| Denahi | |
|---|---|
| Physical information | |
| Gender |
Male |
| Species | |
| Skin color |
Bronze |
| Hair color |
Black |
| Eye color |
Brown |
| Distinguishing features |
• Braid |
| Biographical information | |
| Also known as |
Dog breath (by Sitka) |
| Status |
Living |
| Totem |
Wolf of Wisdom |
| Residence | |
| Affiliations | |
| Titles |
Shaman |
| Relationship information | |
| Family | |
| Enemies |
• Koda (formerly) |
- For Denahi's gallery, see here.
| “ | ” |
Denahi is a male Inuk human. He is the brother of Sitka and Kenai.
Denahi and his younger brother, Kenai, grew up under the care and tutelage of their elder brother, Sitka. They learned to hunt, fish, and contribute to their tribe together, which forged an inseparable bond between them. As an adolescent, Denahi witnessed Sitka die in a fight with a bear, which Kenai had instigated. As a result, Denahi blamed Sitka's death on Kenai, which drove Kenai to pursue and kill the bear to avenge Sitka's death.
Though Denahi attempted to stop Kenai, he arrived at the scene of the fight to find Kenai gone and a bear standing in his place. Unaware that the bear was really a transformed Kenai, Denahi swore his vengeance and embarked on a quest to slay the bear. Denahi made many attempts on Kenai's life, even endangering himself in the process, and almost succeeded until Sitka interfered and transformed Kenai back into a human.
With Kenai restored to his natural form, the brothers reconciled, and Denahi denounced his original mission to enact revenge. Due to his time as a bear and his bond with a bear cub named Koda, Kenai chose to remain a bear, and Denahi gave him his blessing.
Later, Denahi officiated the ceremony in which Kenai placed his paw print on the wall of their ancestors. Eventually, Denahi went on to succeed Tanana as the shaman of their tribe, to whom he related the story of Kenai's miraculous transformation.
Biography[]
Background[]
Denahi was born as the younger brother of Sitka and the elder brother of Kenai. It is implied that Sitka raised and took care of both him and Kenai.
When he came of age, Denahi received his totem: the Wolf of Wisdom.
Brother Bear[]
While out with his brothers, Sitka and Kenai, Denahi spots Kenai fleeing a stampede of caribou. The brothers take shelter behind their canoes, though one of the caribou kicks Denahi in the head. After the herd passes, Denahi tackles Kenai and starts drooling in his face, only for Sitka to seize his brothers in headlocks and lecture them for fighting. Denahi continues to tease Kenai for being their "baby brother" and for making such a big deal out of his upcoming ceremony. This spins Kenai into a fury, and the two start squabbling again, but Sitka promptly breaks it up, reminding them that they can only return to the village once they have caught enough fish.
Aggravated with Kenai's antics, Denahi pins him to the ground and prepares to drool in his face
The brothers return to their canoes and paddle back to the village. Along the way, Denahi and Sitka catch fish with a net, but Kenai disrupts their work by riding on a mammoth. Though Sitka is amused, Denahi is aggravated. Eventually, the boys catch enough fish and return to the village, where Kenai deposits their catch into a basket and ties it into a tree. Meanwhile, Denahi and Sitka run ahead to the village.
During the ceremony, Denahi and Sitka spectate while the tribe's shawoman, Tanana, gives Kenai his totem: the Bear of Love. This causes Denahi to snicker. After the ceremony, Denahi teases Kenai for his totem, showering him with flowers and calling him "lover boy." Sitka orders Denahi to take care of the fish, and he saunters off, only to get bitten in the tush by a dog.
Denahi accuses Kenai of forgetting to tie up their basket the right way
Once free, Denahi finds that a bear was making off with their catch due to Kenai's failure to tie up the basket the right way. He hollers at Kenai for the error, bellyaching that it would have taken him two weeks to make the basket. This prompts Kenai to fetch his spear and take off after the bear in an effort to retrieve Denahi's basket. Unable to stop Kenai from departing, Sitka glares at Denahi.
Shortly after Kenai departs, Denahi and Sitka set off after him. They search for him being ambushed by a bear and the two of them rush to his rescue. While Sitka helps Kenai climb off a ledge, Denahi gets the bear’s attention and lures it onto an unstable glacier. However, he falls through a fissure in the ice, and Kenai rushes over to assist him. In the meantime, Sitka takes on the bear, though he is quickly overpowered. As the bear advances on a prone Denahi and Kenai, Sitka stabs his spear into the ice, breaking the glacier and causing it to fall into the water below, taking himself and the bear with it.
