Brave is by far the most beautiful animated film I have ever seen, with details so clear and so lifelike that the movie exceeded any expectations I had for how realistic computer-generated images could be. It features a strong female protagonist, something I appreciate as the father of a six-year-old princess-obsessed daughter, and a stirring score primarily written by Scottish composer Patrick Doyle, with two songs performed by Scottish singer Julie Fowlis. Unfortunately, the story is a lot less nuanced than previous entries in the Pixar canon, with a more predictable plot and none of the secondary storylines we’ve come to expect from a studio that has produced so many masterpieces.
The warrior princess at the heart of Brave, Merida (voiced by, who else, Kelly Macdonald), is being groomed for eventual betrothal to one of three princes from allied clans in the Scottish highlands, yet has no interest in an arranged marriage or any fate written for her by her domineering mother, Elinor (Emma Thompson). Her father, King Fergus (Billy Connolly), is happy to encourage her tomboyish habits, giving her a bow and arrow for a birthday present and making fun of her would-be suitors with her, yet defers to his wife on all matters of import. Merida runs away after a blowout quarrel with her mother over her refusal to accept any of the princes, ending up in a witch’s cottage in the forest, which, naturally, leads to a spell that goes awry, the effects of which Merida must spend the remainder of the film trying to undo.
The animation of Merida’s unruly, curly, red hair is an absolute marvel, both an obvious symbol of her fiery independent spirit and a chance for Pixar’s animators to show off their tricks, which are even more impressive now than they were in Ratatouille, perhaps my least favorite Pixar film but which featured remarkable animation of Colette’s hair. Pixar re-wrote its animation system for the first time in 25 years to allow for more realistic depictions of human characters, and it shows all over this film, even in the depiction of the fur on the two ursine characters and in breathtaking panomaric shots of the highland forests, cliffs, and waterfalls. It is a new high-water mark for computer animation in the movies.
While my daughter enjoyed the movie tremendously, adults will likely find it a little too predictable, and the resolution relied on what was, for Pixar at least, an abnormal amount of just straight-on physical combat between man and bear and eventually between the two bears themselves. The mother-daughter bonding that occurs after the spell takes hold is poignant without becoming too sentimental, with the usual Pixar message of the need for characters who disagree to open their minds and work together. Merida’s three younger brothers, mischievous triplets who are too young to speak but are old enough to understand and use simple machines, steal most of the scenes in which they appear and seem tailor-made for future appearances in Pixar shorts, if not in a film of their own. Yet they don’t have any sort of story, appearing as comic relief and to help Merida and her mother try to break the spell. I also thought the film had less of Pixar’s trademark humor, relying on more obvious sight gags and even some mild bathroom humor to fill that gap.
However, I know I’m holding Pixar to an impossibly high standard – one they set through their first eleven films. (I still haven’t seen Cars 2.) No studio has been so good for so long and it may be unfair to expect every one of their films to be as good as The Incredibles
Cars 2 was an abomination. But if you havent already, you should watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was excellent.
Agree wholeheartedly with Jacob on Cars 2. Just skip it.
I haven’t seen Brave but I’ve suffered through Madagascar 3 and the new Ice Age recently. While both were cute and had some great hidden adult humor (even a Woody Allen reference in Mad. 3) they both bothered me for the same reason. My beef is that they are all so “fast”….for lack of a better word. It’s like they took the pace/intensity of Finding Nemo, Toy Story and even the initial Cars and hopped it up on caffeine and sugar.
My 5 year-old twin boys don’t need hyped up more. I realize they didn’t have to see these movies, but their grandparents think they did. I was just along for the ride.
BTW – try Kipper the Dog sometime with your daughter. Totally chill.
Just saw this yesterday in the theater and had the same take. I did really enjoy the animated short and was glad to see Despicable Me has a sequel coming. Need more minions.
Really surprised at the influence of Thinner to the plot of Brave. I must say that the “transformation” that occurs midway through Brave did shock me.
I just saw Brave this past weekend, and I echo your review. The art is beautiful the scenes where all of the clans are on screen have amazing animation. I was surprised by the straight forward/predictable out come as well. Like the others above said, skip Cars 2, huge disappointment.
I have a 3 year old Boy and he Looooooooves Cars 2. It’s not the best Pixar film, but that makes it better than just about anything like Ice Age or Madagascar.
Brave reminded me of Ratatouille, a film that never felt like it needed to be a blockbuster, didn’t need to sell a million toys or show up in every McDonalds. All three of my kids liked it.
Keith, it’s always nice to see your opinions on non-baseball matters, but I might caution against (or, at least, disagree with) sweeping generalizations such as “No studio has been so good for so long.” Otherwise, I generally agree with your critique of the film (though you seemed to like it more than I); stunning animation, but pretty flat and derivative otherwise.
So disagree with me, preferably with evidence. I am open to changing my mind, but I won’t stop expressing my opinions on my own site.
Keith, have to heartily disagree on the quality of this movie; I found Merida to be a terribly unsympathetic character, which ruined the entire experience. I enjoyed the first half of the movie, but everything following the scene with the witch had me completely lost. Merida’s actions towards her mother are despicable, first in essentially cursing/poisoning her with an unknown, unexplained spell, and then afterwards when her mother becomes sick Merida whines that it wasn’t her fault, she didn’t do it! So what is the life lesson for a young girl like your daughter? To be a horrible brat, put a curse on your mother, lie about it, and then you’ll get what you want. Also, the plotline is very similar to The Little Mermaid, which is a far superior movie in my opinion, mostly because Ariel doesn’t poison her parent to get what she wants. Disney / Pixar should be ashamed of this script.
Jeff, you may have missed the fact that the happy resolution to the story comes only when Merida realizes and admits responsibility for what she’s done. Her impetuous acts caused the problem, and as long as she refuses to recognize it, it will never go away (i.e., her mother will stay a bear, in this case).
That was supposed to be the lesson, anyway.
What bothered me is that you have this rebellious young girl, who focuses her entire life on archery, against the wishes of her mother, who fights her over it. Yet her devotion to it, which has clearly made her an extraordinary archer, as shown in the competition with the “princes”, doesn’t have any meaningful payoff in the story. Why have something so central to the character that is only tangentially related to the story. I kept waiting for the moment where her tremendous skill was going to pay off, and the closest she came to showing her mother that it had value was when she shot fish in the stream with her bow, which was briefly impressive until it was shown that fish could be had pretty easily in other ways.
Not a bad way to pass the time, but it’s true, the film lacked that next level of quality that I’ve come to expect from Pixar. I heard rumors that Disney changed the script in major ways that Pixar disagreed with in order to make the story “appeal to boys more”. I haven’t found any hard evidence of this anywhere, though.