Almost all of the Disney Sing-Along-Songs videos are very good to great, with only two this reviewer had mixed feelings on, which were this and 'Little Patch of Heaven', and only one that didn't work which was the rather un-Disney-like '101 Dalmatians Pongo and Perdita'.
'Brother Bear' may not be one of Disney's very best, but to me it's always been one of their most underrated, because it does have a gorgeous story and a heart-warming story and while Phil Collins' songs have proved divisive like with his ones for 'Tarzan' to this reviewer the soundtrack is awesome. It was inevitable that 'Brother Bear' was going to get the Disney Sing-Along-Songs treatment, and while it is one of the lesser entries in the series it still has many pleasures.
With the exception of the narration scenes with the moose that look okay but nowhere near as beautiful as the visual style of 'Brother Bear' and in a couple of the segments of the songs featured from the sequels (especially '101 Dalmatians 2' and 'Stitch The Movie'), the animation is really pleasing to look. The obvious standouts are the two songs from 'Brother Bear', "Welcome" and especially "On My Way", though "On the Open Road" has some fluid and inventive visuals and who cannot help love the montage of clips from beloved Disney films like 'The Little Mermaid' accompanying the re-arranged theme song.
There are some songs that fare better than others. Most of them work really well, the new take on the theme song sung by none other than Sebastian is great and your eyes wallow with nostalgia in the montage of Disney scenes that accompany it. "On My Way" has always been the best song from 'Brother Bear' and is one of the highlights here, other highlights being "On the Open Road" from 'A Goofy Movie', the poignant "Go the Distance" from 'Hercules' (am actually generally not a fan of that soundtrack, but do like "Go the Distance" and "Zero to Hero") and "Following the Leader" from 'Peter Pan'.
"Diggah Tunnah" is amusing enough, though am not sure where it fits with the theme. Didn't really care for "Try Again" and "Aloha" from films that I don't really care for (am of the perhaps unpopular opinion that '101 Dalmatians II' is one of the worst of the Disney sequels), while "I'm Still Here" while decent enough on its own lacks the momentum of the rest and doesn't fit as easily.
It is very easy to follow the lyrics and the video does put one in a good mood singing along. A good job too is done with entertaining and teaching, it's great to wallow in the nostalgia even though it's more newer Disney-oriented than most in the Disney Sing-Along-Songs series and the vocal performances and generally the singing is good and done with a lot of verve and spirit. Was less keen on the moose's narration, which was sometimes amusing but not always and it does threaten to make things drag and especially with the dance-along scenes, which were pointless, not particularly well choreographed (pretty simplistic actually and hectically danced) and the children's hamming up and such makes the scenes easily skip-able if possible.
On the whole, enjoyable fun but there's better in the Disney Sing-Along-Songs series. 6/10 Bethany Cox
