Disney Princess Review: Brave

Brave

I must admit I was a bit on edge about deciding to review Brave, because it is actually a Pixar film like Cars, Toy Story, and Finding Nemo. However, Disney has announced that Merida will be an official Disney Princess in 2013 and she was even given a coronation ceremony at Disney World. I have to admit that seeing Pixar take on a popular Disney trend like the princess story was an interesting thought and the movie itself was well received but honestly it wasn’t that great a movie. There were a lot of things to like, the setting, the characters, the relationships, but the story never really sells it. Pixar never really follows the same ideas as Disney who likes to recreate fairy tales on a grander scale. Pixar has always been about a random idea coming to head like toys being alive or a rat wanting to be a chef in Paris.

Brave is that movie that does one or two parts really well, and comes up a bit short in other parts. One thing it does really well is of course the relationship between Merida and her mother Queen Elinor which is a first. Looking at Disney and Pixar you would think that mothers have next nothing to do with children or are dead with a few exceptions. Chicken Little and Finding Nemo both deal with the mother being dead and in both Mulan and Princess and the Frog, the mother is largely in the background. The relationship actually IS the film, similar to Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and Lilo and Stitch; movies where a particular relationship really shines. Personally I think that the relationship was great all around but the parts with the bear are a bit weird to me. When Queen Elinor is turned into a bear, while it is done well it could have been better if she was still able to talk at first and then slowly lose the ability to talk but still it’s really strong. No matter what happens in the film, it always keep the relationship at the focus. One of the most powerful scenes is the argument Merida has with her mother before she runs off, a lot of emotion in both the spoken and unspoken scenes.

My one issue with this relationship is that I thought they would have talked about that argument more, especially with the bow and the fireplace which would have probably been brought up had it not been for the doughnut.

The characters range from forgettable to funny, especially the dad King Fergus who I think is my favorite character. Instead of being the short tempered dad or the meek dad, he is a bit in between. He gets to play the nice guy in the family but is ready to act when necessary, like when he fights BEARS! The Triplets to me were nice because they were not like the pill looking minions in Despicable Me (that trend is getting too repetitive) and they really don’t take away too much from the film. The other characters may be remembered for one or two funny things may do, but they are a bit forgettable while pleasant. I personally wish I could have seen more of the witch who I just loved for the fact that she is trying not to be a witch publicly and just simply sell wood carvings because it is less of a hassle and I like that. I personally would like to see a movie about that and the same for the different clans.

The animation here is nothing short of brilliant. From the backgrounds, to Merida’s hair, to the will-o-wisps, all were just amazing. While the music wasn’t amazing it did do it’s job of helping you get into the mood of the movie. The first few minutes of Merida just going on all these small adventures and watching it get bigger as she climbs a mountain is awesome. The clan members are pretty unique in there design and I really wish we had gotten to see more of them and other castles and more diverse landscapes and animals. I would have loved to see something like a banshee.

If this movie has any weak points I would say it is in the magic and the order of how things progressed as well as how the legend is treated. While I like the subtlety of the magic in the wisps there was never anything about it that really kept me interested the third time they would appear. If they were going to keep it at just the wisps then they could have at least had them dance around a bit or change size slightly. I also felt that were not as many Merida and Bear Elinor moments. The scene where Merida is giving her speech to me seems a bit misplaced for me, I think it would have been better if it was talked about at the end but it worked out well enough in that it got the three clans to work together against the Bear Elinor and Bear Mordu.  The legends of Scotland seemed underdone in my opinion. At one point, part of me felt like you were supposed to get the idea that they actually are descended from the Four Sons from the story or at least King Fergus is. The story of the Four Sons is actually told in the special features of the DVD and I do not see why they could not have told that story in full. I mean, were we not supposed to see the parallels between the legend and what was going on? The lack of the legend seems either it feeling unneeded or the director thought there was enough without it. I had heard that this movie actually went through a couple of directors and changes to the script so I guess that explains it.

Ultimately there are things about this film I would change but there are so many things about this film that I like, the characters, the relationship, the art, all of it works so well that the things that are wrong with it do not really matter. If you are looking for something like the relationship between Lilo and Nani but with more focus  or something fun to watch for Mother's Day then you should watch it but if you are looking for something more then you may not get as much from this as you would hope.

Now on to Merida. Looking at her you can tell that she is unique in just her appearance. To me she is somewhat of a callback to characters like Jasmine or Ariel, characters who do not like the life they had; the life of a princess whose future is decided without her. Unlike those two though she does more than just sing and complain, she goes out and does what she likes and is as safe as possible. Unlike Ariel you can sympathize with her more and unlike Jasmine you can see and understand her more. She is really more like Mulan but with a princess angle and more rebellious against tradition. She is clever and like Jasmine she wants to be able to decide for herself how she wants to live her life and who she wants or doesn’t want to marry. She is the first princess that I know of in Disney that tries to change her fate (and that word comes up a lot in this movie) as opposed to running away from home. With Merida we get to see how much like her parents she really is and if you are a Disney fan, you know that is a rarity. On the surface she is a lot like her father expressive, passionate, and energetic. Deep down she’s like her mother, smart, stubborn, and a bit of a temper. She likes go out and do things; to me she is like a better version of Pocahontas in that aspect. Merida’s personal lesson is learning to listen and to use tact and diplomacy to achieve a solution. She spends most of the first half of the movie arguing with her mother and like her mother, learns to listen for one reason or another. Ultimately I give her a C+ to a B. While there is nothing wrong with her character, the movie does not really focus on her relationships outside of her mother as much as I would like and I think she could have been fleshed out more.