Brother Bear (2003)

I didn't go into this with high expectations. Its middling reception aside, I've found that movies set in prehistory tend to have awfully simple plots. So do movies about animals at a low level of anthropomorphism. And for whatever reason, few 2003 titles, even among hits, have done much for me. But I rarely pass up an Academy-nominated animated feature, and what little I'd seen from this one didn't look bad. Besides, I wanted to see how it compares with Brave. If nothing else, BB runs a short 85 minutes and promised to be heartwarming.

In a fictionalized Alaska with both humans and mammoths, irresponsible adolescent Kenai (Joaquin Phoenix) pursues and kills a bear for questionable vengeance. Spirits of departed humans, particularly his eldest brother (D.B. Sweeney), see fit to teach him a lesson by turning him into a bear. He can now talk with all sorts of animals except humans, which doesn't stop a savvy shaman (Joan Copeland) from cryptically telling him where to journey for penance and restoration. He makes little progress until meeting cub Koda (Jeremy Suarez), who got separated from his mom and would like a companion as he heads to almost the same destination. They had better make good time, because Kenai's other brother (Jason Raize) has mistaken him for Kenai's "killer" and is on a similar vengeful quest.

The Good Dinosaur (2015)

I'm not sure why Pixar decided to release two features in one year, after having finally taken a year off. It's as if they knew that only one would be particularly successful, so they wanted the greater to distract us from the lesser. In so doing, they could avoid talks of a not-so-hot year.

The title is a bit misleading, because several if not most of the semi-civilized dinosaurs are about as good as young protagonist Aldo. If there's one way he's better, it's in his refusal to kill the food supply-raiding human orphan he encounters -- tho he chalks it up to his usual failing, timidity. Dire straits force him to start relying on the nonverbal yet grateful boy, dubbed Spot, for help reuniting with his family.

Quest for Fire (1981)

I chose this streaming flick next mainly for the 100 minutes it runs, since I was killing time. In retrospect, it has just enough in common with The Revenant that I should have waited. There's even a survived bear mauling, albeit not very important to the story.

Based on  J.-H. Rosny aîné's most popular novel, this is one of the few movies I can name set in caveman days. The English title is pretty straightforward: A tribe who doesn't know how to make fire yet sends three men to find some. (This may be rude of me, but director Jean-Jacques Annaud never had a better reason to cast Ron Perlman, who debuted on the silver screen here.) Most of the dangers they face come from other tribes, but one woman from a more advanced village, upon getting saved from cannibals, proves helpful.