| The Country Bears | |
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Promotional film poster |
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| Directed by | Peter Hastings |
| Produced by | Jeffrey Chernov Andrew Gunn |
| Written by | Mark Perez |
| Starring | Haley Joel Osment Kevin Michael Richardson Diedrich Bader Brad Garrett Stephen Root Toby Huss Candy Ford James Gammon Christopher Walken |
| Music by | Christopher Young Don Henley |
| Cinematography | Mitchell Amundsen |
| Editing by | George Bowers Seth Flaun Dean Holland |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Release date(s) | July 21, 2002 |
| Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $35 million |
| Box office | $18,012,097 |
The Country Bears is a 2002 American live-action comedy film, produced by Walt Disney Pictures, based on the Disney attraction Country Bear Jamboree, and released July 26, 2002. It was Disney's third film based on an attraction at one of its theme parks, following Tower of Terror (1997) and Mission to Mars (2000) and followed by Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and The Haunted Mansion (both 2003) and the last three Pirates of the Caribbean films (2006, 2007, and 2011).
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Beary Barrington (Haley Joel Osment, singing voice by Elizabeth Daily), a young bear raised by a human family in a world where humans and talking bears coexist, attempts to trace his roots. He meets up with the Country Bears, a long-since broken-up band, a parody of bands like the Eagles. Beary helps the Country Bears reunite for one final concert, while searching for who he truly is.
Thanks to Beary, the Country Bears realize how wrong they were to break up, which they did due to various petty arguments that escalated, and Beary returns home to his family who he realized truly do care about him, even his brother who somewhat bullies him. The Bears, after reading an essay Beary wrote about them decide to do the concert to save Country Bear Hall (Grizzly Hall), the place at which they used to perform, but refuse to do so without Beary who brought them back together.
They go to get him and his family, but while Ted Betterhead, the band leader who was the most reluctant to reunite is apologizing to Beary and explaining everything to him, Thimble (Christopher Walken), the villain who wants to destroy Country Bear Hall, kidnaps the rest of the Bears.
Thanks to an idea from Dex, Beary's older brother Ted, Beary and Beary's family are able to track down and rescue the Bears and head to the concert together. Unfortunately the guy they hired to promote it was paid off by Thimble not to and didn't so it looks like they aren't going to be able to save the Hall after all. But then Big Al, the caretaker of the hall reveals that everyone was just out back and when he opens the door a massive amount of people rush in. The money from the concert is revealed to be enough to save the hall and the Bears perform the concert with Beary now as a member of the band.
It was filmed in Franklin, Tennessee as well as various locations in California.[2]
The film was a flop; budgeted at US$35 million, it grossed only $16,990,825 in the US and an additional $1,021,272 overseas. The film was released on DVD and VHS in December 17, 2002. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film only received a 26% positive rating. Film critic Roger Ebert said "the formidable technical skills in The Country Bears must not be allowed to distract from the film's terminal insanity." Critic Sean O'Connell said of the film "Bears is bad. Not 'terrible filmmaking' bad, but more like, 'I once had a nightmare like this, and it's now coming true' bad." It had a few positive reviews but most criticized it for lacking entertaining acting or an enjoyable storyline.
"Despite all the celebrities on hand, this spin-off from a theme park attraction still feels tired and hokey." -Rotten Tomatoes
Christopher Walken was nominated for a Razzie award for Worst Supporting Actor for his performance in the film.[2]
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