In ancient
Scotland, Princess Merida, an accomplished and tough as nails archer, grows
tired of her daily life. Finding the age old customs forced by her mother
restricting, she decides to go against the traditions of her royal history,
refusing to take a husband from the oldest son of one of three lords from other
clans, causing controversy due to her series of actions. Seeking to change her
fate, Merida receives a spell from a reclusive forest witch, but by doing this,
unleashes a dreadful ancient curse, and now must discover the true meaning of
bravery, and make things right.
After last year’s
Cars 2, many began to underestimate Pixar and believed that it would begin to
fall out of the radar. Well this movie will definitely prove them wrong. When
thinking of the best animated movies, one's mind always flashes straight away to
the Pixar filmography. Since 1995 with the first Toy Story, they've been
charming audiences with wonderful movies like Finding Nemo, Up, and WALL·E and
after a recent critical lashing to Pixar's previous Cars 2, and a year of
waiting eagerly, I was given a chance to finally see their latest movie Brave.
Brave was so
much more than a young kid's movie. Some have compared Brave to How to Tame
Your Dragon but Merida had a free spirit that stayed with the movie through the
end. You just knew there would be no way she'd end up with any of her bumbling amusing
suitors. Instead, in spite of her rebellious behaviour, she reconciled her
feelings for her mother and both of them learned from each other. Merida was a
true liberated girl, smart and skilled in the art of archery, proving her inner
power and character.
Each
character is affectionately crafted with depth, vividness, heart and sheer fun,
while its cast is unique, skilled and overly qualified in every way. Kelly
Macdonald does a superb job with Merida's voice work, capturing the sense of
teen youthfulness faultlessly, while giving an exceptionally heartbreaking
performance near the end of the film. Its plot is highly inspired and original,
if a bit Disney-fied, made interesting with an unexpected twist, which had me hooked
from the film's opening. Despite being early marketed as quite a dark movie,
BRAVE features hefty amounts of stellar humour and memorable gags that
literally had me, and certainly my packed theatre, in stitches.
The only
thing I would say that was bad about the movie was the dirtiness of it. We see
butts and even get a sexual suggestion right at the beginning of the film. It
is also very intense for a younger viewer and I would not suggest it for kids
under 12. However my fondness still remains the same.