The Country Bears

[slave2moonlight]

Finally wrote my Amazon.com review for this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-rev ... 59-1144960

[ichabod]

Well apart from Beary, I think the bears look wonderful, as Netty Has mentioned they have a wonderful 'Muppety' look to them. I feel that a wholly animatronic bears would have detracted from it, they wouldn't have been able to interact as well with their environments, and wouldn't have been as satisfying.

On a seperate note, it seems Disney really threw themselves into trying to convince everyone that the events in the film are real. The documentaries with various celebrities discussing how much they loved the bears, even the audio commentary with the bears. It seems Disney went all out to create the facade. I just wish that there would have been some bonus features on the DVD about the making of the film, especially the animatronic faces, and the guys in the bear suits.

[PixarFan2006]

I remember I rented this back in 2002 and I turned it off about 10 minutes in. I'm sorry, but it was not a good Disney movie In my opinion. Sure, other people may disagree with me, but that wont change my opinion.

[2099net]

I remember I rented this back in 2002 and I turned it off about 10 minutes in. I'm sorry, but it was not a good Disney movie In my opinion. Sure, other people may disagree with me, but that wont change my opinion.

Perhaps this will change your mind. Bahhh Hawww Hawww*

Look into my eyes. Not around the eyes. Look into my eyes, don't look around my eyes. 3... 2... 1... You're under. The Country Bears is one of Disney's best live action films of the past decade. Oh, and while I'm at it, its 100 times better than Pirates of the Caribbean which is just lots of hype over lots of pirates and/or skeletons running around repeatedly. 3... 2... 1... You're back in the room.

OK PixarFan2006 - how do you feel about the film now?


* That's an evil laugh by the way. It's hard to spell.

[Just Myself]

Great idea for a thread series, but ugh.... what a terrible film to initiate it with.

Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, LOATHE this film. I would honestly considered the single worst film Disney has ever released, worse than Bedknobs & Broomsticks and Chicken Little combined times five (and yes, I realize a lot of people like B&B, but if Justin can hate Finding Nemo, I can hate whatever I dang well please ). The story, the characters, the music, all of it is just so AWFUL. I rented this when it came out (didn't want to, but nothing else was out so I thought I'd at least give it a shot) and I hated it so much, I went back to the store and asked for my money back. I watched it with a friend's family, and even the four year old thought it was stupid.

Jeers,
JM

[goofystitch]

I wouldn't go that far. To call "The Country Bears" perfect or to say it is the worst Disney film of all time are both overstatements. I'm not saying nobody can't feel that way, but you have to look at what this film is: a satirical family friendly spoof on films about bands trying to make it big. It is based on a beloved attraction from the number 1 vacation destination and I personally (as well as many others) feel that Disney could have tried a little bit harder to capture the essence of the various incarnations of the AA show, because that show is worthy of being called "perfect." It is a great blend of music, entertaining visuals, and humor. I don't hate the design of the characters in the movie. I do feel they could have made the bears look more like they do in the ride, but then again the bears in the ride are built around metal and wires and gears, not a live human being. As for making the movie with anamatronics, that is impossible to do and the cost would be astronomical. Disney rarely creates new rides with anamatronics because they are so costly to create, program, and maintain. Expedition Everest has 1 anamatronic, but look at other recent rides. Mission Space: none. Test Track: None. Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin: none. Stitch's Great Escape (two because there are two theaters, but in essence, one). I'm getting off topic.

Where "The Country Bears" failed to please fans of the attraction due to the lack of references to the show (I can only count 4) and the fact that the bears look nothing like them nor do they sing any songs from the show, it failed to please the average consumer with a pretty absurd plot. I think everyone looks a little too deeply into the story and can't fathom how a Bear could live with a family of humans. That's probably why so many people claim to have turned it off only 10 minutes into viewing it, which is the ammount of time spent establishing that Barry Barington knows he is different and doesn't belong and runs away from home. This is the kind of movie that people need to force themselves through the first half hour to enjoy, and even then it probably will only please half of the audience.

I enjoyed the film. I don't love it. I don't hate it. It's not on any of my top lists or anything, but it is a humorous film (Muppet-like in some cases as already mentioned) and the music is really good. I plan on buying the soundtrack if I can ever find a good deal on it. I haven't seen it under $15 when a store carries it. It could have been much better in plot and faithfulness to the attraction, so it does miss a wide audience and it is easy to see why, but at it's core, it's a cute film that is entertaining if you open your mind and stop trying to critique it at every point, because then there is no way you could possibly like it.

