Review: 'Brave'

Disney/Pixar

It was not long ago that Pixar was known as a studio that offered nothing short of imaginative and inventive storytelling which set them apart from not just other animated films but films in general. They were not only a shoe in for a Best Animated Film Oscar win but also a Best Picture nomination and now any nomination looks like a long shot. Somewhere over the past couple years Pixar has lost the original story telling that made it great. Brave, Pixar's latest outing is no exception as it fails to tell an original and compelling story.

In Brave, we are introduced to Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), the daughter of King Fergus (voiced by Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voiced by Emma Thompson) of Clan DunBroch. As a teenager, Merida is informed by her parents that she will be required to marry a member of an allied clan. Her mother tells her that she will put DuBroch in danger if she does not follow through with this marriage but Merida sees things very differently than her mother and does not want to follow down the same path she did. Merida believes that she can stop this arrangement from happening if she is able to change her mother’s feelings about her future. In an effort to do so, Merida finds an elderly woman (voiced by Julie Walters) in the nearby woods and is able to acquire a spell, disguised as a piece of cake, to change her mother. When Queen Elinor eats the cake though, the spell does not have the expected affect and she is turned into a bear. Racing against the clock, Merida and her mother must now reverse the spell before it becomes permanent.

The scenery layouts is where Brave is at its best. The Scotland backdrop is full of several shades of green that go so well with each other. These backdrops become another character of the film in the way that they stand out, similar to the effect that the ocean floor and backdrop of Finding Nemo has. Unlike Finding Nemo though, these visuals are one of the few bright spots of the film. To a small extent, Brave’s humor and gags is another positive. Kids should experience plenty of enjoyment from this aspect of the film as humor comes from Merida’s brothers, triplets Hamish, Hubert and Harris, King Fergus and Queen Elinor trying to function as a bear. I will note that I do not think that I have seen as many bare bottoms as I did in Brave as it happens on multiple occasions. Unfortunely though, Brave’s visuals and humor can’t cover up its weak narrative and characters.

With its castles, royal family, a witch, a powerful spell and a human turning into an animal, Brave offers nothing new in regards to its story components. It gets even more generic though when it is revealed how Merida’s mother would change back to a human which causes a ‘that’s all they could come up with’ moment.  This is something that you do not expect from the same studio that successfully brought toys to life, created a world where a child’s scream is an energy source and introduced us to a love struck robot. With Brave failing to present these age old plot devices in interesting way, it is hard to stay invested in it story.

The story isn’t the only thing working against Brave as it is difficult to care for its two main characters. Merida wants to have her own life and not the one her parents have arranged for her which is understandable. The problem is that she comes off as a rude kid who thinks they have all answers and knows more than her parents thinking that this makes alright to disrespect them. It makes it so hard to like this character or even feel compassion for her when she acts like this and the fact that she is willing to give her mother a spell to change her makes it even harder. Queen Elinor is nothing to fall head over heels for either. Instead of rooting for her, I found myself feeling sorry for her due to the way she sees woman as objects to their husbands. She becomes unlikeable in how she doesn’t feel that her daughter should be her own women. These actions and feelings of these characters are seen in them up until they supposedly change which makes it so hard to believe that there is really anything different about them.

If you always have admired Pixar’s visuals over the stories they tell then Brave is a film you will enjoy. If you tend to put more emphasis on an imaginative and compelling story, something we  have become accustomed to from Pixar, then Brave is not be for you as it fails to tell a new story or create characters that you want to see succeed. The question that can be asked now is when Pixar will return to the original stories and characters that made them one of the industry’s best. Hopefully sooner than later but with Cars and Toy Story sequels preceding Brave and a Monsters Inc. prequel on its way, an already long wait for something brand new could get even longer.

Grade: D