Why For was Michael Clarke Duncan’s Grizz character cut out of Disney’s “Brother Bear” ?

Jim Hill

12 years ago

Danielle F. wrote in yesterday to say:

I really enjoyed today’s story about Luigi’s Flying Tires
and like the idea of you turning Why For into a daily feature at your site. I
just hope you get sent enough questions
to actually make this happen.

And speaking of questions: I was sorry to hear that Michael
Clarke Duncan died today. I don’t suppose that you have any Disney-related
stories that you can tell about him?

First off, I just wanted to say — to the friends &
extended family of this Oscar-nominated performer — that the staff &
readers of JHM are genuinely sorry for your loss. Michael was literally &
figuratively a huge talent. And to lose someone like this at just 54 years of
age is … Well, tragic.

But that said … Yeah, I do have a Disney-related story or
two to share about Mr. Duncan. And these have to do with Walt Disney Animation
Studio‘s 2003 release, “Brother Bear.”

If I’m remembering correctly, it was back in 1997 when I
first heard that Michael Eisner had suggested to the powers-that-be at
WDAS that they put a movie about bears in development. To be specific, Michael
wanted the animators there to use Shakespeare’s Macbeth as their inspiration
for a film which should be set in the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

(L to R) Director Bob Walker, Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas [The ‘SCTV” vets who
voiced moose brothers Rutt & Tuke in “Brother Bear”], producer Chuck Williams
and director Aaron Blaise. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Which — I know — at first glance, seems kind of like a
nutty idea But you gotta remember that “The Lion King” had been a
huge hit for the Company back in 1994. And given that that animated feature —
over the course of its very troubled production — had kind of backed into
“borrowing” the story structure of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (i.e. The
brother of the King first engineers his demise and then assumes the throne. And
it’s up to the King’s hesitant son to set things right / restore the kingdom)
… Well, given that WDAS was hoping that history would repeat itself with its
next animal-based, full-length animated feature, “borrowing” from the
Bard when it came to possible story ideas for “Bears” (FYI: That was
the original title of this movie. Just plain “Bears”) only made
sense.

So Aaron Blaise was tapped to be this project’s first
director. And over time, Aaron was joined by Bob Walker (who eventually became Blaise’s
co-director on “Bears”) and Chuck Williams (who WDAS vet Pam Coats
had recruited to become this film’s producer).

And for the next three years or so, whenever Nancy and I
visited with friends who worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation – Florida, as the
two of us walked through that studio, we’d see these amazing pieces of “Bears”
concept art (many of which drew their inspiration from Albert Bierstadt’s
landscape paintings of the American West). But then when we’d go out to lunch
with friends who worked at WDFAF and ask them how work was going on “Bears,”
we’d hear these painful & protracted tales about how Blaise, Walker and
Williams were still struggling. How Aaron, Bob and Chuck had come up with these
memorable characters and a colorful, evocative setting for their film. But what
this trio hadn’t yet found was a story.

Paul Felix’s concept art for “Brother Bear” ‘s northern lights / transformation sequence.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Which sounds kind of weird, I know. But as Don Hahn (i.e. the
producer of “Beauty and the Beast
,” “The Lion King” and Tim
Burton’s soon-to-be-released stop-motion animated feature,
“Frankenweenie“) is fond of saying: “Sometimes you have to be right
in the middle of making a brand-new animated film before you then discover what
your story is actually about.”

But starting in 2000 or thereabouts, I began hearing that
“Brother Bear” had finally found its footing, That — thanks to
Michael Clarke Duncan (who had just come on board this project as the voice of
Grizz, this older male Grizzly that Kenai reluctantly befriends after he
undergoes his man-to-bear transformation) — this animated feature now had a
solid emotional center. That Duncan’s deep booming voice, his natural warmth
and good humor had made Grizz this character that audiences could immediately
relate to. And that — thanks to Grizz’s Falstaff-like physique and joie de
vivre (not to mention Michael’s terrific
vocal performance) — “Brother Bear” was going great guns now. That
WDAS seemed to have another
sure-to-be-“Lion-King”-sized hit on its hands.

But then a year or so later, I began to hear that
“Brother Bear” was being radically retooled. Again. More importantly,
that Grizz was now out as Kenai’s mentor & companion. And that — in the
latest version of the storyline for this Walt Disney Feature Animation –
Feature production — it was Kenai who was now going to be the reluctant mentor
/ father figure for Koda, this brand-new
character that the filmmakers had just come up with. Koda was this precocious,
motor-mouthed bear cub who was going to be voiced by Jeremy Suarez from
“The Bernie Mac Show.”

