Directed by Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman
Written by Brenda Chapman (story) and Mark Andrews (screenplay)
Produced by Pixar Animation Studios
Voiced by: Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma ThompsonSynopsis:
Determined to make her own path in life, Princess Merida defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, Merida must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse.
Trailer
Review
I already knew I was going to really like if not love this movie. I mean, a red-headed princess? Bring it on! I love the short animation movie at the beginning too. It was absolutely gorgeous and heartwarming. La Luna, I believe it was called. I might be wrong. Anyway, the point is, I went in expecting to like the movie but not expecting to be surprised by it.
And I was. Oh so pleasantly surprised. While the conflicts that are a big part of this movie are not anything new, the way these conflicts are resolved are certainly different. The focus of the movie is also unconventional. If you go in expecting romance, you are bound to be disappointed because there is no romance at all. We have been conditioned to expect this trope in nearly all movies we watch and perhaps, people would like Brave a lot more if the romance was present but I feel that the romance would have taken away the time that was devoted to developing the primary conflict in the movie.
Let’s face it, mothers often get shafted in fairytales and movies concerning young adult/teen characters. They die or they are evil. This is perhaps the first animated movie that I have seen that does not go the conventional route. And I loved that. It was unexpected and heartwarming. I came home after watching it and hugged my mom.
The animation is absolutely gorgeous. Like so gorgeous you want to stop the movie and stare, so gorgeous you think it’s all real. The three little bears may have been my favourite part of the movie but it was the relationship between Medira and her mother that won my heart.
Let’s hope for a sequel.
That’s great to hear that Brave shows a positive mother-daughter relationship. You’re right that that’s all too rare in these kinds of movies. It’s a nice change of pace that the focus isn’t on romance too. Really looking forward to checking out Brave now!
I hope you enjoy it!
Brave pleased me as well. I love the mother/daughter relationship. We really need to have more good ones in media.
I was so excited that there wasn’t any romance in the movie. It’s so incredibly hard to find anymore. I was glad to see that we were able to focus more on Medira because of that.
I reckon it sets up for a sequel perfectly. It just may be wishful thinking though.
This whole post echoes my thoughts almost to the T (almost because I didn’t see the open-end allowing for romance in a hypothetical sequel, but now that I think about it…). The first 10 minutes or so were a little too fast-paced for me, but once the movie settled into itself I understood why it had to be that way. I’ve been thinkin of writin my own review for Brave—yours was awesome! :D
Leave me a link to your review! I’d love to read it.
Whenever I do it, I shall. :]
Thanks so much for your review on Brave. I am really excited to take my daughter go see it now. She has been asking me to take her but I have just been busy working at Dish lately. She even wants me to get her the video game Brave but I don’t like buying video games because they are expensive and don’t get played all the time. We started renting games on Blockbuster @Home because we don’t have to worry about late fees and its available on there so I am gonna order it for her!