[Luke]

Great idea for a thread series, but ugh.... what a terrible film to initiate it with.

Previous Live Action Discussions
<a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... ns">20,000 Leagues Under the Sea</a>
<a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... Greyfriars Bobby</a>
<a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... 389">Honey, I Shrunk the Kids</a>
<a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... ">Treasure Island</a>
<a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... 0">Tron</a>

That shall be the extent of my contributions to this thread because <i>The Country Bears</i> happens to be along with <i>Lizzie McGuire Movie</i>, <i>Whispers: An Elephant's Tale</i>, and for the moment, <i>Invincible</i>, one of the only Disney-branded live action films released this decade that I haven't seen. The fullscreen DVD is a great turn-off (and the bad reviews, Netty and Ichabod notwithstanding, don't help), even when the disc is priced in the $3-$5 range.

[jeremy88]

Ive never even seen the country bears movie. Ive seen the show at Disneyland a couple times many years ago. Ill have to check it out.

[slave2moonlight]

I do feel they could have made the bears look more like they do in the ride, but then again the bears in the ride are built around metal and wires and gears, not a live human being. As for making the movie with anamatronics, that is impossible to do and the cost would be astronomical. Disney rarely creates new rides with anamatronics because they are so costly to create, program, and maintain.

Okay, I have to make a correction here about the animatronics thing. The word "animatronic" doesn't exclusively refer to the characters in Disney theme park rides. It is not impossible to use animatronics in a film. In fact, before CGI, it was done all the time. Furthermore, animatronics WAS used in country bears, just as it was used in Dinosaurs and Ninja Turtles. See, the technology used to make the facial movements and expressions in these characters are "animatronics." The difference with the ride and show characters is that those are programmed to act the same way over and over, with a big computer and all this other technology (okay, I don't claim to remember all the details or know how it has changed over the years, they used to use discs with holes in them or something). The kind of animatronics seen in Country Bears involves a certain amount of puppetry, and this is what I've been talking about. I would like to have seen characters that relied more on animatronic puppetry and other forms of puppetry so a guy in a suit would not be necessary. That way, the characters could have looked much more like the ones in the actual show than people in suits that looked nothing like the REAL Country Bears. Anyways, I just wanted to clear up the fact that I wasn't suggesting they program robots to perform a movie the way they do the show. Rather, to use more of a mix of puppetry and animatronics instead of costumes with animatronics. It's still animatronics. Not impossible and it's been done in movies before, especially by Jim Henson's people I'm sure.

[dvdjunkie]

Okay, help me out here. Disneyland opened in the 50's, but I thought Disney World didn't open until the late 60's or early 70's.

Being a California guy, Disneyland was like a second home for me, and of course when I worked there as a Projectionist, it was sort of my home.

The 'Country Bear Jamboree' attraction was there for many years, I don't know for sure, but it was one of the early attractions on the first "remodel" of Frontierland.

I thought that the movie was based on the 'dumb' reason they closed the ride at Disneyland, and they just wanted to have fun with it at the same time. I am disappointed that they didn't have some of the same music that was in the attraction - but I also understand there were probably copyrights and things that prevented that. I thought the storyline was pretty good, very predictable, but again it was supposed to be aimed at the family and not just a certain age group.

I thought I read that this was originally shot for a television special, and then they changed their collective minds, and that is why there is no Widescreen version, because it was shot in the 1.33:1 full screen. There I am totally open to correction, because it has been a long time since I read about this film.

Having worked at Disneyland gives me a different perspective on what they were trying to say with the movie. And I, for one, am totally happy with the DVD release, and should they decide to ever upgrade it, I would probably be the first in line to buy it.

[ichabod]

I thought I read that this was originally shot for a television special, and then they changed their collective minds, and that is why there is no Widescreen version, because it was shot in the 1.33:1 full screen.

Well the R2 UK DVD is in widescreen, and it would almost certainly have been widescreen upon its theatrical release. Although it's certainly plausible that the theatrical and UK prints could be a cropped version of a 1.33:1 frame.

[goofystitch]

It is available on iTunes in widescreen as well.