After finding only Sitka's hood in the water, Denahi accepts that his brother is dead
After Sitka's fall, Denahi and Kenai climb down the glacier after him. They comb the water for him, but find only his hood. While Kenai obstinately declines to give up hope, Denahi holds Sitka's hood sadly, halting his search.
That night, the tribe holds a funeral for Sitka, during which Denahi looks on mournfully. Shortly afterward, Kenai implores Denahi to assist him track down and slaughter the bear that was able to murder Sitka. Denahi declines, claiming that such a course of action would be wrong, and harshly tells Kenai he doesn’t blame the bear for Sitka's demise. Then he reminds Kenai that slaughtering the bear won’t make him a man, but Kenai simply ridicules him for trying to be wise. In a desperate bid to change Kenai's mind, Denahi says that he is merely trying to follow his totem and that Kenai must do the same, but Kenai pays no attention to this, asserting that a man would do absolutely nothing. Denahi warns Kenai not to upset the Great Spirits, but Kenai brushes him aside, throws his totem in the embers of the funeral pyre, and departs. After a bit, Denahi grabs Kenai's totem and follows.
Denahi and Kenai quarrel over whether they need to kill the bear responsible for Sitka's death
Denahi tracks Kenai to the Mountain Where the Lights Touch the Earth, unmindful that Kenai was killing the bear and has subsequently been transformed into a bear by the Great Spirits as punishment. He finds Kenai's bear form stumbling among the remains of torn clothing and so assumes that Kenai is no longer alive. However, before the both of them can have a confrontation, a fork of lightning sends Kenai falling off the side of the mountain into a raging river below. Meanwhile, Denahi resolves to hunt down the bear and avenge Kenai's demise.
Eventually, Denahi tracks Kenai to a forest and makes an attempt on his life, but Kenai manages to get away into an ice cave. Denahi's actions surprise Kenai, who doesn’t comprehend why Denahi has had such a fierce change of heart about revenge.
Denahi resolves to track down Kenai, whom he mistakes for a wild bear
The next morning, Denahi explores the ice cave where Kenai hid, only to search for it empty. He departs the cave and gives the two moose, Rutt and Tuke the stink eye. And then, the both of them depart in a panic. The moose track down Kenai and beg him for protection against Denahi. Kenai concurs, and the party rides on mammoths in order to hide their trail from Denahi.
Despite Kenai's efforts to conceal his location, Denahi eventually catches up to him at the Valley of Fire. He throws a spear at Kenai, narrowly missing, and Kenai uses a geyser to temporarily disable Denahi. With Denahi winded, Kenai and his companion, Koda, hasten to cross a gorge by way of a fallen log. Denahi catches up to them and heaves one end of the log into the ravine soon after, aiming to take them with it. However, to Denahi's outrage, Kenai makes it safely to the other side.
Intent on having Kenai slaughtered, Denahi jumps across a chasm to reach him
As Kenai and Koda walk away, Denahi furiously clutches Kenai's totem in one fist, then jumps across the gorge with a holler, hardly catching on to the still-hanging log. Kenai cries out for his sibling and tries to stop the log from falling, but it plunges into the river below, taking Denahi with it. To Kenai's relief, Denahi surfaces, alive and uninjured, and is carried away by the current.
Later, Denahi huddles against the cold on the Mountain Where the Lights Touch the Earth. He owes Kenai's spirit an apology and confesses that he doesn’t know what to do any longer. Just then, an eagle appears and flies off, tugging at Denahi's hood as it does so. Recognizing the eagle as Sitka's spirit, Denahi grabs his gear and follows it.
Denahi almost impales Kenai on his spear, before Sitka's interference
The eagle leads Denahi straight up to Kenai, and the both of them have a final fierce confrontation. Their fight takes them to a cliff, and the both of them fall a great height to a ledge below. With Kenai delicate and winded, Denahi makes ready to finish him off, only to be knocked aside by Koda. Once recovered, Denahi lunges for his fallen spear, but Koda runs away with it in his mouth. Frightened that Denahi will harm Koda, Kenai races after him. Denahi manages to recover his spear and turns to impale Kenai, but Sitka's spirit interferes, lifting Kenai up out of harm's way.
As Denahi opens his eyes and watches, Sitka transforms Kenai back into a human, and Denahi realizes with terror that the bear he was just trying to slaughter was actually his own sibling. Meanwhile, Kenai has a touching moment with Koda, during which he tells Sitka that Koda needs him. Denahi jokes that Kenai was looking better as a bear, and though Kenai laughs at first, he quickly turns somber and worries over Denahi's fate. At this, Denahi tells him that they will always be siblings, no matter what Kenai chooses. The both of them embrace, and Sitka honors Kenai's request by transforming him back into a bear. The three siblings share a last tender moment before Sitka rejoins the Great Spirits.
