Movie Review: A / O Journey to Bear Kingdom

Alpha & Omega: Journey to Bear Kingdom

Well...everything comes to an end I guess. As of now, officially, with little reason to believe otherwise, Lionsgate has officially ended the 'Alpha and Omega' series. (sigh) Well nothing lasts forever I guess and one can only hope for the best when it comes to the finale. Yeah...you can hope all you want...but it doesn't mean you're going to get it.

The 'Alpha and Omega' films have been a Direct-to-Video series since the original theatrical film in 2010. Through those years, Lionsgate made turned it into franchise with a video game, books, and even small bit of merchandise. And considering the series was supposed to end originally three films ago, it must have had some kind of success to keep putting money toward it.

I've explained in the last two 'A&O' film reviews that I personally am a fan of the series in that ironic way. Yeah, none of them are really good but they have an appeal and have their own flavor that makes me actually want to see how it would evolve over time. Coming into a film bargain bin filler film made me stay on till the end and so here we are; the eighth and final film to bookend the 'Alpha and Omega' franchise.

Unlike all seven of the previous films however, I actually had no idea about it's release. I knew that it was coming and even knew the subtitle of the film but I never knew when it was coming out (no seriously, I knew the release of all seven films and got them on their released dates [excluding 2,3,4 as they were originally Wal-Mart exclusives and I don't shop there but got them when they were released in other stores later and before that I saw them through Redbox] , so record broke at the end).

So I was at Target while my car was getting worked on and there it was on the new released rack, catching me completely by surprise. But one detail really got me by surprise...the price...$8...now this wasn't one of Target's temporary cuts or special release pricing. All the previous sequels cost $10 when they were released...but $8...on release week? Not a good impression...

Okay honestly, when it came to the Splash Entertainment sequels [before they were released but knew all the subtitles] this was probably the one I was least excited for. I personally love Christmas and the winter season so 'Big Fureeze' was something to look forward to and 'Dino Digs' like I said in the review...sounds at least stupidly entertaining. This one...eh, I don't know considering the rest of the series and it's usage of bears I didn't really know what to expect except a cliché 'Don't judge a book by it's cover' moral story.

So...what do we get? The plot is basically that the queen of the Bear Kingdom along with her daughter are passing through the Eastern Territory. The series pups; Runt, Stinky, and Claudette along with Brent, Agnes, and Fleet are there to watch it happen along with the rest of the Eastern Territory critters to greet them. They are later ambushed by rouge wolves and under the care of the group take care of the Princess and the other animals take care of the queen. The King of the bear kingdom along with the Western Pack mobilize while there are traitors in the bear kingdom and have made a deal with the rouge wolves. Together they plan to conquer the bear kingdom and control the water together and thus rule the territories.

Yeah...not the best summery but that's about the gist of it...now try making that happen in 45 minuets.... in other words the pacing of the film is bad. Part of problem is that the film has too much plot for such a short time frame. I don't necessarily think this film's plot is impossible to accomplish in the context of the 'A&O' universe but I feel like they were trying to write a much bigger story than a 45 minuet film could allow and part of that reason is the characters.

There are a lot of new characters that were never seen or even mentioned in the other films. So we have no idea on who any of these new characters are or even what the heck the Bear Kingdom is till this film. Yeah, most of the other films introduced new characters but it was only a couple at a time and the film followed those new characters enough for them to be fleshed out and help work with the plot. Here they are just thrown at us and the plot just flies over the character development. It wouldn't be so bad if we actually knew these characters already but we hardly know any of them, even in context of a kids film it's not that well done.

Because of this the pacing is very poor. Everything feels rushed, not a single scene can be taken in and we can follow it. All of the other films, (yes even 3 and 'Dino Digs' ) had better pacing than this films does. The dialogue, the action, the animation, the music, all feels sped up to make this film hit it's 45 minuet mark. Heck all of them had better character development that this one does. I actually knew things about all the other characters in the previous films than this one. I have a feeling there are a lot of scenes left on the cutting room floor.

Interestingly enough, there's not really much involvement with the returned characters from the previous films. Fleet (Claudette's love interest/boyfriend) barely does or even says anything, part of the reason I think a lot of scenes were cut. Brent and Agnes are there too but they don't do much either. They try to imply a chemistry with Brent and the Princess Canue (bear Princess) but nothing comes of it and it's mostly because the two of them don't say or do anything together or at least on screen and even if that were the case there's no implication of that either.

Also Kate and Humphrey also play a small role in this. In fact, it takes a bit of time in the film before they finally introduce them. It's not like they don't get involved with everything but don't play a big part in this. Actually, on the note, even the pups themselves really just help keep the plot running but ultimately don't have that much to do with anything. In fact, why is this called 'Journey to Bear Kingdom'? There's not really a journey taken anywhere and the little traveling there is we never see, it just transitions to when they reach their destinations.

There's a few things they just seem to materialize and retcon. For one this whole thing with the bears confuse me. The universe make it pretty clear that bears and wolves have little positive relations, even with the Western Pack. So now apparently, aside from existing, there's a Bear Kingdom and they're allies. Even though the bears in the Western Territory barely get along with the Western Pack wolves.

Also this thing with the water doesn't make too much sense. Control the water, control the territories. I sort of get that part, but what exactly are they going to do? Dam the river? I don't really get it. I can understand why that would be desirable for the rouge wolves but what exactly was the plan from there? I really don't get it.

Marcel and Paddy are there but do little...just like everybody else. I feel like they added them since they are in all of the others. I'm not criticizing that necessarily because of who are, honestly I don't dislike the characters, it's just that they always feel like they were forced into the movies. But in this one it feels like they forced all sorts of characters into the movie...at least I actually know who these guys are.

The animation is bad. It feels a lot like the 'Dino Digs' but the forest parts did look a little better in comparison. But everything else but the forest parts feel downgraded in comparison or at least to the level of 'Dino Digs'. In fact the only polished thing seemed to be the crowns...that for some reason bears in the wild have...Even King and Princess in the previous films didn't do that!

Really the only nice thing I can say is that the background music was actually decent. I always felt the Splash Entertainment sequels were bad at that but this one was okay. Also that said I think there was a musical number for the end but it was cut to meet it's time mark.

...and that's it. One thing to note though, this was a very quick sit. This didn't feel like a long 45 minuets, it felt more like a I just watched a quick 22 minuet cartoon honestly. So as bad as it is, at least it's a quick sit.

(sigh) So after eight movies it ends on this. The series I chose to follow has come to an end...and it ends on this film. I have hard time saying where I'd rank this one. 'Dino Digs' and this film are neck and neck. 'Dino Digs' was a bad idea with an even worse execution but at least I now some stuff about the raptor and there was fair pacing. This film was poor all around but I will say this film is more salvageable than 'Dino Digs' so I guess 'Journey to Bear Kingdom' is better.  

There's supposedly talk about an animated series and actually I don't think that's impossible. Is it a good idea...I don't know (knowing me I'd watch it anyway). But for now, this is the end. For better of for worse, this ends the franchise.