Brave is considered to be the odd one out of all the Pixar Movies. The movie did show some promise at first since it portrayed itself to be a more dark and serious movie from the trailers. It also was to be the first Pixar movie to be directed by a woman named Brenda Chapman who was a co-director on Dreamwork’s The Prince of Eygpt. Unfortunately, the movie faced a ton of issues in its production as the movie’s script was passed on from writer to writer, and Director Brenda Chapman was replaced by Mark Andrews halfway through the filmmaking process. With all that being said, is this a rare diamond in the rough when talking about Pixar movies? Or is there a reason why many fans consider this movie to be on the lower end of the Pixar spectrum?
Merida is the princess of the Scottish kingdom of Dunbroch and she spends most of her time doing archery and living free from responsibility. This comes to the dismay of her mother Queen Elenor, who expects Merida to act and behave like a princess and to prepare to be married by a suitor, but no matter how many times they try, they can never seem to see eye to eye. When their unhealthy relationship hits the skids, Merida runs away and happens to come across a witch’s cottage and she tells her that she can make a spell to change her mom as the witch hands Merida a magic cake to give to her mom. Little did Merida know that the spell would transform her mom into a bear. The kingdom starts to fall apart as the clans start bickering with each other without the queen present to calm them down. Merida and her mom (now as a bear) must figure out how to reverse the transformation and hurry before Queen Elenor transforms into an actual bear forever.
I’ll start by saying that it is refreshing for Pixar to completely step out of their comfort zone to deliver us a movie that we’ve never would have guess they could ever pull off. In fact, Pixar did step out of their comfort zone before when making The Incredibles and that film was more mature and somewhat edgier than previous Pixar fair. At the same time, This is probably the only Pixar movie that doesn’t even feel like a Pixar movie in its execution. The story feels more like it was made by one of those little-known studios trying to copy the Disney formula like Anastasia or The Swan Princess. With all that being said though, I don’t think the story is anywhere near bad or mediocre. It’s quite decent in terms of what it consists of. I do like the mother-daughter relationship between Merida and her mom as it can be both heartbreaking in the sadder moments and touching in the lighter moments. The rest of the movie’s characters can range from being ok to somewhat good depending on the scene but I still give kudos to the actors for giving it their very best. Pixar handles their fantasy world rules very well and there is a lot of Scottish influence that plagues the worldbuilding of the fictional kingdom of Dunbroch.
Of course, being Pixar, we can always expect them to deliver on stellar animation that inspires and delights us in every way possible, and this movie is no exception. The character designs are very unique and probably the most stylistic humans I’ve seen from the studio since UP. the way they manage Merida’s curly hair in so many conditions like having it wet or making it blow through the wind is particularly fascinating. Like mentioned before, there is a lot of Scottish influence and it shows in the backgrounds and costuming of the characters. The backgrounds, in particular, have this dark and uncertain fantasy feeling to them as which keeps in tone to the movie’s more serious portrayal. If I did have to make a few minor complaints I would say that sometimes the backgrounds can look rather rubbery when using outside panning shots of the forest or the kingdom and also the dark color scheme can get rather boring sometimes as it would have helped to have some variety. The music is done by Patrick Doyle who also did the soundtrack for The Goblet of Fire and Thor. His score uses traditional fantasy soundtracks and Scottish-influenced tunes that use a great number of bagpipes. There are even some songs that make their way into the mix and they are quite a joy to listen to especially when it comes to “Touch the Sky” by Julie Fowlis.
While this isn’t the best thing Pixar has ever presented us with, It’s also not that bad either as it has a nice Mother-Daughter relationship, Decent storytelling, Scottish influenced animation that still shows why Pixar animation is to be reckoned with, and a nice soundtrack from composer Patrick Doyle. I bet that there was a much better movie that was trying to get out if it weren’t for the troubled production this film sadly faced. What we got though is still a nice little tale that still delivers on some things even if it disappoints in other areas. I’m still glad Pixar tried with this one, but next time, leave the fairytale stuff to Disney.
(Final Grade: B+)