Koda is the son of a unnamed female bear, the adoptive younger brother of Kenai, the adoptive brother-in-law of Nita and the deuteragonist from Disney's 44th full-length animated feature film, Brother Bear and its 2006 direct-to-video sequel, Brother Bear 2. Koda also can be found at Disney Parks and Resorts for meet and greets.
He was voiced by Jeremy Suarez.
Physical appearance
Koda is a little male bear, first of all he has a dark brown fur, he has a cream muzzle with a black nose, he has brown eyes and ears, Koda has little hands and little feet, which have small brown claws, he has a little puffy tail and he also has padded hands and padded feet.
Personality
Koda is a young and playful cub and a free spirit. He's always up for adventure, which are led to various occurrences throughout his life.
Because he has experienced much in his young life, Koda always has a story to tell (much to the initial chagrin of Kenai) and he, unfortunately, doesn't know when to shut his mouth. His stories often mention something questionable, as he was speaking at one point "...my eyes were watering, my tongue was swollen and from that moment on, I was more careful about what I lick."
Though small and young, Koda's a lot more clever and smarter than he looks (knowing how to undo a hunter's trap to get Kenai down), but he seems to be lacking somewhat in common sense (as he tried to get Kenai down first by continuously whacking him with a stick, letting Kenai get it for himself, and not just undoing the trap to begin with).
Despite this, it might have been intentional, as Koda wanted Kenai to escort him to the Salmon Run. Furthermore, Koda has apparently travelled far with his mother before he met Kenai, as he knows various landmarks throughout the Alaskan Wilderness, proving he's streetsmart.
Koda's bond with Kenai was originally a working relationship, as the cub needed the older bear to escort him to the Salmon Run, whereas Kenai needed Koda to show him to where The Lights Touch the Earth. However, as they journey, they begin to bond and grow close over various adventures to the point where Kenai himself calls Koda a little brother.
Sadly, this bond is broken when Kenai admits to Koda that he killed his mother as a human. Heartbroken, Koda ran and refused to speak to Kenai, much less forgive him.
Later, when he's alone, he witnesses an argument between the moose brothers Rutt and Tuke which reminds Koda how much he cares for Kenai and he for him. He risks his life to save Kenai and was blown away when Kenai regained his humanity.
In the end, their brotherhood proves true when Kenai forsakes his humanity, stating Koda needs him more than his people. Koda is overjoyed to have his brother back and witnesses his manhod ceremony.
By the next film, the two brothers have come out of hibernation and couldn't be closer. However, when they meet Kenai's old friend, Nita, Koda grows jealous, as the two old friends start ignoring him and he fears Kenai will go back with Nita.
After an avalanche, Kenai and Koda make up. However, after Nita leaves, Koda can tell Kenai's heartbroken, so he puts Kenai's happiness before himself, asking his mother to remake Kenai a human, proving Koda cares more for Kenai's happiness than his own.
Despite this, thanks to the spirits' guidance, Nita finds her heart belongs to Kenai and she and Koda have developed their own bond and she becomes a bear herself, marrying Kenai, giving Koda a new sister.
Appearances
Brother Bear
Koda is first seen rescuing Kenai (who was turned into a bear as punishment for killing one as revenge for supposedly killing his brother Sitka) from a snare, and telling him that he and his mother were separated by several hunters (or "monsters" as Koda described them). At first, Kenai found Koda annoying, but eventually, he became attached to him. After one of the monsters (who turns out to be Kenai's remaining brother, Denahi, who thinks that Kenai was killed by a bear and wants to kill him, not realizing that the bear was Kenai the whole time), Koda helps Kenai escape by hiding in a glacier and later introducing himself. However, Kenai wants to become a human again, so as a result he decides to accompany Kenai on his journey to the mountain "where the (Northern) lights touch the Earth."
Along the way, they meet a pair of moose named Rutt and Tuke who follow them on their journey, but then they decide to ride on several wooly mammoths to get to the mountain faster. After getting off their mammoths but leaving the moose behind, Koda gets into an argument after Kenai becomes very annoyed with him, causing Koda to get angry with him and storm off. After helping Kenai escape Denahi again while in the lava fields, Koda, who now sees Kenai as his older brother, brings him to a waterfall at the base of the mountain where a salmon run in taking place there, and introduces Kenai to the troupe of bears who've gathered to catch some salmon.
