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By James Reader

Disney films come is all shapes and sizes; from musical based animated classics like the revolutionary Fantasia to live-action action films based on popular stories like The Swiss Family Robinson. In between Disney films run the range of animated fairy tales to outright farce. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Emperor's New Groove, Mary Poppins, The Parent Trap and The Shaggy DA. All of these, while being substantially different from each other, are Disney films.

Recently, Disney has added a new genre of film to it's library -- films based on popular attractions at their theme park resorts, namely The Country Bears, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. Sadly while Pirates of the Caribbean is a box-office smash and advance 'buzz' on The Haunted Mansion promises something special, The Country Bears seems to have become the unwanted runt of the litter.

It's not hard to see why Disney thought making a Country Bears film would be a good idea. Create some state of the art animatic bears, write a slightly off-the-wall script that benefits the idea of a band made up wholly of bears, mix in a number of new specially written country songs, include a number of cameos from well known musicians and top it off with a Disney moral or two. What could go wrong?

Quite frankly, I don't know. On paper it sounds like the ideal Disney family film, but somehow the film did fail. It failed to such an extent that it never even got a cinematic release over in the United Kingdom (but ironically while we never got a big screen release, we end up with a widescreen DVD).

One problem may have been the script. Some Film critics have criticised the film for being to close to the classic Blues Brothers. And they do have a point -- in both films a band has to be reformed to save a building from destruction. Other similarities are both films have musical numbers in a diner, a high-speed car chase or two and the Bears' scene at the wedding could be likened to the Brothers' scene at the fancy restaurant. But the films is more than a 'reimagining' of The Blue Brothers. Scenes with Beary in the bus are reminiscent of Almost Famous. As is the scene where Ted visits Beary's house near the end. Also there's one or two Spinal Tap references, and the film on the whole has a Muppet Movie kind-of-feel to it.

All in all, the script really is quite clever -- especially if you are familiar with some of the movies mentioned above. But it's also incredibly stupid at the same time -- and benefits a film set in a world where talking bears are the norm. Sadly I get the impression most people fixated on the stupid without noticing the cleverness.

I love the bears' costumes and I'm thankful that Disney chose not to go the CGI route when realising the bears in a human world. Their faces are very expressive and good for a few laughs throughout the film.

Talking of expressive faces... Christopher Walken is, as always, superb. Here he gets a chance to show a little more range than his normal roles. And he seizes the opportunity with both hands and overacts wildly. Where else could you see Christopher Walken walking around in fluffy pink slippers?

But ignore the plot and the script. Surely the musical numbers would persuade people to see the movie? Lots of new, original songs written by John Haitt. A duet between Don Henley and Bonnie Raitt. A guitar/fiddle play-off with Brian Setzer. Krystal and Jennifer Page. Sadly, it would appear not, despite being one of the best film soundtracks of that year. One of my biggest disappointments with Disney is how they didn't enter one single song from the film into the Academy Awards for that years "Best Original Song". Were they really that embarrassed by the film's box office performance? Does success have to breed further success and failure breed further failure?

All in all, I would never expect the film to be a massive mainstream hit -- I feel that the film is an acquired taste. But I would expect it to perform a lot better than it did. Perhaps untimely it suffered from being the first of the theme park attractions being turned into a movie -- a strategy of Disney which did meet a lot of initial scepticism and criticism. I hope the film can find it's audience on home video like many other underrated films have.

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