'Country Bears' is 'Blues Brothers' with fur

By Forrest Hartman
Reno Gazette-Journal

THE COUNTRY BEARS (Rated G) Two and One-Half Stars (Fair-to-Good) Children's musical comedy about an insecure baby bear who helps reunite his favorite band while learning the value of family ties. The movie is cute enough to please the kids but too trite to stand up against the best children's offerings. Older viewers should skip the film in favor of the terrific soundtrack. Directed by Peter Hastings, Walt Disney Pictures, 88 minutes.

Directed by Peter Hastings, a musician and children's television veteran, "Bears" is lightweight entertainment based on the Country Bear Jamboree attraction at Disney theme parks. In the parks, visitors watch as cartoonish, animatronic bears perform good-time music, so it makes sense that movie viewers are asked to do essentially the same.

The film is probably best described as "The Blues Brothers" with animals. The action begins when Beary Barrington, an alienated, 11-year-old fur ball runs away from the human family that adopted him.

Beary — voiced by Haley Joel Osment — heads immediately to Country Bear Hall, the onetime home of his favorite band. When he learns that the building is about to be destroyed by an evil banker (Christopher Walken), Beary begins a quest to reunite the once legendary Country Bears band for a benefit concert.

Along the way, the film pauses for multiple musical interludes, which offer not only a good time, but escape from the overly simplistic plot. It's the painfully obvious script, after all, that keeps the film from being better than it is.

Never does the story take off in unexpected directions and too often it's undermined by the lack of feeling in its animatronic stars. As cute as the bears are, they can't express the full range of emotion needed for more dramatic scenes, and we miss the human actors whenever they're gone.

Also frustrating is an incomplete story arc involving two of the film's most enjoyable characters, state police officers Hamm (Daryl "Chill" Mitchell) and Cheets (Diedrich Bader). These two cutups are a constant source of comic relief, but two-thirds of the way through the film they disappear never to be seen again.

Despite the flaws, younger children should buy in wholeheartedly, leaving only parents and older siblings to criticize — and their hard feelings should be minimized by the terrific soundtrack.

The film boasts some of the best movie music in recent memory, and it's possible some of the tunes will bridge the generation gap. I can already see smiles on parents' faces as their kids dump their normal fare in favor of the roots-rock and pop delivered here.

Everyone from Brian Setzer to Krystal Marie Harris are featured in the film, and the remarkable John Hiatt wrote many of the movie's tunes. The only way this film doesn't see an Oscar nod in the 2002 musical categories is if voters make the same kind of bone-headed slip that kept "Waking Life" out of last year's race for best animated film.

Adding to the musical impact are the sharply devised scenes that play like very good music videos. Particularly outstanding is a segment where Jennifer Paige sings Hiatt's "Kick it Into Gear" accompanied by the patrons and employees of a small-town diner. The clever choreography and tight direction is so good, in fact, that it rivals anything we saw in last year's "Moulin Rouge!"

Of course, this is an exceptional moment in a mediocre film, and when it gets right down to it, the story can't keep pace with the music. The bottom line? Parents with young children shouldn't hesitate to buy tickets, but everyone else should save their money for the soundtrack.

Rated G.