Pixar's Brave

Brave review

Ah Pixar, the once proud king of animation has now taken quite a downfall ever since Cars 2 with it’s generic spy plot, and whole cast of bland and boring characters which is a very rare thing considering Pixar have made movies like WALL.E, The Incredibles, The Toy Story trilogy and Finding Nemo in the past. But now Pixar has brought us something original, something that’s not a sequel to an already existing film. Will they go back to their roots with Brave? Or did Cars 2 really taken it’s toll with Pixar? Well let’s find out.

The movie is about a high spirited princess named Merida who is forced into marriage by her mother Queen Elinor who wishes to make her daughter act like a proper princess but Merida is having none of that so she decides to change her fate and do whatever she pleases. Unfortunately Pixar have not learned their lesson from Cars 2 and have opted to go for the traditional fairy-tale type plot. But the set up for this movie starts out reasonably good, as usual the animation from Pixar is beautiful to look at but you start to like the characters and the theme of the film and it doesn’t talk down to it’s audience until the second half and completely destroys the mood of the movie.

It ultimately goes for the whole Brother Bear plotline in the second half and you feel like you’ve been sucker punched into watching a different movie. I find it really distracting that they set up Brave as a serious Pixar movie but then decides to go the cutesy route just because it’s a kids film. The thing with Pixar was that they were all about taking risks but here the plot seems wasted despite the amount of potential it has. And the fact that Brave is taking elements from other Disney movies just seems like a cheap move on Pixar’s part. The prime example why the movie is considered cutesy in my eyes is the comic relief characters in the form of Merida’s little triplet brothers who’s main gimmick is to eat everything in sight which got really annoying and the fact they get turned into bears was pointless. I felt the movie would’ve been better off without them there at all because they offered nothing towards the plot and were just there for the sake of being comic relief characters. On the other side of the comedic spectrum, King Fergus, Merida’s father played by Billy Connolly would have to be the best character in the movie because he actually did make me laugh and did have some of the best moments by far. I’d say the reason why this film eventually starts being cutesy is because Brave has no villain to work with. Before Merida changes her mother into a bear she comes across a witch played by Julie Walters and you’d think that she would be the main antagonist but she only appears in one scene and we never see her again. I feel that the Witch would’ve made the story more interesting as if they made her the villain instead of the bear that King Fergus and the other lords go hunting for in the movie.

And finally we come to the main protagonist herself: Merida. To be honest, I found her very uninteresting in terms of a main heroine. She’s essentially the tomboyish like character who loves to do archery, rock climbing, sword fighting and horseback riding. Because of her rebellious nature and not going along with her mother’s wishes she comes across annoying as a character and has to pin the blame on others when in reality it’s her fault for messing up things with Queen Elinor.

With a company like Pixar you’d expect more from this movie and have high expectations but it doesn't feel like something they would produce. I don’t mind that they’re going with a fairy-tale feel but I really do feel that it’s delivery could be better.

Brave may not be a great movie or one Pixar’s best but it is a lot better than Cars 2. The problem with Brave is that it’s too clichéd, it’s rushed and the story is not really anything new. I will say that a few of the characters were ok, the animation was stunning but that’s all I can really say about this. It’s a great movie to take your kids to see but it won’t appeal to adults in general.

6/10