Griz's story?

[thePwnER]

A question for those of you who have A Transformation Tale:

Did the book mention the story detail of the version with Griz?? If so, how is it different from the final version?

In the movie, Koda ran off after hearing Kenai's story; but if Griz were to be in place of Koda, it would be hard to imagin a "big brother" do the same...

plus, I don't think that an adult bear would take as much shock as if it were a cub...

[EbonyPatriot]

Heh there were some differences unrelated to Grizz among the brothers, but dealing specifically with Grizz, the quotes are:

As in Shadow Bear, Kenai encounters an older male bear- Grizz- to whom he becomes reluctantly but unaviodably attached. What Kenai doesn't know if the bear he killed is Grizz's brother.

"We wanted Brother Bear as a name- we wanted that from the beginning. Grizz has lost a brother. Kenai is dealing with a brother. The moose are brothers... [one of the problems was] that in Act I the film was about a broken father-son relationship. Then, in Act II, after Kenai has changed and met up with this big bear, Grizz, it seemed to switch to a brother/buddy.

...Kevin Harkey brought up this idea: 'What if we make Grizz turn into a cub?'

In the scheme of what the creators felt they had going for them, Grizz was it... the direct descendant of the great male, and father in disguise, in Shadow Bear... the object of Kenai's true regret for his decision to kill a bear. Grizz's role [was] the catalyst for Kenai's true transformation, his emotional one. Grizz is the brother figure Kenai learns to love and the one he must, in the end, hurt because of that love.

"I remember we were talking about [Koda] and were wondering, 'how does he hook up with Kenai going to the Salmon Run?' We just said, 'Well, he's just a kid who won't take no for an answer...a kid you can't turn down. 'Kid, you're so annoying I'm going to take you to the salmon run just to get rid of you.'

In thinking Koda through the story, everyone began to see how in flipping the character from a wiser, seen-it-all adult to an affable, I-always-have-a-story-to-tell cub, the emotional themes were transformed as well... Despite his ready-for-the-world fearlessness, Koda is terrified of man- something he hasn't learned about firsthand, only from his mother's teaching... And in Koda, as opposed to an adult bear, the compassion and forgiveness he displays underscores their more unexpected source.

In his relationship to Kenai, Koda managed both to assume Grizz's former role as mentor...and push Kenai's character, along with film, in a more appealing direction.

"[Kenai's] forced into the situation where he has to be the older brother...instead of heaving the same relationship [with Grizz] he had with his brothers as a human, now he is forced to become a grown-up to this the younger cub. It created a lot of interesting tension where, if you're this troubled adolescent, the last thing you want is to have a relationship with a kid."

[thePwnER]

Thanks!! So it's Griz's brother that Kenai killed, now that makes a lot more sense.

Another question though, did it mention any differences in Griz's and Koda's reaction? Or is it more or less the same?

[EbonyPatriot]

Heh well besides the quotes of:

Grizz is the brother figure Kenai learns to love and the one he must, in the end, hurt because of that love.

and

And in Koda, as opposed to an adult bear, the compassion and forgiveness he displays underscores their more unexpected source

it doesn't say either way. Whether they even had worked out that part before dropping Grizz (movies aren't always made in order, after all); or whether they had and the book just doesn't mention it (in fairness, it covers from 1997 to 2003 in 124 pages), I'm not sure.