The Bear (film)

The Bear is a 2004 American animated action comedy film produced by Stephen Hillenburg, Ryan Reynolds and Games Anderson and is based on the children's fairy tale "The Bear" by Scottish poet Andrew Lang. The film was directed by David Feiss and written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and based on a screenplay by Genndy Tartakovsky. The film was executively produced by Jennifer Kluska and Derek Drymon, and was produced by Krusty Krab Entertainment, Games Animation, Inc. and Nickelodeon Movies and was distributed theatrically by Paramount Pictures.

The film was produced through Rough Draft Studios' animation division, Rough Draft Korea, on a $88 million budget. The film was theatrically released on May 4, 2004 in the United States by Paramount Pictures, and received mostly positive reviews from critics, with critics praising its animation, visual effects, its source material, the voice cast (particularly ???), and the plot. It was also a critical box office success, grossing $603 million against a $88 million production budget.

Plot
A king loved his daughter so much that he kept her in her rooms for fear harm would come to her. She complained to her nurse; unbeknownst to her, the nurse was a witch. She told her to get a wheelbarrow and a bearskin from the king. The king gave them to her, the nurse enchanted them, and when the princess put on the skin, it disguised her, and when she got into the wheelbarrow, it took her wherever she wanted to go. She had it take her to a forest.

A prince hunted her, but when she called to him to call off his dogs, he was so astounded that he asked her to come home with him. She agreed and went in the wheelbarrow. His mother was surprised, and more when the bear began to do housework as well as any servant. One day, the prince had to go to a ball given by a neighboring prince. The bear wanted to go, and he kicked it. When he left, she implored his mother for leave to just go and watch. With it, she went to her wheelbarrow and used the wand to turn her bearskin into a ballgown of moon-beams. At the ball, the prince fell in love with her, but she fled, so she would be back in time to hide herself. She was pleased when he told his mother of her, because she had fooled him, and laughed under the table. The second ball, she went in a gown of sunlight, and his attempts to follow her carriage did not succeed.

The third time, the prince succeeded in getting a ring on her finger. When he went home, he declared he would search for her. First, he wanted some soup, and for the bear to have nothing to do with it, because every time he mentioned his love, the bear muttered and laughed. The bear put the ring in the soup. The prince asked her to take off the skin, and she became a beautiful young woman. She told the prince and his mother how her father had kept her imprisoned, and the prince married her.

Voice cast
TBA

Development
Development on The Bear first began in 2002, when SpongeBob producer Stephen Hillenburg approached Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies with licensing to the original fairy tale from Scottish poet Andrew Lang. The two companies, along with Games Animation, Inc., acquired the licensing rights and started development on the film.

Games Anderson, a co-producer for the film, died in September 2003, less than a year before the film was released. Due to the unfortunate passing, Ryan Reynolds took over as the head of animation at Games Animation, Inc.

Casting
TBA

Animation
The animation for the film was produced at Krusty Krab Entertainment in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Games Animation, Inc. in Scarborough, Ontario, in Canada. Its animation was produced through Rough Draft Studios in Los Angeles, California, and its animation division, Rough Draft Korea in Seoul, South Korea. Its animation was rendered in 12fps and 24fps (12 for standard 2D animation, 24fps for 3D animation).

Release
The film premiered at the Regency Village Theater on April 30, 2004, and was theatrically released on May 4 in the United States by Paramount Pictures, and on May 7 internationally by United International Pictures (UIP).

Home media
The film was released on DVD and VHS on September 2, 2004. The DVD included a 14-minute featurette, an animated music video, and an interview with Stephen Hillenburg and Ryan Reynolds, the producers for the film. The film was later released on Blu-Ray on February 9, 2010 and on Blu-Ray 3D and 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray on June 18, 2016.

Box office
The film was released on May 4 in the United States by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. The film grossed $286 million in the United States and Canada and $317 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $603 million.

Critical response
The film received widespread critical acclaim upon release. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 100% based on 122 critic reviews, with an average rating of 8.3 out of 10. Its critical consensus reads "Wonderfully animated, inspiring, and a beautiful adaption to the beloved fairy tale by Andrew Lang, The Bear, in all its perspective, is the single-handed greatest film adaption to the beloved fairy tale, as well as the greatest film from its debut company, Krusty Krab Entertainment." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 99 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore assigned the film a rare grade of "A+" on its A+ to F scale.