Disney’s Brother Bear opened on this day 22 years ago. There would normally be nothing significant about such an anniversary, except there was something peculiar about the movie’s release date: in order to avoid coming out directly on Halloween (which was a Friday that year, as it was this year), and not wanting to open against The Matrix Revolutions and Elf the following week, Brother Bear was released on a Saturday. It was a move that only sort of paid off, as even with a strong Saturday and Sunday premiere, it still landed in second place behind Scary Movie 3.
That being said, Brother Bear shouldn’t be considered a financial flop. Even though its box office was ultimately “fine” all things considered, it became one of Disney’s best-selling DVDs ever. It also got an Oscar nomination, which is impressive when you consider the movie’s otherwise majestic poster had a toilet joke for a tagline.
As was the norm back in the day, Brother Bear had a heavy marketing campaign. This included a Game Boy Advance game, lots of books, and naturally, McDonald’s toys. I had all eight of these, in spite or perhaps because of this commercial featuring Rick Moranis the Rapping Moose.
Have a transformative night, y’all!