Denahi after he officiates the ceremony in which Kenai places his paw print on the wall of his ancestors
Later, Denahi becomes Tanana's successor as the village shaman. As such, he officiates Kenai's ceremony to place his paw print on the wall of his ancestors.
Many years pass, with Denahi growing into an old man, and he tells the story of him and his siblings to the village. He concludes the story by explaining that Kenai was going on to live with the bears of the Salmon Run and was becoming a man by becoming a bear.
Physical appearance[]
Denahi is identifiable by his outfit: a blue parka with white trim. While hunting Kenai, Denahi wears a cloak against the cold weather and carries a spear.
Denahi shaven (left), unshaven (center), and aged (right)
As the middle brother, Denahi is the second largest in size. He is several inches shorter than his elder brother Sitka, with a slightly smaller build. However, he is taller and beefier than his younger brother Kenai, with wider shoulders and a taller stature. Like his tribesmen, Denahi is bronze-skinned and has dark hair, which he lets grow to the base of his neck with a single braid to one side. His eyes are brown.
He also wears a royal blue (resembling blue) parka in Return of the Bear of Love.
After embarking on a mad quest to get revenge on the bear that he believed killed both his brothers, Denahi stops taking care of his appearance. He grows a scraggly moustache and goatee, and his hair grows noticeably longer and wilder. However, after realizing that Kenai is alive, Denahi returns his appearance to its usual state.
As an old man, Denahi looks much the same, just with noticeably more wrinkled skin and white hair. He sports the same moustache and goatee as before.
Personality and traits[]
| “ | ” |
Denahi teases his brother Kenai, displaying his light-hearted and playful nature
Of his brothers, Denahi is the least serious. He is prone to cracking jokes, making sardonic remarks, and teasing his younger brother, Kenai. However, he will defer to and obey his elder brother, Sitka, even if he is in the middle of causing mischief. He takes his duties as a member of his tribe seriously and works hard to produce good products and labor, which is a source of tension between him and Kenai, as the latter continually ruins Denahi's hard work with his antics.
While disappointed, Denahi has a quick temper and can be harshly unsympathetic. This madness doesn’t meddle with his conscience, as he always makes attempts to follow his totem despite any animosity he can feel. He serves as a voice of reason to Kenai, trying to talk him down from his fury and thirst for revenge.
Denahi's temperament suffers a major blow when he believes that Kenai was murdered by the same bear that was murdering Sitka. At this point, Denahi embraces his madness and pursues the bear to avenge the deaths of his siblings. He becomes callous, bellicose, and insensitive, displaying a certain level of bitterness for a pair of harmless moose and even a small bear cub.
Consumed by the need to avenge his siblings, Denahi spirals into rage and madness
As Denahi's hunt for the bear goes on, he descends slowly into anger. He stops taking care of his appearance, growing a scraggly mustache and goatee, and lashes out with extreme fury when he fails to slaughter the bear. His actions gradually become more desperate and wild, and he shows disregard for his own life by throwing himself into risky situations.
After discovering that the bear he was pursuing was Kenai, Denahi is shocked, humbled, and terrified by what he has done, and felt awfully guilty over his actions towards Kenai and Koda. He regains his sanity, and shows acceptance and understanding for Kenai's choice to remain a bear. This proves his unconditional love for his siblings when he declares that they will always be siblings, no matter their circumstances. Denahi's change of heart is so exceptional that he becomes Tanana's successor as leader of the tribe, proving that he has fully embraced his totem's virtue: wisdom.
Trivia[]
- Denahi is voiced by Jason Raize.[1] His elderly Inuit voice is provided by Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley, while his elderly English voice is provided by Harold Gould.[2][3]
- Despite being a major character in Brother Bear, Denahi is neither seen nor mentioned in the sequel.[4] He also appears in Return of the Bear of Love.
- During early production of Brother Bear, Denahi was going to be Kenai's father rather than his brother.[5]
References[]
- ↑ Jason Raize. IMDb. Amazon. Retrieved on June 25, 2020.
- ↑ Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley. IMDb. Amazon. Retrieved on June 29, 2020.
- ↑ Harold Gould. IMDb. Amazon. Retrieved on June 29, 2020.
- ↑ Revealed in Disney's Brother Bear 2 (2006). Written by Rich Burns, and directed by Ben Gluck. Distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc.
- ↑ Brother Bear: Das Interview mit Ruben Aquino. OutNow (January 11, 2003). Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved on June 28, 2020.