MOVIE REVIEW : BRAVE

Pixar and Disney collaborating for Brave.

Brave. When I first heared the title ‘Brave’, all I can think of is ‘cliche’. To be honest, as a person who is not into animated film, I thought the film would be an ‘okay’ rate of film but after watching it thoroughly from the start up until the end, it was all wrong. The film was a legend with very powerful lessons.

Some of the Pixar's films.

Pixar’s have always been great in producing animated films that are fun and great to watch at, such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars and Up. From what I have seen, I think that they did a splendid job of making Brave and it must be considered as one of the most difficult yet the best they have produced. Directed by Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews, set in the Scottish Highlands, Brave is a different story than Pixar is used to produce and this is a no ordinary princess story.

The scene of Queen Elinor turns to a bear

This film stories a rebellious princess who has a huge passion in archery. Princess Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) rebels against her regal mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), and runs away into the forest.This is where Merida meets a mysterious witch (Julie Walters), who is obsessed with wood-carvings of bears, and who offers Merida the chance to change her mother’s mind with the help of a little dark magic cake. Returning to the castle, Merida gives her mother the magic cake, thinking that it will change her mind. Instead, it literally transforms the queen into a huge, hulking bear. From what I can see, this is a twist for Pixar but as familiar to its parent company, Disney as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and the Frog. The one big difference in all of the movies compared to Brave

is the woman who makes the heroine’s life miserable is not her stepmother but her own mother.

Merida has a huge passion in archery.

Starting from the climax of the movie where the queen transforms into a bear, it’s all focus down on the relationship between Merida and her mother. The plot becomes more interesting with the aspects of responsibility, togetherness, selfishness and communication included when both of them, Merida and her mother tries to solve their problem before it is too late. In short, despite all of the trouble and difficulties of Merida face through with her bear mother, they managed to save each other’s life and the queen turns back into a human. Their mother-daughter relationship and bond grows even stronger and closer after the incident. The most important part of the film is how it managed to touch on the mother-daughter relationship despite the suspense in a humour way and at the same time leaves an effective impact towards the viewers.

Despite all of the touching scenes of ups and downs between Merida and her mother, what impress me the most is the main character herself which is not very common to have one in an animated princess story. The abundance of curly red hair of Merida is a standout for me. Merida’s red hair, according to Pixar, it was one of the most challenging animation tasks of the movie. In order to achieve the natural curl and bouncy 

Merida's hair is one of the most challenging animation task.

appearance, they created entirely new software. As it is hard and a long time to make a nice looking curly hair in reality, it also takes a long time to make one in animation. The hair and the attitude of the character show that the Disney and Pixar is trying to get out of the box from what they used to make a princess look and act like. Despite Elinor's desire to see Merida as a proper royal lady, Merida is an independent girl who wants to take control of her own destiny. Although she is very outgoing, forceful, headstrong and willful personality, Merida does have a softness of heart, particularly when it comes to her younger triplet brothers. These acceptable behavior of the main character could be an example that can be taken by the younger generations who watched this movie.

From left: King Fergus, Queen Elinor and Merida.

From what I can see nowadays, teenagers always have issues and misunderstandings with their own parents. This movie could be a good message in showing parents not to over control their kids and they should have good communication skills in dealing with their kids’ passion or hobbies. At the same time, this movie could also act as a lesson learned to the kids who always disobey their parents’ orders and disrespect them. Brave delves into various areas that Pixar has not previously explored and mostly comes out successful. Touching, funny and visually wonderful would be the best words to describe this movie. Overall, though it never reaches the level of major hits like Finding Nemo and Up, I believe that this a one worth watching movie.