Slave2moonlight wrote:

Anyways, I just wanted to clear up the fact that I wasn't suggesting they program robots to perform a movie the way they do the show. Rather, to use more of a mix of puppetry and animatronics instead of costumes with animatronics. It's still animatronics. Not impossible and it's been done in movies before, especially by Jim Henson's people I'm sure.

I never knew they called the facial controls in the Dinosaurs or other puppet films like "Labyrinth" animatronics. When I hear the word animatronics, I think of something exclusively Disney theme park oriented. I guess the faces of those puppets are made in a similar way to Disney's animatronic figures, but in DVD documentaries about those films, they always refer to it as remote controls or still use the word "puppet" to describe the electronic facial movememnts. I think they used about as much of this technology in the film as they could. If they made the whole film with puppets, whenever a cameo appearance happened, the actors would tower over the bears like they do on the Muppes, except for the Muppets that are in fact people in suits. Back in the early 90's, it was typical to see some of the Country Bears walking around the parks signing autographs and taking pictures. It would have been possible (and much easier) to just take the look of the characters from the ride and work them around the human body because I have seen that they can do it. However, some of the bears would have had to have been adjusted somewhat and it the new designs were probably easier to control and opperate for the people in the suits.

[Just Myself]

Great idea for a thread series, but ugh.... what a terrible film to initiate it with.

Previous Live Action Discussions
<a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... ns">20,000 Leagues Under the Sea</a>
<a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... Greyfriars Bobby</a>
<a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... 389">Honey, I Shrunk the Kids</a>
<a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... ">Treasure Island</a>
<a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... 0">Tron</a>

Uh... oops. I had totally missed those other threads. Now I feels a-stoopud.

D'OH!
JM

[dvdjunkie]

This is Sunday, November 12, about 2:15 Central time, and I have just finished watching "The Country Bears" for the third time in two days.

First of all I want to say that this is a wonderfully entertaining movie. The characters are all true to 'Country Bear Jamboree' show at Disneyland that I remember. The only thing that stands out is that they aren't playing country music, but what I would call Country/Rock music, but I think that was because of the time that this movie was made. I mean they even had Glenn Frey of The Eagles with a cameo appearance and one of his lines is 'it's better than the Eagles' after the big showdown between Brian Setzer the bear fiddle player, I am terrible with names so I won't try to use his name. The lady at the bar with Frey was Bonnie Raitt. I thought the use of cameos by Willie Nelson, Xzibit, Queen Latifah, and Wyclef Jean were just icing on the cake.

The cast of the movie was wonderful and the voice overs, which included Brad Garrett and Haley Joel Osment were just right.

I am at a loss for what people don't like about this movie. It has a good story, and the music makes you want to get up and dance, and sure the acting is a pretty hokey, that's a given, but it is a Disney family picture and there are very few of the Disney family movies that don't contain some pretty bad acting.

Without using terms like dumb, stupid, or I wish it was widescreen, I would like someone to constructively tell me why they don't like this movie. I find it very interesting that this movie has caused such an uproar here on the UD forums.

[Escapay]

Okay, help me out here. Disneyland opened in the 50's, but I thought Disney World didn't open until the late 60's or early 70's.

Being a California guy, Disneyland was like a second home for me, and of course when I worked there as a Projectionist, it was sort of my home.

The 'Country Bear Jamboree' attraction was there for many years, I don't know for sure, but it was one of the early attractions on the first "remodel" of Frontierland.

Originally, the attraction was to have been an ongoing animatronic stage show at a Disney-planned ski resort in the 1960s, and was called the "Bear Band Restaurant Show". Plans for the ski resort continued for some time after Walt's death in 1966, but eventually, the resort idea was scrapped, and they decided to include the attraction in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, where it did on opening day in 1971 (October 1, 1971).

It proved to be so popular that the imagineers decided to included it in Disneyland, with the addition of a whole new land, Bear Country. Due to the popularity of the attraction in Magic Kingdom, it was decided to make two theatres for the attraction (as opposed to the one in Magic Kingdom). The Disneyland version opened March 4, 1972. When Tokyo Disneyland opened on April 15, 1983, it too had Country Bear Jamboree in its park, where it still runs as well.

