Brave | Review
Lately, Pixar has released a single film each year. The animation studio is without a doubt a leader in the industry, and their films have become sort of “events” that fans wait all year for. Children love the films because they’re animated cartoons. Adults love the films because they also appeal to the older crowd with more mature themes, well-written stories, and humor and cultural references only they would understand. Sure, Pixar may have had a misstep or two along the way (cough, cough, ‘Cars’ – I’m not counting ‘Cars 2’ because that film was great!), but most of the time they can be counted on in bringing fantastic animated films. It’s a little dissapointing, then, that ‘Brave’, Pixar’s newest feature, isn’t as groundbreaking as ones in the past – like ‘Toy Story‘, ‘Finding Nemo’, Wall-E’, or ‘Ratatouille’.
‘Brave’ is the studio’s first fairy tale; it has a princess, king and queen, warriors, scary beasts, a dangerous forest, and magic and witches. The protagonist is Princess Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), a tough and brawny teenager with fiery red hair and skilled with a bow and arrow (taking cue from other expert archers from films earlier this year – Katniss and Hawkeye). Merida’s problem arises when her controlling, though loving, mother, Queen Elinor (voiced by Emma Thompson) tells her she is to be married. The sons of the three lords of the land, Lord MacGuffin (Kevin McKidd, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’), Lord Macintosh (Craig Ferguson, the famed talk show host), and Lord Dingwall (Robbie Coltrane, of ‘Harry Potter’ fame), will compete against one another to win Merida’s hand in marriage. Merida is adamant about this because she does not wish to be married, possibly ever. Elinor and Merida’s stubborn relationship forces Merida to try and change her fate.
Merida travels through the forest, following tiny blue sprite-like “wisps” that legend says leads people to their fates. She ends up at a cottage where, of course, an old potion-brewing witch lives, who Merida asks to help change her mother’s mind about the marriage. The witch (voiced by Julie Walters, of ‘Harry Potter’ fame) agrees, and one thing leads to another, and Merida quickly ends up regretting what she’s done. The rest of the film follows the princess as she undo what she’s done.
I won’t reveal what the witch’s spell does to Merida’s fate, though it isn’t much of a spoiler. I’m not revealing it because the marketing campaign for ‘Brave’ barely showed anything past the first act, and they clearly want the audience to be surprised about what happens and where the film will go from then on. It’s definitely a nice surprise because I wasn’t expecting it at all (bravo, marketing campaign), though the reveal is a little underwhelming because a film that spoke so much about “changing your fate” hinted at so much more. I was expecting something more grand and epic, more dangerous even.
The humor in ‘Brave’ is dramatically different from Pixar’s usual schtick. It relies heavily on slapstick and random fights between its characters rather than wit, clever jokes, and cultural references. Most of the film’s humor stems from the many antics of Merida’s adorably triplet brothers Harris, Hubert, and Hamish. Everything they do is cute and hilarious, before and after Merida’s fate-changing wish.
On a technical level, Pixar exceeds yet again. In the past, the studio had to overcome making water look real (‘Finding Nemo’), making their first human feature look right (‘The Incredibles’), and make animated food look delicious (‘Ratatouille’). In ‘Brave’, it looks like the biggest challenge was Merida’s wild red hair. It’s impressively detailed, with each hair seemingly moving on its own when she moves about. The Scottish kingdom is beautiful as well, with towering mountains, waterfalls, and even grassland animated wonderfully.
At 93 minutes ‘Brave’ is Pixar’s shortest film since 2001’s ‘Monsters, Inc.’ I can’t help but think how much better the film could have been with a longer story and better direction. The film’s story seems more like a Disney film along the lines of ‘Tangled’ rather than a sophisticated Pixar film. The story is too simple. The relationship between Merida and Elinor is too easily and conveniently fixed. Their change-of-heart moments seem to come out of nowhere, especially Elinor’s. ‘Brave’ walks the same line as ‘Finding Nemo‘, with the latter being a father-son tale and the former now a mother-daughter one. It’s a nice relationship to explore, especially for audiences, but the film doesn’t go far enough with the theme. Communication is another important theme of the film, but it’s covered and solved too quickly to have any depth to it. The film’s problems could have been because of the production problems it faced, with original director Brenda Chapman getting replaced by Mark Andrews due to creative differences. Whatever creative differences happened behind the scenes, it should have been more resolved and fine-tuned before ‘Brave’s’ release. Those expecting another Pixar classic will surely be disappointed, but it’s still a good film to see, and it’s miles better than the other animated offering in theatres at the moment – ‘Madagascar 3’.
Three out of four Kents.
Extra Notes:
There’s a post-credit scene.
I loved the short film ‘La Luna’ that played before ‘Brave’.
This is Pixar’s first film with a female lead. It’s a shame there wasn’t a better story for this momentous occasion.
The filmmakers have a respectful tribute to Steve Jobs in the credits. Jobs helped co-found the great animation studio.
