50 free Brother Bear trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free Brother Bear trivia questions with answers. Brother Bear was the last big film to come out of Disney's Florida animation studio, and it hides more craft than its mixed reviews suggest. This quiz covers the story and the making of it: Kenai, Sitka and Denahi and their eagle, wolf and bear totems, Tanana the shaman, the salmon basket, the glacier, Koda and the salmon run, Tug, the moose brothers Rutt and Tuke and the Bob and Doug McKenzie act they came from, the mountain where the lights touch the earth, and the ending Kenai chooses. It also asks about the production: Michael Eisner's Bierstadt painting, the King Lear blind-bear pitch, the Alaska research trips, the older bear Grizz who became a cub, Joaquin Phoenix's 'leading bear' line, Jeremy Suarez's Finding Nemo audition, Phil Collins and Tina Turner, the Bulgarian Women's Choir, the aspect ratio that changes when Kenai does, the Oscar nomination, and the direct-to-video sequel with Patrick Dempsey and Mandy Moore. Easy questions cover the main characters and the plot. Medium ones ask about voices, songs and release. Hard ones want the budget, the theatre where it premiered, the film it opened behind and the cancelled TV series. Every answer has been checked against reference articles on both films, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was Brother Bear released in US cinemas?
2003
It premiered at the New Amsterdam Theatre on October 20 and went wide on Saturday, November 1.
Q 02Who voices Kenai, the young man turned into a bear?
Joaquin Phoenix
Fresh off his Gladiator Oscar nomination he joked, 'Don't call me a leading man... I'm a leading bear.'
Q 03Where is Brother Bear set?
Post-ice age Alaska
The tribe believes the Great Spirits appear in the form of the aurora.
Q 04Kenai is the youngest of three brothers. What are the other two called?
Sitka and Denahi
Sitka is the eldest, Denahi the middle brother.
Q 05Which animal is on the totem Kenai receives, to his disgust?
The bear
It stands for love; Sitka had the eagle of guidance and Denahi the wolf of wisdom.
Q 06Who is the tribe's shaman, who gives Kenai his totem and later heals him?
Tanana
She is voiced by Joan Copeland and tells him to seek the mountain where the lights touch the earth.
Q 07What does the bear steal that sets the tragedy in motion?
A basket of salmon
Kenai had failed to tie the basket properly in his hurry to receive his totem.
Q 08How does Sitka die?
He dislodges a glacier to save his brothers
The bear survives the fall, and Kenai later hunts it down and kills it.
Q 09Who turns Kenai into a bear?
The Great Spirits
It happens on the cliff after he slays the bear; the dead bear's body evaporates and joins the Spirits.
Q 10Denahi wrongly believes what after finding torn clothes on the cliff?
That the bear killed the youngest
He vows revenge and hunts the bear that is actually his brother for the rest of the film.
Q 11The shaman tells Kenai he can be changed back if he reaches what?
The mountain where the lights touch the earth
But only once he has atoned for his actions.
Q 12What is the name of the bear cub Kenai befriends?
Koda
The cub's mother is missing; the pair strike a deal to travel to the salmon run together.
Q 13Who voices Koda?
Jeremy Suarez
He was hired after the filmmakers heard his audition tapes for Finding Nemo.
Rutt and Tuke, the comic moose brothers, are based on which comedy duo?
Q 21The original story concept was inspired by which Shakespeare play?
King Lear
It centred on an old blind bear travelling the forest with his three daughters.
Q 22What reason did animator Aaron Blaise give for attaching himself to the film as director?
He wanted to animate bears
He joined in 1997 and co-directed with Robert Walker; his two-page father-son treatment became the basis of the story.
Q 23Brother Bear was the third and final animated feature made mainly at Disney's facility in which city?
Orlando, Florida
The Florida studio closed in March 2004 as Disney pivoted to computer animation.
Bob and Doug McKenzie
Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas voice them, just as they played the McKenzies on SCTV.
Q 15How did the moose voice actors record their lines, unusually for animation?
Simultaneously, together
Phoenix and Suarez, by contrast, recorded separately apart from a couple of joint sessions.
Q 16Who voices Tug, the wise old grizzly who leads the bears at the salmon run?
Michael Clarke Duncan
He had originally been cast as Grizz, an older mentor bear who was rewritten as the cub Koda; the filmmakers liked his voice too much to lose him.
Q 17What does Kenai realise during story time at the salmon run?
The bear he killed was Koda's mother
Koda tells a story about his mother fighting human hunters on a glacier.
Q 18How does the film end for Kenai?
He chooses to remain a bear
Sitka changes him back, but Kenai asks to be a bear again because Koda needs him, and Denahi supports him.
Q 19Jason Raize, who voices Denahi, was best known for originating which Broadway role?
Simba in The Lion King
Brother Bear was his only film; he died in 2004, so Denahi does not appear in the sequel.
Q 20Which Disney film's success led Michael Eisner to call for more animal-centred features, prompting Brother Bear?
The Lion King
Eisner also suggested a North American setting inspired by an Albert Bierstadt landscape painting he had bought.
Q 24In which state did the crew take their 1999 research trip, visiting Kodiak Island and Denali?
Alaska
Later trips took in Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Sequoia; artists also drew live bear cubs at Fort Wilderness in Florida.
Q 25Who wrote the songs for Brother Bear, following his success on Tarzan?
Phil Collins
He composed six songs and co-wrote the score with Mark Mancina, but was disappointed not to sing them all himself.
Q 26Which legendary singer performs the opening song of the film?
Tina Turner
She sang it live at the New York premiere after Collins performed 'No Way Out'.
Q 27Which vocal ensemble performs the song 'Transformation', with lyrics translated into Inupiaq?
The Bulgarian Women's Choir
The Blind Boys of Alabama also feature on the soundtrack.
Q 28What was the first single from the soundtrack?
Look Through My Eyes
'Welcome' was later reworked as the theme for Disneyland's Parade of Dreams.
Q 29What visual trick happens 24 minutes into the film, when Kenai becomes a bear?
The aspect ratio widens and the colours brighten
It was the first film since The Horse Whisperer to shift widescreen ratio mid-movie, and the only animated one until The Simpsons Movie and Enchanted.
Q 30Roughly what was Brother Bear's production budget?
$46 million
It grossed about $250 million worldwide and another $169 million in home video by January 2005.