Long ago in a post-ice age North America, there were three brothers named Kenai, Denahi, and Sitka. Denahi, the middle brother, and Sitka, the oldest, work hard. They think Kenai should work more and play less. Kenai, the youngest, hates bears because they fight for the same food, overtake the land, and ruin his coming-of-age ceremony. Each brother was given his own totem when they came of age: Sitka, the eagle of guidance and Denahi, the wolf of wisdom. At the ceremony, Kenai is presented with the bear of love. Kenai questions the totem he has been given with his brother: "Bears don't love, they're hunters, they're monsters...they're thieves!"(upon seeing a stolen basket of fish)
When Sitka is killed in a battle with the bear that stole the basket, Tanana, the tribal shaman woman, officiates a funeral rite for Sitka. Afterward, Kenai throws away his totem and ignores Denahi's warnings of upsetting the spirits. He sets out to hunt the bear for revenge and eventually kills it during a battle. Disappointed with Kenai's actions, the Great Spirits and the spirit of Sitka transform him into a bear, while the background song sings in the Inuktitut language "Everything will become clear to you when you see things through another's eyes." Unfortunately, his other brother, who was pursuing Kenai to stop him, doesn't realize what has happened. He finds Kenai's torn clothes and believes the bear he sees took his brother's life. In his grief, he remembers Kenai's words to him and, as he had done, vows revenge.
Kenai receiving his totem
Disoriented and having fallen into the river, Kenai awakens on the shore and in the presence of Tanana, who eases him through his initial shock at his change. Although she cannot understand his bear speech, she advises Kenai to find the mountain where the lights touch the earth so that he can ask Sitka's spirit to change him back, and then she disappears without giving him directions. To Kenai's surprise, he finds he can talk with the other animals - but the only animals who are willing to talk to him are two sibling moose, named Rutt and Tuke, who are more interested in cracking jokes at Kenai's claims to have been a man than helping him. Along the way, Kenai meets a talkative, pesky bear cub named Koda who saves him from a trap, and asks him to accompany him on the way to the salmon run where the bears gather to fish near the mountain where the lights touch the earth.
What follows is a journey in which Kenai, when not dodging Denahi who is now hunting him, grows rather fond of the irrepressible Koda who he learns shares his spiritual beliefs. This in turn puts his hatred of bears in a stark perspective that forces him to reconsider, especially when he learns that Koda sees humans as the same sort of dangerous monsters as he himself once believed bears to be. This culminates when they finally reach the salmon run and Kenai has the awkward experience of being surrounded by bears. Yet, the bears quickly accept him and he in turn learns about the loving community of these animals that makes his hate seem so foolish even as he learns to enjoy himself.
Kenai's contentment is about
to be shattered when
Koda tells the story of
his separation from his mother
This contentment is shattered when Koda tells the story of his separation from his mother. Kenai is aghast as he puts the pieces together and realizes the story is about the fight he and his brothers had with the bear. Kenai realizes to his horror that the bear he killed was Koda's mother. Distraught at the harm he has done to a cub he has grown to love, Kenai flees the gathering. The next morning Koda follows and asks what's wrong. With great shame and remorse, but also with great moral courage, Kenai confesses. At this traumatic revelation, Koda is left grief stricken and runs away in loss and betrayal while ignoring Kenai's apologies and pleas for forgiveness.
With nothing left to keep him with the bears, Kenai scales the mountain to contact the spirit of Sitka. Koda mourns alone, but then has a chance encounter with the squabbling Tuke and Rutt who reconcile because of their brotherhood, which makes Koda realize the importance of his friendship with Kenai. Meanwhile, Denahi finally tracks down Kenai; in the ensuing fight, Koda, having forgiven Kenai, rushes in to help at a critical moment in the fight. Kenai struggles to protect Koda and is willing to sacrifice himself to save the cub, much as Koda's mother had done. With this selfless act, Kenai shows that he has profoundly changed for the better and Sitka, who had been watching everything in the form of an eagle, changes Kenai back into a human.
Yet, while Kenai has regained his humanity, he can no longer talk with Koda, a cub who is now orphaned yet again by the bear he had come to accept as his brother. Rather than abandon Koda, Kenai tells Sitka that Koda needs him. Denahi calls Kenai "little brother" instead of "baby brother" and Sitka transforms Kenai (by his choice) back into a bear. He and his brother hug together and say goodbye, while Koda and his mother's spirit do the same.
The film ends with Kenai as a bear, accompanied by Koda, being welcomed back by his tribe and pressing his pawprint to the cliff wall, which bears the handprints of countless generations of other tribe members who also fulfilled the calling of their totem animals.
Voice cast
The movie stars the voices of:
- Joaquin Phoenix as Kenai, the youngest of three brothers who gets turned into a bear, to teach him to see through their eyes
- Jeremy Suarez as Koda, a wisecracking cave bear cub, who helps Kenai on his journey to where the Lights Touch the Earth
- Rick Moranis as Rutt, a comic Canadian moose
- Dave Thomas as Tuke, another comic Canadian moose
- Jason Raize as Denahi, the middle brother
- D.B. Sweeney as Sitka, the oldest brother
- Joan Copeland as Tanana, the shaman-woman of Kenai's tribe
- Michael Clarke Duncan as Tug, a wise old cave bear
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