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Walt Disney's feature animation has taken several it's fair share of lumps the past few years. With their latest big-ticket animated films having melted at the box office, the Mouse House takes another stab at the family film-goer demographic with Brother Bear, a focus-group-friendly stew of elements from previous, more lucrative hand-drawn entries like The Lion King and Tarzan. And as if Disney heard the cries of millions of parents -- the studio now lines up their properties with pro mom and pop musical acts (no more Menken grandiose). If Mom has to sit through eighty-minutes of talking bears, she can at least tap her B.U.M. Equipment sneakers from Wal-Mart to the beat of Phil Collins' adult-contempo and FM radio friendly tunes. (The irony here is at this point, folks old enough to have been fans of Phil Collins / Genesis probably don't have kids who are interested in seeing Brother Bear). Like Tarzan, Brother Bear unspools with Collins performing his own original tunes. Thankfully unlike Tarzan, there is no musical number as dreadfully embarassing as "Trashing The Camp".

The album is divided up into two sections, song and score. The songs, written and performed by Collins, are an uneven mix. The opener, "Look Through My Eyes" is a decent enough, up-tempo rocker loaded with warm strings, electric guitar riffs and a battery of drum loops. Effective, but hardly the album's highlight. Next up, and the first tune to appear in the film is "Great Spirits" , a lung-splitter belted with gusto by Tina Turner. Her patented lusty vocalizations float over a thickly produced instrumental track crammed with guitars, heavy percussion and smooth string lines. What doesn't make sense is the R&B-like back-up chorus that appears here and later in Collins' "No Way Out". How this fits into a story of Aboriginals, woolly mammoths and bears is unclear.

If there's one major mistep here it's "Welcome", a cheesy ballad devoted to brotherhood, family and sharing. Yes, the themes of the film have been spelt out for us in plain english over a dry track of light synth chords and half-hearted back-up vocals. This one might have been stolen from Barney's playbook. Adding insult to injury, a second performance of "Welcome" follows the much better "No Way Out (Single Version)". This second run features the Blind Boys of Alabama with Collins and Oren Waters, and manages to out-fromage the previous rendition with it's rolling organ and Temptations-like vocalizations. The album follows this up with the film version of "No Way Out" and "Transformation" (complete with powerhouse choral accompaniment from The Buglarian Women's Choir), quite possibly erasing memories of rolling organs and Temptations-like vocalizations. But quite possibly not.

Bless the folks at Walt Disney Records for including three sizeable suites from Mark Mancina's score (with an assist from Collins' songs -- the reason for the shared credit). There's approximately nineteen minutes of music here, and it oscillates from tender and ethnically appropriate (courtesy of some meaty woodwinds, percussion and shimmering vocals in "Awakes As A Bear" and "Wilderness of Danger and Beauty") to proud brass lines (all three attributes are evidenced in the first score track, "Three Brothers" , alone). Mancina states his effective theme here on brass, though it's fairly anonymous and may slip your mind easily (though to remind you, it's restated quite nicely on the woodwinds in the second score track). There are few instances of bristling action here, though Mancina does dial up the tension in "Three Brothers" with booming percussion, then goes a little cutesy a minute and a half into "Awakes As A Bear". But for the most part this is a mature and meditative effort that runs effortlessly and is wisely edited without filler. The overall effect is satisfaction -- you may feel like you want more, but there seems to be just enough here to placate. Wait for an unintentional(?) cameo of the woodwind blast from television's Survivor theme 1'23 into "Wilderness of Danger and Beauty"  before Mancina sends the album out with a tundra-hath-no-fury choral finale reprised from Collins' "Transformation".

Inserts include song lyrics and extensive credits, photos of all the principals (including the Bulgarian Women's Choir!) but not reclusive Mancina (why?). Sound quality is good, particularly the score's percussion section. If I have one complain it's the added reverb to the end of the score cues within the suites. Each cue plays dry then fades off with reverb FX, especially noticeable in headphones (check the end of the "Three Brothers" clip for an example).

Brother Bear is a fairly classy, if a bit generic package, highlighted by a performance from the unbeatable Tina Turner and Mark Mancina's pleasant score. Mancina is a composer we don't hear from too often, so it's gratifying when he rises to this rare occassion (Bad Boys II could have used his considerable touch). My advice is to give the Collins songs two or three spins and they'll grow on you. Avoid the duds and this album might just get significant stereo time.