Brother Bear is Disney's 44th animated feature and the last one to be created entirely at the Orlando Studio, which closed shortly after the production ended. Disney was slowly shifting away from 2D animation (due to the bad reception its previous features had had) and they ended up closing the studio in Paris the same year.
Brother Bear was conceived after the huge success of Lion King. Disney directors wanted to create a new feature taking place in the wild, so the creative team came up with the idea of following the adventures of a bear.