According to Yesterland, in 1984 they started a seasonal "Country Bear Christmas", though it doesn't say how many years that ran. And in 1986, the Disneyland attraction was redone as "Country Bear Vacation Hoedown", where it continued to run until the entire attraction's close on September 9, 2001.

I thought I read that this was originally shot for a television special, and then they changed their collective minds, and that is why there is no Widescreen version, because it was shot in the 1.33:1 full screen. There I am totally open to correction, because it has been a long time since I read about this film.

The DVD contains two television specials: "The Country Bears: Out of the Woods", as well as "The Country Bears Concert for America".

Its short length (88 minutes) and 1.85:1 aspect ratio could suggest that it was a Wonderful World of Disney or Disney Channel production that Disney decided to matte it and put in theatres, but it's doubtful a made-for-television movie would have had a $35 million budget.

Escapay

[slave2moonlight]

Without using terms like dumb, stupid, or I wish it was widescreen, I would like someone to constructively tell me why they don't like this movie. I find it very interesting that this movie has caused such an uproar here on the UD forums.

Well, you can read my previously posted Amazon review for that, or some of my posts here. I don't hate the movie, but I was greatly disappointed by it, even though I can still derive some entertainment from it. But, unlike you, I did not feel they captured the bears of the show at all, and, most importantly, they scrapped the general feeling or theme of the show. The change to classic rock (with that country sound), even though I LOVE LOVE LOVE that kind of music, just totally alters what the show was about. It was a hoedown, a jamboree, it was totally hillbilly. Like I said in my review, a movie about them should have been more Li'l Abner or Hee Haw than what this was. And I didn't like the look of the bears, not only because they looked so different from the ones in the original show, but also because they looked like people in costumes to me. I think it's because of the way they have to lumber around in those costumes. It worked for the Dinosaurs for some reason, but it didn't seem to work for the bears. It didn't look as natural, even though one might have reasonably expected it to. I really feel this would have been best as a 2D animated film, and with a story more true to the show. Still, it could have been done in live action with the kind of animatronic puppetry I was speaking of before. It's not impossible to make such characters interact and look as convincing as these bears did. Think of Gizmo in the Gremlin movies. All the Gremlins in fact. Or think of Yoda and other Jim Henson characters, or all tons of monster movies that were made before CGI. There are a ton of alternatives to a guy in a suit, but even that could have been done much better. The bears could have been designed to look so much more like they do in the show, even with the technology that WAS used in the movie. To respond to GoofyStitch though, I'm certain I have heard the remote-control technology used in such puppets as animatronics in behind the scenes programs, though perhaps it is not said often because Disney MIGHT have that word copyrighted, ha. Another good example of this technology was the reindeer in Santa Clause 2. And, that's another thing. There was no incorporation of the talking animal heads in the film, ha. Though, I can forgive them for it, it would have been nice. Imagine a 2D film that opened with those three telling the story!

[gardener14]

When The Country Bears first appeared in theatres, I thought it looked dumb. After reading comments here, however, I thought it deserved a chance, and I was overwhelmingly pleased with the movie. The bear characters are completely likeable and believable, and surprisingly, it is the human characters that are corny and unbelievable at times. I enjoyed the story, the concept, and the music immensely. I was drawn in to the fictitious reality that the movie creates surrounding the bears and their past, and I loved the idea of the bears being a country/rock band. The idea for the backstory felt like a natural flow from the attraction because they showed old clips of the bears in different genres and styles of music through the decades. The only scene that went too far for me was the police chase in the car wash. The cameos were a blast, espcially Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson.

The bonus features are quite fun, especially the ABC television special, Concert For America. I loved it. It's interesting though that the film clips used in the bonus features are often widescreen while the movie is only fullscreen. There are some widescreen clips in which picture is definitley lost from the top and bottom making it appear that the movie was cropped from a 4:3 version for theatres. I'll have to make some more comparrisons. I'm wondering if the fullscreen version actually has more picture than the oar.

[w00t]

I saw this a couple years ago and loved then I watched it again and hated it....I still think I need to watch it again though

[MickeyMousePal]

Many UDers are not too young to remember Country Bear Jamboree because I still remember it. It was probably one of the top five shows my family watches when we got to Disneyland.
Anyways The Country Bear movie was horrible and was made very poorly.

[Escapay]

Many UDers are not too young to remember Country Bear Jamboree because I still remember it.

So once you forget about it, everyone younger can remember it.

Escapay