Here be Monsters (Teddies,Doodles and Distraction)

Kenai's journey is largely about what it means to be a man

At the beginning of the film, Kenai is trying to prove himself to his older brothers especially Sitka. He thinks to be a man he has to prove his worth by being tough and macho even when it's unhelpful (like riding a mamooth instead of fishing). That is how the whole conflict of the movie comes up

Kenai does a poor job of tying this basket

Why? Because weaving and tying baskets isn't as manly as getting a fierce totem and therefore he isn't interested in stopping and doing a good job of it. He brushes it off

He then gets a totem of love which he hates and even more, is embarassed by (because love is not 'manly') and discovers the salmon laying on the floor were stolen by a bear.

Kenai could (and should) have acknowledged his fuckup and maybe said "my mistake, I'll weave a new basket and catch more" even if it'd take a while

Instead, he decides to go after the bear. Which is stupid (there is zero chance the fish and basket are intact). And sure enough he gets so frustrated when he sees that they are gone that he taunts the bear, which is doubly stupid, but he thinks he's being a man by not letting the bear get away with it.

Then he loses his eldest brother in the ensuing struggle.

And again, Kenai could have acknowledged his mistake and learned from it, but in his grief he only doubles down on 'being a man' by avenging his brother by killing the bear. Which is not gonna fix anything or bring Sitka back, obviously. His living brother even tells him that.

And you know the rest

But here's the cool thing: Kenai was never cowardly as far as the usual meaning of the word goes. If manliness was defined as being macho, he'd have been one from the start! He did have the guts to fight a grizzly bear with nothing but a a spear! But the movie makes it clear that that's not what it is about. Just fighting the bear when nobody is gonna be helped by doing so isn't being responsible, isn't being kind, isn't taking the weight of his actions seriously and THAT makes a man.

Kenai only grows and gets to be regarded as a man by the narrative, when he starts taking responsibility and having more empathy by realizing that his actions have consequences and weight not only for him, but for others.

And I think that's a banger message against toxic masculinity. I think this movie would've gotten a lot more love if more people looked at with care when it was released

alright first off, i agree with you 1000%. kenai's entire journey was about becoming a man and seeing through another's eyes to understand perspective, and also just learning to have humanity; and i am SO sick and tired of people saying it was racist that kenai was a bear for more than half the movie since he's a POC, when there's LITERALLY a reason why he was turned into one.

in the beginning of the movie, kenai was told that if he followed his totem, he would become a man. kenai thought this was stupid because in his mind: love doesn’t make someone a man; and when his brother died, he thought that avenging him and killing the bear would be his chance at becoming a man, because he thought that was what being a man was all about. but turns out killing the bear did absolutely nothing except create more conflict (which is shown later)

and you can actually see that killing the bear didn’t make kenai feel any better. its also possible that another reason why kenai went to go hunt after the bear was because deep down, he felt like it was his fault sitka died, since denahi subtly hinted that towards him.

in the cave paintings scene, when kenai saw the painting of the bear and the hunter, he sees the bear as a big scary monster; but when koda comes into the scene, he thinks that the HUMANS are the big scary monster; and this is where kenai learns about perspective.

he begins to understand that in koda's eyes, humans are the monsters, and this is more likely where he begins to think "damn, maybe i shouldn't have killed that bear."

after the hot springs scene and seeing denahi breakdown after not succeeding in killing the bear, kenai starts to learn about empathy; seeing his brother falling apart because of kenai’s own actions made him feel horrible, knowing that he can't do anything about it.

and this gets WORSE later on when he finds out that the bear he killed, was actually koda's mother! because kenai at this point learned empathy and taking responsibility for his actions, he knew that the right thing to do was tell koda the truth about it, even if it meant it would break their bond. and in this scene, you can REALLY see how horrible kenai feels about it, knowing he can't reverse what he did.

and in the ending of the movie, kenai was about to get himself killed by his own brother to protect koda, a cub he only knew for a couple days but grew a close bond with, because he loved him like his own little brother.

and that is when he finally followed his totem.

THAT IS WHAT MADE HIM A MAN.

THIS WAS WHY KENAI TURNING INTO A BEAR WAS SO IMPORTANT FOR THE STORY.

killing a bear and trying to be a all macho didn’t make kenai a man. having humanity, empathy, taking responsibility, and learning to love is what made him man.

AND THEN CRITICS HAD THE FUCKING AUDACITY TO CALL THIS MOVIE A KINDERGARTEN MOVIE

perhaps he'd look like this as wolf but idk

+ bonus w/ denahi finding kenai in the woods and they're happy to see eachother :]