REVIEW: Brave

 There are no spoilers in this review.

PLOT: Determined to make her own path in life, Princess Merida defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, Merida must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse.


THE GOOD: Story. Brave is the first Pixar film to have a female main character. Prior to this, strong females in Pixar movies like Jessie in Toy Story 2 and 3, Helen Parr/Elastigirl in The Incredibles, and Colette in Ratatouille seemed to only be secondary characters. Brave stars Merida, who is voiced by Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald, known for the British mini-series State of Play, playing Margaret Schroeder in Boardwalk Empire, or for you Harry Potter fans, plays Helena Ravenclaw in the last film. Obviously she's not a big celebrity, so you won't exactly see her name splashed all over the posters or trailers for this one. Merida is born into a situation that we've seen before. A situation that sometimes feels taken from Disney territory. Merida is informed that she is to be betrothed to a man, but she does not want to get married. So, like most princes or princesses who want to escape such a fate, they run away and set off on an adventure. It's at this point that Brave takes a left turn when any Disney film probably would have taken a right. This is what I love about Pixar films. They give you about 25-50% of what a movie is going to be about, letting the rest delightfully surprise you. Up and WALL•E are some of the best previous examples of giving the public just a taste of where the story is going to go. Unfortunately where this movie takes us is not quite as grand or imaginative as I was hoping, but it's still a surprising twist that turns out to be both comical and touching.

Only a cartoon character could ever have hair as curly or tangled as Julie. Man, that stuff is frustrating. 

Message. In grand Disney fashion, the young heroine disobeys her parents and runs away. We've seen it in The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Mulan, and others. In the end, the parents always seem to concede at the wishes of the protagonist. I'm not going to say that Brave doesn't do this, but it does it in a much better way. It's not just a "Oh, hey, everything turned out alright, so I'm just going to change this rule for you. k, luv u, bai." There should always be a better reason for the change, and in Brave, that reason is communication. Merida has always been more of a tomboy (this is how Pixar ingeniously tries to connect with little boys). Thus, she's been closer to her dad's sense of living rather than her mother's formal ways. You get a sense that they've never truly bonded over things like sewing or trying on dresses, and so they've never really spoken to each other either. What happens through the course of the movie forces these two to bond together and get the words out there. It's a lesson that we can all learn.

Animation. Gorgeous. The Scottish land just looks amazing. Pixar really knows how to do this well. The iconic scene that you can see in the trailer where Merida shoots her last arrow at the archery contest looks practically real. After the bad animation in DreamWorks Madagascar 3, this was like a breath of fresh air. Pixar has never failed me on this aspect.

Voice acting. Kelly Macdonald is quite vibrant and full of energy as Merida. The same really goes for the whole cast of Scottish and English actors including Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin McKidd, and Craig Ferguson. Oh yeah, and keeping with Pixar tradition, you'll hear John Ratzenberger's best Scottish accent in there at some point.

Merida splits an arrow. That's not a spoiler since it happens in EVERY SINGLE FREAKIN' archery movie ever made! 

THE BAD: Not magical enough. With five good aspects of the film and just one bad, one would probably think that I loved this movie. Honestly, I thought it was just okay and the big reason why this is so is because of what I said about the story going in a direction that's not quite as surprising as one would come to expect from Pixar. I kept waiting for a huge build up into something way beyond the initial twist, but it never came. The climax of the film doesn't have quite the impact that Toy Story 3, Up, or WALL•E had. One reason for this might be because the film is a bit dark. Not dark enough to scare away all children, but some might have a hard time with it. I would certainly say that this is Pixar's darkest film yet. Because of all this, I walked out of the theatre a bit underwhelmed.


THE END: Brave starts with an unoriginal premise that turns into an original adventure, but never quite reaches the charm of most of Pixar's previous efforts. I liked Brave more than the two Cars movies, but that might be it. However, if I compare Brave to CG-animated films outside of Pixar, it exceeds most of them. I attended an advanced screening held by Disney for the film and they really turned the experience into a great time with some Scottish highland dancers before the film, so who knows if that had a more positive reaction on me. I took my mother and daughter to see the film and both of them seemed to enjoy it very much. I think it's a good mother/daughter movie and should have come out around Mother's Day. We saw a 3D screening, which was well-done, but not necessary as it doesn't really enhance any of the visuals in the movie. Brave is worth seeing, but I don't know how much it's worth catching in theatres for. Maybe regular 2D matinee showings, but I wouldn't shell out $14-15 to see this.

DISCUSS: What did you think of Brave? How would you compare it to previous Pixar films? What other films did Brave sort of copy? What did you think of the animation and voice talent? Are you looking forward to Monsters University?

Merida thinks that this is a Will O' the Wisps, but it's really a unicorn fart that's still lingering. Good thing they smell like cotton candy.

NOTE: The Pixar short before Brave is La Luna, which is one of Pixar's best shorts, in my opinion. It was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards earlier this year. This was one where the 3D really did have a positive effect on the visuals and might be my only reason for recommending the format. Make sure you get to the movie in time to see this.