Disney's Brother Bear is a sweet, gentle fable about the nature and power of love.

It's meticulously and beautifully hand-drawn cell animation makes it reminiscent of such early Disney classics as Bambi and Dumbo.

It has the same concerns about realizing one's worth and one's role in a particular society.

Kenai (Joaquin Phoenix) is an Inuit boy on the brink of manhood.

He is hoping the village shaman will give him a totem of bravery or valour as he sees himself as a warrior. Instead, she presents him with the bear totem which is the symbol of love.

Poor Kenai is distraught. He doesn't want to be some Stone Age hippie.

As fate and a great deal of plot exposition would have it, Kenai ends up battling a bear who helped itself to the village cache of fish.

The bear plunges to its death as a piece of a glacier gives way and the spirits in their wisdom put Kenai's spirit into the body of a bear.

The young hunter must see life from the perspective of the animal he hates most.

The folks at Disney know that powerful themes need to be tempered with humour and that's the role of Koda (Jeremy Suarez), a baby bear with energy to spare.

He never stops talking which drives Kenai to distraction, but he needs the cub because Koda knows the location of the magic mountain where Kenai must go if he is ever to get his human body back.

Koda and Kenai share some of their journey with Rutt and Tuke a pair of moose brothers voiced by Canada's own McKenzie Brothers, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas.

They're the slapstick tomfoolery the best Disney cartoons weave into their action.

At one point Kenai, Koda, Rutt and Tuke ride on the backs of wooly mammoths to save energy and catch a walking nap.

The sequence seems borrowed from last year's Ice Age and feels a little out of place, though it does help set the story in a bygone era.

The backgrounds for the action are among the best in recent Disney films.

They are drenched in colour and detail.

Brother Bear uses a rather annoying gimmick.

Until Kenai is transformed into a bear, the colours are more muted and the screen is smaller.

The moment the magic happens to Kenai, the same is true of the film which bursts into vibrant colours and wide screen.

Though it tends to play best to younger children, Brother Bear is a winning family film.

It's what we've come to expect and love from Disney's animated features.

(This film is rated G)

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