Kenai's footsteps, like truly incredible and ahead of its time.

[bellaloves]

This was my only indigenous representation as a half indigenous kid that I felt truly connected to and emotionally tied to. My sister passed when I was very young and we called her Koda, her animal being the bear that my mother linked her to by getting all teddy bears for her, the hospital painted a bear on her rooms window, she had everything bear themed, we even called her koda bear. And so I watched this film many times growing up and the spirit scene always makes me cry. It was so important to me as an indigenous kid and a child who lost her sister who’s assigned animal was a bear. It is always one of the best and most important Disney films to me and I will show my children it many times one day

[ItsMeFern]

Words cannot explain how fast I clicked on this- Brother Bear is such an underrated film!

Edit: Holy COW you got the director??! AND he helped direct basically every single one of my favorite Disney films??? This is a grand day indeed.

[drewbleee]

I always loved how complex the story was as a kid, so many children's movies feel the need to dumb stories down but kids can handle topics like grief. There was never a bad guy in the movie, just people dealing with the pain of loss. That's something significant we learn in real life.