#30 of 100 on my 100 Movies I’ve Never Seen Before Challenge (part II)
The idea that the brilliant minds at Pixar Animation Studios would try and take on the classic Disney fairy tale theme and add a new member to the beloved Disney Princess family is genius. It almost sounds too good to be true, right? After all, “The Incredibles”, “Wall-E”, “A Bug’s Life” and the “Toy Story” trilogy are some of the most original and inspiring animated movies maybe ever. To answer the previous question…yes, it’s too good to be true.
“Brave” is a solid effort and comes real close to being a worthy addition to those old Disney Princess classics like “Snow White”, “Cinderella” and my personal favorite, “Sleeping Beauty”. The problem is that it falls into an interesting hat trick of animated movie failure in the process of trying too hard to be one of the gang. “Brave” centers on Princess Merida, a rebellious girl with wild red hair, who sees herself as more of an adventurous warrior than a typical princess.
When she finds out she is to be betrothed, Merida snaps and defies her mother’s wishes. Of course this leads to the conflict of the story, in which Merida asks some crazy witch to cast a spell on her mother to change her mind and allow Merida to be free to choose her own destiny. But the spell is not what she thought and this is where another part of the problem comes in. The curse is pretty stupid.
Because this curse fails to create any spark of imagination, the movie really stalls during the middle act, which highlights the real problem. There is no real and true villain here. There is a bit of a nemesis for Merida’s father, Fergus, that ties into the curse but it’s just not interesting. Can I just say without ruining anything, that I never realized bears played such a significant role in Scottish folk lore?
“Brave” has some great moments, such as the overriding theme about the bonds between a mother and daughter but it suffers from a serious case of identity crisis. Pixar is trying to make a movie directed at girls and young female audience members but throughout the movie it is constantly trying to make boys feel included. Here is a tip Pixar, if your story is good enough, it won’t matter who you are aiming it at. Next time, just tell a good story. There are plenty of good stories for the boys, they’ll get over it.
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The trailer for Pixar’s Brave: