Review of Brave (2012) by Christopher A — 12 Jun 2013

Last year, Cars 2 has shown that Pixar is not as invincible as most would have originally thought. Many Pixar fans were disappointed with it, breaking Pixar's near perfect streak. I've heard it all before. "Pixar is dead!" "It's the end of Pixar!" Seriously, people who think this really need to lighten up. There are even people who think Pixar as a whole is overrated (unfortunately). While Cars 2 is undoubtedly Pixar's weakest entry and even lackluster compared to Pixar's other movies, I honestly don't think it was that bad. People are just overreacting because most of them expect utter perfection from Pixar. Well, hey, not all of the Pixar features were masterpieces (the first Cars, A Bug's Life, and Ratatouille).

Anyhow, Brave is Pixar's 13th animated film. After seeing the movie, I think it's safe to say that Pixar still has strong legs on them. They haven't been restored to masterpiece form which they lost some of after Toy Story 3, but it's a step up from Cars 2. There is also a 7-minute short called La Luna about two men and a child finding a moon covered in stars.

The film begins with introducing us to Princess Merida as a kid and her parents, Queen Elinor (voiced by Emma Thompson) and King Fergus (Billy Connolly). We see them celebrating her birthday, in which she receives a bow from her father, much to the Queen's displeasure, believing that women shouldn't deal with weapons. Merida comes across a magical being known as a will-o'-the-wisp. Suddenely, a monstorous bear attacks them, but King Fergus and his men drive it off, but lost a leg in the process.

Several years later, Merida (Kelly Macdonald) is now a teenager, and Queen Elinor has had three trouble making triplets. But Merida is not the typical princess, but rather one who prefers to be free-spirited and practice archery, much to her mother's disapproval. But when she is set to be betrothed and during an archery contest to prove a suitor's worth, she shows her skills with archery. After a falling out with her mother, Merida runs away.

In the woods, she comes across a witch who brews her up a spell that could change her fate, in which Merida is wants her mother to accept her for who she is. But what really happens is that her mother is turned into a bear. Forced to flee the kingdom, Merida and Elinor go on a search to break the curse by the 2nd sunrise, or Elinor will remain a bear forever.

The story is not quite as magestic as most would want from a Pixar film, but there's more of a story than Cars 2 ever had. The movie deals with the conflicts between a daughter and her mother. The overbearing mother drives the daughter away, but when a disaster strikes, the girl realizes how immature she was and they begin to bond.

Like the other Pixar movies, Brave has its comedic moments. Most of them come from the fun-loving King Fergus and the three triplets. But the movie does have its dark moments. One is a legend that the kingdom fell into ruin when a prince's pride takes over. Then there is the ferocious bear Mor'du, who gives me some slight reminders of the bear from Fox and the Hound. But unlike Toy Story 3 and Cars 2, Brave gets the PG rating it deserves. As for the animation, I think it's pretty pointless to even talk about it. Pixar's animation has never been anything short of mastery.

But one thing that was lacking in this movie was that the moral lesson was not quite there besides the bonding between mother and daughter. Basically, Merida just wants to be free and her mother eventually comes to accept her for what she is. While Merida does become a better person for it, there wasn't really much to it.

The vocals were pretty good. Kelly Macdonald made a good protagonist. Emma Thompson was the best performance as the strict Queen Elinor. Billy Connolly manages to make King Fergus into a fun character. The triplets were also funny. The other characters were also fun and the bear was a little scary. But the witch in the movie doesn't get to do much besides starting the main plot point.

Not among Pixar's best, but a really good effort and an improvement over Cars 2.