**** (out of 5)
Directed/Story By: Brenda Chapman
“If yeuh culd chaynge yur fayt, wuld yeuh?”
Brave departs somewhat from prior Pixar efforts. This yields the studio’s first female-centric story, but also a more conventional film. Pixar giveth, Pixar taketh away.
I’m reviewing this having missed the end, my young son was scared of the big loud demon bear and was afraid Merida’s mother might get hurt or killed. He snapped. We left.
It’s got the Pixar heart, humor, & lovingly rendered visuals. I adore standing stones & Scotland’s terrain and culture so really enjoyed those aspects. Indeed, Scotland is investing £7 million in tourism, hoping for a boost.
Merida, the young lady and star of the film, and her family, reside in DunBroch Castle. Scotland’s Dunnotar Castle is said to have inspired DunBroch’s cliff-top location, while its interiors are said to be modeled on the castle of Eilean Donan.
Will O’ The Wisps, depicted as sprite-like in the film, are real phenomena, a form of swamp gas. What is not well understood is why they seem to always move just ahead of their observer, then disappear.
The film’s stone circle, an integral location, is based on the 3000-year-old Callenish Stones, located on the Isle of Lewis. Ok that’s the end of the travelogue, on to the movie.
Merida is a young lady evidently of marrying age, and her mother invites the three surrounding clans to a contest. Whichever of the clans’ first-born sons wins the contest wins Merida’s hand. Merida would rather be in the woods than take her mother’s how-to-be-a-lady lessons, and none of the suitors suit her. Merida then makes some ill-considered choices that endanger her family’s lives and the region’s peace. Oh, and she’s an archer, like everyone else this year.
The visiting clans were kind of goofy and fun but made me wonder if humans can ever truly progress past tribal inclinations. Or gender roles. The men were depicted as hyper-masculine, rash, always spoiling for a fight, and well, stupid, while the Queen was the ultimate authority through her dignity, intelligence, and calm. I have always found the idea that as a female my job is to be a civilizing force on men confounding. That’s a big reason why I love inappropriately wacky female characters like Elaine from “Seinfeld.” You be crazy girl. It wasn’t anything that detracted from the movie, just something noticed.
I am getting tired of “I’m a tomboy & revolt against gender expectations blah blah blah.” Why must the girl defy expectations through physical activity? Why not other ways? Being consumed with books, science, etc.? Stories about these other, non-tree climbing girls do exist, just not to the same extent. Watching Merida impossibly climb towering rocks made me very, very bored. Tres cliche. But her hair was fabulous.
Overall the film entertained, someday I’ll see the end, and I hope Scotland gets its tourism boost.
What I’m continuously surprised by is how deeply mother-daughter storylines cut me to the core as my tween daughter gets older. She’s like me in some ways, but so different in others that I don’t know how she came from me. Things I planned to help her work through I will never need to, she’ll avoid some of my problems but will have others I never faced. Did I expect a mini-me? She is the swine to my pearls of wisdom anyway, how can I help her when she won’t listen? But do I really listen to her? What pearls has she cast that I’ve missed? What do I expect from her? Her from me?
I asked my daughter what the movie made her think and feel and she wrote the following. Yes it ends abruptly but she said that’s it she’s done. I’m just glad she wanted to share anything:
It made me sad to think about what life would be like without u or dad and really that everybody messes up and sometimes u mess up big time and u have to tell the truth when u mess up and u got 2 make things right, and that you need 2 appreciate all the privileges u have & u can’t trust a with
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