Brother Bear 2 (August 29, 2006)

After the events of Brother Bear, Kenai is happily living with Koda. This idyllic existence is shattered when Nita, his childhood friend, comes and demands Kenai journey with him to this special sport where they last met as children to destroy an amulet, he had given her when they were young. Nita was about to get married to another man but, the spirits forbade her saying she was already promised to Kenai because the amulet. This is a tenuis set up, at best. I, personally, was not clamoring for more adventures with Kenai and Koda, nor was a hoping he would get hitched. However, I have numerous problems with the logic of the film. First of all, for some reason Nita is given the ability to understand animals instead of being turned into a bear like Kenai. It would have been easier for them to get close to one another (and would have provided some entertaining training sessions with Kenai as the mentor instead of the student) if she were a bear instead of a human (and would have been less creepy having a romance between a hum an and a bear- even if they are childhood friends). Next, Nita is one of the most annoying forced love interests. She blames Kenai for all her problems while berating him but, somehow, they are supposed to become lovers by the end of the film regardless. This is not to say Kenai is any more likable- he is still mostly the same selfish guy (well now a bear) he was in the first film. He refuses to listen to Nita and let her help him and, in the beginning, he refuses to even help her burn the amulet in order for their relationship to become annulled in the eyes of the spirits because she considers the amulet, which he gave her as a child, a mere trinket. Overall, this sequel is not worth watching. It does not add anything worthwhile to the original story (and it does not even have the saving grace of new Phil Collins songs) and instead introduces explainable actions and even more unlikable characters.

Final Rating: 2/10