In post-Ice Age North America, the local Native Americans believe in the Great Spirits, who create life and are said to appear in the form of an aurora. Three brothers, Kenai (Joaquin Phoenix), the youngest, Denahi (Jason Raize), the middle, and Sitka (D.B. Sweeney), the elder, return to the tribe to receive totems, necklaces that take the shape of animals, with each animal being representative of something the brothers must achieve to prove themselves as men. Unlike Sitka, who receives the eagle of guidance, and Denahi, the wolf of wisdom, Kenai receives the bear of love, to which he objects, believing them to be thieves; he makes his point a fact when a grizzly bear steals their basket of fish. Kenai and his brothers pursue the bear; when the fight culminates on top of a glacier, Sitka sacrifices himself to save his brothers, by dislodging the glacier, but the bear survives. Following Sitka's funeral, 