Review of Brave (2012) by Bob S — 17 Aug 2013

In the mythical land of Scotland, Merida (Kelly Macdonald), a young princess in her rebellious teenage life is having a problem with her family (especially her mother), because her acts are somewhat considered not appropriate. The Scottish kingdom, ruled by King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), are having a party to choose a prince from the other clans to be paired with Merida. Being the princess to be chosen as the love partner of the Scottish men, Merida has the right to choose a competition to be participated by the Scottish men. She chose archery, as it is her expert field of experience. Not as expected, the neighboring clans' best sons fail to impress Merida. She soon starts to grab her bow and arrows and prove her skills, a true disgrace to the Scotland hereditary tradition.

Being mad at Merida, Elinor starts scolding her because of her selfish and reckless manner. Wanting to be herself and not be the princess she should be, Merida decides to flee to the forest with his trusty horse, Angus. In the forest, lurked by the legendary demonic bear Mor'du, Merida found a witch in disguise that she asked for her help in changing her mother. The witch then gave Merida a spell induced cake that would change her mother. Unexpectedly, Elinor changed into something Merida won't ever expected.

Pixar's films have never been about princesses like Disney always did back in the 20th century. Director Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman tried something brave in making something new to the Pixar films line. A daring princess, much different than any Disney princesses (is Mulan a prince or princess?). The result? It's not that great. Pixar's animation quality itself is great, even looking better than their previous films. But the story itself doesn't really feel like any other Pixar films. I find it rather bland, and don't have great climaxes, and can be easily forgotten.

The spotlight in Brave may be the musics and the Scottish feel. Scottish pipebag musics by Patrick Doyle make the film alive. And what touches me the most is the song 'Not With Haste' by Mumford & Sons (yay) sung by Birdy under the title 'Learn Me Right'. The comedy itself is in the exact amount, not too much and not too few.

Even with the not too short duration of 93 minutes, Brave feels so long and complicated. The transformation of Merida from being a selfish to a family-loving human being is the main point of the film, and it's presented about only half of the film. I can't truly enjoy Brave. As a fan of Pixar from their work Toy Story and slightly underrated A Bug's Life , Brave is not Pixar's masterpiece. Hopefully their next projects won't be this flat.