Brave

[Impact]

Review, Discuss and Have Fun!

[Gopher]

Woot, finally.

Good film by normal standards, with the best visuals and score of the year, hands down. But in the second act it falls behind Pixar's standards and the third act is only a mild improvement.

Allow me to speak harshly, probably harsher than I actually feel about the film: I've decided I don't like the basic plot of Merida turning her mother into a bear. It doesn't work with the well-established conflict between the two in the first act, because it makes the genuine frustration that Merida and Elinor have with each other feel sillier than it should. There's a lot of "OMG I'm a bear!" humor from Elinor, which would of course go with the territory, but I ultimately found it distracting and not where I hoped the movie would go. The story with the prince who made the spell and became the other bear is.. okay.. but it's a telling-not-showing situation. The will o' the wisps become an incredibly lazy plot device, pulling Merida around the forest without any tangible explanation of their purpose. And the witch is as generic as witches come. Makes you forget this is a Pixar movie.

Additionally, the scope of the film that is explored in the first thirty minutes of the movie doesn't wind up going very far. This isn't an 'epic' film by any meaning of the word. The movie sets up this beautiful medieval Scotland and doesn't bother exploring it. That sort of bugged me.

This probably isn't even a B+ movie. When I really, really want to like a movie, I tend to give it a higher grade off the bat than I should...

B

Edited June 19, 2012 by Gopher

[JackO]

The more I think about it, the more I like Brave. The animation is top notch. All the little strands of Merida's hair are so interesting to look at. The sweeping visuals of Scotland are breathtaking. You really get the vastness of their kingdom.Now when i was sitting and watching the movie, I kind of understood that there was something was gonna happen after the first act but I didn't know what .So, while I am sitting around in the first act, listening to Merida's endless exposition, watching the triplets do hijinks, and meeting the three suitors, I was growing increasingly bored. The majority of the male characters are only archetypes that give the female characters something to play off of. I felt the first act was much more like a kid's film in the first act. I mean there are fights among the men.So she represents herself in the games and pretty much puts all the dudes to shame by hitting bulleyes and even going through and arrow just to prove her point. Then there is a big fight between Merida and he rmom since Merida did not want to be married off to some random guy from a nearby kingdom, It was only when Merida got upset and wanted to change her fate that I found myself more and more invested.When the 'change of fate' happened. I was taken back. I mean who in their right mind would guess that the creative decision reviews were talking about was Merida turning her mom into a damned bear? After the initial shock was over, I started watching the bear, like Merida's hair. I got mesmerized by it. Pixar successfully made me care about an animal that could kill me! That is much different int he past where they get you emotionally invested in this that dont talk (Wall-E) or disgusting (rats), this was even a step up from the scary (Monsters). The bears animation is a thing of beauty, it's got real human emotion while at the same time drifts to scary life threatening roars.I guess I was also invested in the story since I liked the mother daughter relationship. I found their relationship banter funny and touching at times. It is what drives Brave. My favorite scene is where Merida is trying to sneak her bear mom back up to the tapestry room since they have to sew it back together and Merida makes this crazy speech and her mom the bear helps her out. And they do it all without talking, just facial expressions. It is a powerful moment for me. There is so many of those little moments in there.Finally, I enjoyed the ending. I honestly did not think that she was gonna turn back to a human. It seemed really simple; cover the bear mom with tapestry, but with a fight with another prince turned bear made things complicated. It wasn't so much the fight that had me enthralled but the fact that the sun was coming up and it really seemed like Pixar was gonna go for a not so happy ending. I still give it a B+*I see movie is out. Spoilers ahoy!

Edited June 23, 2012 by JackO

[Vanilla]

This is some what a big letdown for me.

[75Live]

While I enjoy the film, it did seem a tired and overdone story, but still well executed.

Yes, I had no idea that they were going to go with turning the mom into a bear route before going into the movie. That really was a different way to go, but still enjoyable.

Overall, I did like it and it was nice to look at.

I give it a B

[whoot]

I give it an A. Critics overanalyzing, people expecting Brad Bird to come back from the dead or something. Jeebus.At my viewing, there were clapping at the end, there were even tears from some folks nearby.Personally I loved it. And you know what, I'm not even going to go with the whole "Not as good as other Pixar" thing because I definitely thought it was; I think the rotten reviews did actually help me in that I went into it with lower expectations. At this point I'd rank it higher on my list than quite a few of them, even WALL-E which I loved. IMO it fits in the Pixar mold and I don't know what the hell everyone's up in arms about. This feels like when Cars came out and there were "mixed" reviews, and after I watched it I thought, WTF critics? But I feel like in Brave, it's even worse because at least I understood where some critics just couldn't relate to Cars and there were pop culture jokes and references in it (which I didn't mind, I just understood). Maybe I'm just biased, but I think I can confidently say the critics can suck it on this one.

[AniNate]

Holy shit, this was everything I was hoping the movie would be when the teaser came out! Yes, the story is based in standard fairy tale tropes, but what Andrews and Chapman have crafted with it is a moving, entertaining, and often shockingly intense piece of filmmaking, and its incredibly bawdy sense of humor, which may have been much less forgivable in a different film, feels completely natural in this film's wild setting. Couple that with the expectedly stellar animation, musical score, and voice cast, and as far as I'm concerned Pixar is back with a vengeance.

