Review of Brave

First off, I am one of the biggest Disney and Pixar fans you’ll come across. Whenever I hear of a new project, I literally jump with joy and impatiently wait for release day. I love traditional animation and was thrilled with Tiana. I literally fell out of my seat during Nemo. Did I mention that after Toy Story 3 when the tears were dried, I went home and played with my favorite childhood toys? No company is more skilled at tapping into your deepest fears, hopes and worries than Disney and Pixar.

Naturally, when I heard of Brave, not only was I waiting with bated breath for a titular female character (and an archer at that!), but it would be breaking out of the Pixar box by retelling a Scottish legend rather than proposing their own original story. Something that I loved about these companies was their abilities to reach all ages and genders in the same tale. Their storytelling powers are nearly magical.

So when I came out of Brave, all that built up excitement and all the expectations…well, they fell flat. Don’t get me wrong, I thought Brave was a cute movie, but it just didn’t have the same caliber of the opening to Up or the ending to Wall-e. It felt more like, Cars. Decent plot, decent characters, but nothing exceptional.

Merida was a wonderful lead, proving right off the bat she wasn’t just any other Disney Princess. She could stand on her own two feet without fainting! She had ambition, spunk, an actual opinion. I’ll hop on that train any day of the week! She was against an arranged marriage and wasn’t afraid to show it. The scene in which she shot for her own hand was easily the best in the movie. The family interaction was sweet, the other clans and the young brothers were funny, but it felt all too familiar. Reminiscent of How to Train Your Dragon meets Brother Bear. Both of which are far better stories than Brave, sad to say.

Above all, the plot was too predictable. The brothers, father and mother were one dimensional. Merida turning her mother into a bear and repairing the bond was almost heavy handed in approach. Sure they came to understand each other, but that was obvious from the start and it felt empty without some sort of additional subplot. The animation itself was gorgeous- as if we were plopped in the middle of the Highlands but that’s as far as I’ll take my praise.

Brave is definitely a movie mothers and daughter should see together. Nothing like getting a life lesson at the movies and it could certainly be a bonding experience. However, it didn’t hit me as a movie boys could relate to. My brother in fact refused to go. At first I thought it was stupid, but in retrospect, he would have been complaining the entire time. To be fair, Up was a father/son type story, but it had a lot of substance anyone could appreciate seeing.  As we know, boys are a tougher audience in this sector.

Essentially, Brave felt unfinished. As if something was missing. It wasn’t quite at the level of Pixar just yet. It’s worth seeing, that’s for sure, but unlike its cousin films, I’m not itching for another viewing. With all due respect, I hope Pixar returns to its original stories sooner than later.   B-