Review of Brave (2012) by Kevin P — 01 Aug 2018

Strengths: It's Pixar. Their animation style is always stunning and Brave was no different. Every character, setting, and scene just looks beautiful. Another Pixar staple is strong voice work. Kelly Macdonald (Merida), Emma Thompson (Queen Elinor) and Bill Connolly (King Fergus) were all very good as the main cast. I appreciated how the film put the typical Disney princess idea on its head. Merida makes for a strong role model for the young girls this movie is garnered towards. There's a lot of comedy mixed in throughout the movie and most of it works. Merida's little brothers are always quite funny, as are the scenes with her and her cursed mother trying to fend for themselves. From what I could gather, the action scenes were quite exciting. It'll get overlooked, but the score was another highlight.

Weaknesses: I've come to have high expectations for Pixar movies. That means that Brave, a good film, felt like it fell short. Something about it never seemed as creative, cool, or dynamic as the movies where Pixar excels. To me, this felt like a more prototypical Disney film than something Pixar got their hands on. Though the princess is tough, we've still got typical old Disney things like a forest, curse, witch, etc. Also, while I noted how the action scenes were tense and worked well, they were hard to enjoy at times. It was the one issue I had with the way the film looked. The fighting at night was difficult to see and it made it hard to tell what was happening.

Overall: While it lacks the imagination or creativity of Pixar's best work, Brave still delivers the goods of a strong fairy tale. The animation is brilliant and Merida is a strong protagonist for little girls everywhere.