After Kenai and the other bears start getting used to each other and showing him that they are not the monsters Kenai thought, they become good friends until they decided to tell each other a story, and it was Koda's turn. Koda then tells the other bears the story of how the monsters separated him from his mother resulting in him meeting Kenai until he got to the part where "the monster had her backed up against this giant glacier!" Then, Kenai learned that the bear he had mercilessly hunted and killed had been Koda's mother. After Koda hears the truth, he runs away crying.
However, after meeting the moose again and hearing their advice, Koda realized that Kenai wants to protect him the whole time, and ascends the mountain, where he sees Kenai about to be killed by his other brother Denahi (who believed that the bear he was fighting had killed his brother, unaware that Kenai is the bear) and saves him by taking Denahi's spear, only for Denahi to try to kill him instead, prompting Kenai to save him, thus allowing Sitka to turn Kenai into a human again. After saying goodbye to his mother after seeing her as a ghost, it turned out that Koda no longer has a family, and as a result Kenai chose instead to stay a bear and live with Koda, who needed him more than any of his own people. Ironically, for this act of love, Kenai was declared to have become a man. Koda then sits with the rest of Kenai's tribe to watch Kenai's manhood ceremony.
In the credits of the movie, Koda is seen trying to teach the moose brothers how to pronounce his name.
Brother Bear 2
In Brother Bear 2, Kenai and Koda awaken from hibernation to find that spring has arrived. Even with snow on the ground and the trees still bare, love is decidedly in the air. Kenai and Koda scoff at the notion of romance, but an old bear (Tug, who they were laughing at because a female bear that he likes was calling over for him to come to her) cautions them (Kenai in particular) that "You can't run from love. It has a way of tracking you down." Kenai laughs, but later has a dream about Nita, a girl he used to know when he was young and a human.
Meanwhile, in her own village, Nita is preparing for her wedding to a man named Atka. Surprisingly, when the big moment arrives, it is revealed that Nita cannot marry Atka. The reason for this is that when they were children, Kenai gave Nita an amulet as a gift. What neither Kenai nor Nita realized was that the amulet bound them as one. The only way for Nita to marry Atka now is to go with Kenai to Hokani Falls, where he first gave her the amulet, and burn it.
Nita finds Kenai and manages to convince him to help her. Initially, Koda gets along with her better than Kenai, relating a number of embarrassing stories about Kenai's early blunders; despite this, during the course of their three-day journey, their old friendship sprouts anew and flourishes- with the ultimate result that Koda feels left out. After Kenai and Nita burn the amulet (despite their feelings for each other) and Nita returns to her village, Koda decides that Kenai's happiness is more important to him than having a brother. To that end, he asks his mom to tell the spirits to turn Kenai back into a man so he can be with Nita. Then he goes into the village to inform Nita of this and is subsequently attacked by the villagers, prompting Kenai to come rescue him.
When the spirits show up, Koda explains that he asked them to change Kenai back. Kenai decides, however, that he can't do that. Surprisingly, Nita decides that as long as the spirits are there, they can turn her into a bear. This they do, and shortly thereafter Kenai and Nita are married and Atka gets banished by the village. This, in return, gives Koda a new mother figure.
Trivia
- Koda's personality, cub-like nature and ability to highly annoy Kenai while still maintaining both of their affections for each other is a lot like Ujurak in Erin Hunter's book Seekers:The Quest Begins.
- Besides his mother, Koda's other known relatives are his grandparents, who he says are amoung the Great Spirits.
- In an earlier draft of Brother Bear, Kenai's guide and adoptive brother was an adult bear named Grizz who would have been voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan. However in later production, Grizz was scrapped and instead Koda was created and Michael Clarke Duncan went on to voice Tug.
- In earlier stages of production, Koda was going to be a adult bear until it was decided that he should be a cub instead as the creators wanted to Kenai to be the older brother instead of the younger brother.