Frankly, I may be even more of a fan of the studio than ever now. They deserve a lot of props for the direction they took here and it's a real shame it doesn't seem to be appealing to everyone like their past films did.

A

Edited June 23, 2012 by tribefan695

[Fanboy]

^ Agree with Whoot and Tribefan695. After the movie finished, I looked over to my friend and said "What are the critics smoking?"

As soon as the movie beings we hear Patrick Doyle's amazing score with Pixar's stunning animation of the Scotland landscapes. After that, I could tell straight away the Pixar I know and love was back, and I got a sense of nostalgia.

Now I for one agreed with critics on Cars 2. I found it hard to even sit through, even though I enjoyed Cars alot and Mater didn't annoy me once. But wow, did he annoy me in the sequel. At the time I saw Brave it had 64% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it seemed like it would have ended rotten, so going into this I didn't exactly movie know what to expect. When I left the theatre, the movie ranked up there with the classics on my list.

The first act of the movie is light-hearted an very funny. We are introduced to Pixar's first female lead character, Merida, and she certainly isn't your typical Disney princess. She hates all of her suitors, like Jasmine, but instead of wanting to get married for "love", the idea of love in terms of wanting a man never crosses Merida's head. Oh, girls just want to have fun.

Brave is Pixar's darkest movie yet, so I don't know why people are calling it safe or conventional. The movie was pulling jokes in some of the more emotional and scary parts, but it is a kids movie and kids can only deal with so much intensity in a movie. There were even a few little ones, around 6 or 7, crying because they were scared at the theatre. That's not to say there aren't any of Pixar's signature emotional parts. There definitely were, with a couple of scenes standing out in particular.

As for problems, the only qualm I had was the movie could have been a little longer. Pacing was at times rushed and the movie could have felt even more like an epic journey if the movie had been slowed down a little. It has to keep kids interested, but I don't think 10-15 minutes extra would have hurt. The Incredibles was 115 minutes long and I didn't find one second boring, being a 7-year-old with a small attention span at the time.

Overall though, Brave is the best animated movie I've seen in a while. Probably better than anything last year. It's a shame it's so low on RT because animated movies below 75% are usually reserved for the more generic animated features, which Brave certainly isn't. The movie gets a solid A from me. I hope it doesn't get ignored in the animated category this year at the Academy Awards.

Edited June 23, 2012 by Avatarfan

[Letsuseournoggin]

A. Don't feel like typing a long review for this on my phone, but those critics can blow a horn. They got it ALL wrong. This not only met the PIXAR standards, but ranks right up with almost any. It was fun, beautiful, emotional. As for the How to Train Your Dragon comparisons, they are absolutely nothing alike in the slightest. But if people want to make the comparison, this wins

[AniNate]

I'd go so far as to say Brave had more balls than any of the movies in Pixar's "arthouse pantheon". These are the kinds of films I want the studio to make more of in between all the light comedies.

Edited June 23, 2012 by tribefan695

[Fanboy]

Four As in a row. That's how you know Brave is a Pixar movie.

[Gopher]

I'd go so far as to say Brave had more balls than any of the movies in Pixar's "arthouse pantheon".

I'm fine with people liking this (it's a good movie), but with all respect tribefan, I cannot agree with you at all here. This was a safe movie. A well done, almost well told one, but a safe one nonetheless. Wherever it could have gone after the "you're a beast!" scene might have been dark, and even after the spell hits there are some scenes that almost go dark. But it holds its cards too close to its chest. The mother becoming a bear is too slapstick to allow for real character growth or pathos. It worked for the triplets, but not for the mother. The Elinor/Merida dynamic is so well set up, that for its journey to a newfound connection to only consist of catching fish? It's beneath Pixar. I wanted more there. To suggest that a good but very Disney movie has more balls than a rat chef in Paris or a robot love story that's silent for 40 minutes is, well, wrong. In my opinion, at least.

[AniNate]

I think any movie that puts a husband in a position of inadvertently killing his own wife has to get some credit for balls. Yes, rats and silent robots are ballsy, but they didn't have the savagery at their core that the second half of Brave did. The positions Brave puts its characters in, to me, was really chilling.And what also puts this movie above normal fairy tales is that it doesn't rely on a one-dimensional villain to drive its conflict. Instead it springs up from the reckless actions of the protagonist. I guess that's the Pixar influence.

Edited June 23, 2012 by tribefan695

[Gopher]

I thought the finale was pretty well done, but from what it took to get there, I'm not sure if it was worth it. I'll definitely see it again.. I've seen every Pixar movie multiple times in theaters, except a certain unnamed sequel.

[AniNate]

I didn't really have a problem with the slapstick. Actually, once it started it was kind of a welcome relief from the relatively serious tension between Merida and Elinor.

Edited June 23, 2012 by tribefan695

[Gopher]

I thought Fergus, the triplets and the Scottish clans provided more than enough comic relief for my taste.

[AniNate]

Yeah, but you still need a bit of levity directly related to the main story, otherwise the tone would be way too uneven.

Edited June 23, 2012 by tribefan695

[Gopher]

But it's played as slapstick first and for their relationship second. I just wasn't a fan of how that narrative broke.

[AniNate]

All right, I can respect that. But I still think the movie has balls.

[Gopher]

No it doesn't, the lead character is a girl.