Viewed in
2012 (2)
Formats
Movie theater (digital), HDTV
Premise
Pixar's animated tale of a Scottish princess who wishes to change her fate, only to face the consequences.
Loved
Hair!
Liked
Strong daughter-mother relationship.
Disliked
Lack of great story.
Thoughts
The first thing that comes to mind walking out if the theater was how superlative Merida's red mane of awesomeness was. Years ago, Pixar wowed us with Sully's wonderful fur in Monsters Inc. In Brave, it was mesmerizing beyond words. Last year, Disney's Tangled had Rapunzel's gimmicky (yet still under utilized) hair. This movie put Rapunzel's hair to shame in CG gorgeousness.
Now as for the rest of the film, it was a strong rebound from Cars 2. It was full of heart and funny cartoony humor. I really liked the 2nd act, where the daughter-mother dynamic was taken to unexpected and creative heights. I was so glad that marketing did not reveal just how the lead's fate was changed, because I would've had different, more pessimistic, expectations of the movie. Kind a disappointed Ebert gave it away in his review.
Anyway, the middle section was the best written part, with interesting twist on familiar family-fairy tale tropes, while showing strong character relationships. This film definitely sported one of the cutest fictional mothers in a long time. I also found the dining hall scene to be really touching and emotional, even though it started of with a "what are you doing?!" moment.
Compared to Pixar's best, it lacked character and complexity. The moral of the story was simple, yet felt unclear and small stakes at the same time. While mother and daughter were fleshed out, everyone else were one-note, forgettable goofballs. There aren't enough movies with strong female characters, but did it have to be at the expense of no strong male characters? Also, while the twist of fate was interesting, it was predictable ten minutes in.
Despite the bright red hair and lush highlands, this was surprisingly heavy on dark cinematography. I heard some mixed reviews about the 3D, especially in terms of brightness, so I think this would've been a serious viewing issue for the audience. I was glad I didn't bother to find out, and just stuck with perfectly fine 2D. Having said that, I would love to have seen Merida's splendiferous locks in as many dimensions as possible.
Brave was a very good family-friendly movie. That tantalizing hair was almost worth the price of admission itself. However, when I think back to Pixar greats, I found it recommendable, but not must-see.
