ironhorse_iv Review of The Country Bears

The Country Bears (2002)

I got some bad news for you. The Country Bears was unbearable.

[3/10 · 9 July 2016]

Honestly, I really don't get why this movie directed by Peter Hastings was even made!? It's pretty odd that Walt Disney Company would made a movie out of a really old outdated Disneyland attraction where animatronic bears sing country songs. Yes, I know, the show at one time, was once overwhelming popular, but in 2001, 'The Country Bear Jamboree' was nothing, but relic of what it was, was. After all, during that same year, Disneyland closed the Jamboree show, due to poor attendance and replaced it with 'The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh'. While, it's true, that the other Country Bear Jamboree shows in the other Disney theme parks, are still open, as of this writing, however, it didn't help bring the viewers to see this movie. Budgeted at US$35 million, it grossed $16 million in the US and an additional $1 million overseas. The film flopped so badly in the U.S., it was released straight to video in the UK in 2003. That's really, really horrible! I think, one of the biggest reasons, why this movie fail to reach an audience, is because the movie barely use the source material, right. While, the movie use a lot of the original names, none of the bear characters in the film, really matches, their original persona. A good example is how the movie thinks that Big Al (Voiced by James Gammon) is a sluggish and elderly property caretaker for The Country Bear Hall & Henry Dixen Taylor (Voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) is the band's manager, when in truth, both were part of the show, playing the guitar and being the Master of Ceremonies. Also, the main band of the show wasn't call, 'Country Bears'. It was call 'The Five Bear Rugs' which most of the characters in the film, were members of. Also, Ted Bedderhead (Voiced by Diedrich Bader) was never the leader of the band, as that role was for, the very surprising absent, Zeke, whom along with Oscar isn't in the film. Also, Trixie St. Claire (Voiced by Candy Ford) was never part of the original band, nor was dating Tennessee O'Neal (voiced by Toby Huss). In the original show, she had a slight crush on Henry. I was also, somewhat disappointed, with the film, due to the absent of classic characters like the Sun Bonnet Trio and the talking mounted animal heads, Buff, Max, and Melvin. Where the hell, was them!? Instead, the film follows a new bear character named Beary Barrington (Voiced by Haley Joel Osment), whom trying to reunited the long-since broken-up band in an attempt to reunite for one final show to save their own concert hall from the evil banker, Reed Thimble (Christopher Walken). Without spoiling the film, too much, I have to say, I really didn't like how the idea of having the events, take place in a live action world where humans and talking anthropomorphic bears coexist. While, for the most part, the bear suits, designed and constructed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop kinda work, minus the singer, Elton John cameo scene; I think this movie would had work better if this film was a hand-drawn or computer animation cartoon. It comes across, somewhat jarring and creepy to see people interact with men in puppet bear suits. Another thing, I really didn't like, how the voice-acting didn't match up with the singing voices. It's really weird to see, a character with a normal gravelly voice, be able to sing a beautiful power ballad in a few scenes later. The music that came with the film was alright for the most part. Nothing too memorable to note of; but I couldn't stand, on how forced and randomly out of place, some of these musical numbers, come from. Also, the celebrity cameos for this film, was kinda weak. Honestly, I never even heard of singers, Krystal Marie Harris or Jennifer Paige before this, or after. Despite that, I did like the cameos of Jess Harnell, Don Henley, Willie Nelsen and others. Another problem with this film is the humor. It's not really that funny. It was mostly a miss than a hit for me, because of how dumb, some of the jokes, were. Plus, I really didn't like, how they recycle jokes from older films like 1979's 'The Jerk', 1979's 'The Muppet Movie' & 1980's 'The Blues Brothers'. It didn't seem, so creative. It made everybody in the film, look like total idiots. It's sad to see Christopher Walken sink so low. Overall: Disney's third movie based on a ride or attraction, following 1997's 'Tower of Terror' and 2000's 'Mission to Mars' was indeed a failure. Thank God, 2003's 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl', somewhat save the idea. I can only hope, future Disney movies based on their theme rides would be awesome, and not awful like 2003's 'The Haunted Mansion' or this film.