’’The Country Bears’’ is a good family film. It isn’t the best movie Disney ever cranked out, but it will hold your attention for about an hour and a half. It follows the story of young Beary Barrington, a boy/bear unsure of his purpose in life. He doesn’t fit in with his human family(or at least that’s what he thinks), so he sets out for ’’Country Bear Hall, ’’ where he believes he’ll fit in. When he gets there, the place is about to be leveled to the ground, so he decides to reunite the band for a benefit concert. What follows is a good, clean family film about friendship, family, and tons of musical cameos.
It has a solid cast of well-known and not-so-well known actors. Christopher Walken plays the sore loser turned destructive banker bent on destroying Country Bear Hall. Deidrich Bader and ’’Chill’’ Mitchell play two goofy state highway patrolmen. Haley Joel Osment provides the voice of ’’Beary.’’ Steve Tobolowsky plays the fun father figure of this film.
The film has a good overall message, but some younger kids may be turned off by the pace. It does introduce the younger lot to musicians like Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Elton John, Brian Setzer, and Don Was. It also has cameos by stars the youngsters will probably recognize like Wyclef Jean and Queen Latifah. I think that’s what I like most about this film. It covers the Country Bear’s ’’influence’’ across the board and manages to mix a number of musical genres into one. From hip-hop to rockabilly, it’s all covered here. The Country Bear band has a Southern rock sound, with a little Eagles thrown in to boot.
For good family fun, I recommend this one.