A storyboard for a scene from “Brother Bear” where Grizz was supposed to have
interacted with Rutt &Tuke. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

“So what happened here?,” you ask. “If Grizz
was such a great character and everyone had been so in love with Michael Clarke
Duncan’s vocal performance, why then was Grizz cut out of ‘Brother Bear’ only
to then be replaced by cute little Koda?” To be blunt, Blaise, Walker and
Williams learned a hard lesson very late in the game during the production of
this animated feature. Which was that they had accidentally built their movie around the wrong character. That — when you
got right down to it — “Brother Bear” was about Kenai’s
transformation both inside & out. How this troubled teen finally grew up, learned
to be a better man by becoming a bear. And as long as Grizz was still in this
picture, with that oversized character serving as Kenai’s mentor (rather than
having Kenai learning about kindness, compassion & responsibility by
becoming Koda’s reluctant father figure), “Brother Bear” just wasn’t
going to work. At least as a truly satisfying piece of cinematic storytelling.

So Aaron, Bob and Chuck now had to call Michael and let him
know that he was no longer the big bear that this new Walt Disney Animation
Studios production was built around. Mind you, Duncan wasn’t completely out of
the picture. Blaise, Walker & Williams had so enjoyed Duncan’s vocal
performance as Grizz that they immediately found him a brand-new character to
voice in their film: Tug, the oversized Grizzly who’s the defacto leader of all
the bears at the salmon run.

And the way I hear it, Michael was very gracious to Aaron,
Bob and Chuck when he heard that the character of Grizz had been cut out of
“Brother Bear.” Even though this former body guard had only been in
show business for six years or so at that point, Duncan was enough of an
entertainment industry vet by then to know that these things happen. More
importantly, that it wasn’t personal. That WDAS was making these changes not
because they hadn’t liked his vocal performance. But — rather — because the Disney
Studio was just trying to make a movie that (they hoped) would eventually
connect with a very broad audience.

And Michael clearly enjoyed doing voice work for animation.
Given that — on the heels of his “Brother Bear” experience — Duncan
would then go on to voice characters for feature-length theatrical releases
like “Dogs & Cats” & “Kung Fu Panda
” as well as
home premieres like “George of the Jungle 2” and “Air
Buddies.” Not to mention animated series for television like “Spider-Man,”
“The Proud Family,” “King of the Hill,” “Family
Guy,” “Static Shock,” “Teen Titans” and “Green
Lantern.”

So while it’s sad to think that Duncan’s basso-profundo voice
has now been silenced … At least we still have Michael’s previous work . The
obvious enjoyment that he got from performing, the real skill & craft that
Michael would draw from whenever he stepped in front of a camera or a
microphone.

And just so you know: Duncan isn’t the only performer who
found themselves — after months & months of standing in a recording booth,
voicing a character for a new Disney animated feature — who suddenly find
themselves out of the picture entirely and/or cast in a new role after that project’s
storyline had suddenly been retooled. Just ask Reese Witherspoon about all of the
voice work that she did on the character which was originally supposed to be
the lead in Disney’s “Rapunzel.” Likewise Holly Hunter about the
months she spent behind a mike, voicing the title character for Disney’s
“Chicken Little.”

When I recently asked Penn Jillette about this (He was the
voice of Wolf-in-Sheep’s-Clothing, the original villain for Disney’s
“Chicken Little.” This character wound up being cut out of that animated
feature entirely when WDFA dropped this picture’s original sleepaway-camp-based
plot and opted to go with an aliens-fron-outer-space-invading
storyline instead), he was fairly philosophical about the whole matter:

“Look, I had a lot of fun working on that project. But
Disney’s been doing this for a long time. So you have to trust their judgment
when they say ‘This isn’t working. We’re going to take things in a different
direction and your character’s no longer part of the story that we’re trying to
tell here. So sorry about that. Bye.’ It’s nothing
personal. They liked my work and I liked working with them. It’s just show biz.
These things happen sometime.”

But even so … Well, I keep hoping that — what with all of
these loaded-with-extra-features Blu-rays that Walt Disney Studios Home
Entertainment has been releasing lately (Take — for example — that “Pocahontas”
Two-Movie Special Edition
that hit store shelves back on August 21st. This
Blu-ray actually includes a Special Feature where animation master Eric
Goldberg walks you through a lot of the storyboards & concept art that was
originally created for Disney’s aborted animated version of
“Hiawatha” from the late 1940s / early 1950s) — that the Studio will
eventually open up its vault and actually let us see what a “Chicken
Little” that was to have been built around Holly Hunter’s vocal
performance would have looked like. Likewise Reese Witherspoon’s take on
“Rapunzel.” And — of course — give us a glimpse of what Michael
Clarke Duncan’s performance as Grizz in “Brother Bear” (which — back
around 2000 — I heard was as much fun as watching Phil Harris‘ work as Baloo
in Disney’s “The Jungle Book” was) would have been like.

EDITOR’S NOTE: So far, we’ve been getting a very nice response to this week’s experiment of running Why For as a daily, rather than a weekly feature. If you’d like to see your Disney, animation or theme park-related questions answered on this website, please send them along to whyfor@jimhillmedia.com.