Disney’s Brother Bear has at all times felt a bit missed among the many firm’s roster of animated options. It lacks the identify recognition of a centuries-old fable like “Sleeping Magnificence” or “Snow White,” and components of its story appear divided between impulses, veering forwards and backwards between a melancholy drama impressed by Native American shapeshifter tales, and a extra trendy comedy. But it surely options spectacular animation sequences, and it is constructed round heartfelt messaging in regards to the connection between humanity and the pure world.
Each these latter components come into play in “Snow Bear,” an 11-minute quick hand-animated by Brother Bear co-director Aaron Blaise, now featured on YouTube. Blaise, a supervising animator on The Lion King and Mulan, as soon as stated in an EW interview that he took on Brother Bear as his directorial debut “in order that I might animate bears.” He returned to that obsession with “Snow Bear” — a consultant for Blaise says he personally produced 11,000 drawings for the movie, over the course of three years making the movie on his personal.
The wordless quick follows a lonely polar bear wandering the Arctic in quest of a good friend. Because it tries to attach with different animals, it is rejected — till it builds a good friend out of snow. “Snow Bear” is good and kid-friendly, however underlying it’s a message about the menace local weather change poses to polar bears, because the polar ice caps disappear, and their habitat alters. An announcement in regards to the quick says Blaise teamed up with the advocacy group Polar Bears Worldwide to make “Snow Bear.”
A five-minute making-of featurette in regards to the quick, additionally featured on YouTube, explains how Blaise reached out to Oscar-winner and Brother Bear composer Mark Mancina to create the music for the quick, and the way he introduced his personal background as a painter into the animation, design, and shade choice for the undertaking.
Blaise additionally created artwork for a companion card recreation impressed by the quick, presently on Kickstarter, described as “a mash-up of Rummy and Uno with a sprinkle of puzzle constructing thrown in.” The marketing campaign, already absolutely funded, runs via Dec. 28.
