Review 169: Brave

 

Brave is an exciting, hilarious, and heartfelt adventure, a brilliant interpretation of a fairy tale in Pixar language and

In the highlands of 10th century Scotland, Merida (Kelly MacDonald) is a skilled archer and headstrong daughter of King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson). Determined to change her fate, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the unruly and uproarious lords of the land: massive, surly Lord Macintosh (Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (Robbie Coltrane), unleashing chaos in the kingdom. When she turns to an eccentric Witch (Julie Walters), she is granted an ill-fated wish and the ensuing peril forces Merida to harness all of her resources—including her mischievous triplet brothers—to undo a beastly curse and discover the meaning of true bravery.

The plot is similar to Finding Nemo in the ways it portrays a relationship between a parent and a child but it has plenty of humor and twists to stand up on its own.
It also has a theme of fate vs free will: Merida is feisty and adventurous and wants to find her own way but her mum, Queen Elinor has her life planned out for her even though she just wants what's best for her kingdom and her daughter.
It's also a story about learning form our mistakes: Merida's mum wants to prevent one mistake made by one ruler in the past form happening again and after Merida consults the witch and changes her ate she tries to put things right.

Director Mark Andrews' and Brenda Chapman's animation direction is superb, the score by Patrick Doyle is marvelous, the songs by Julie Fowlis are beautiful, the animation is gorgeous: they recreated 10th century Scotland and remind very faithful to their culture. The production design (recreating Scotland in the 10th Century) is magnificent and rich in texture and detail and overall from a design perspective something very unique and different for Pixar.
The character design is fantastic, the scenery is breathtaking, there are some great scenes of intensity, the action scenes are thrilling, the opening features some really sweet moments, the scenes where Merida and mom argue are powerful and loaded with depth and the ending was beautiful.

The whole voice cast was wonderful, Kelly MacDonald was excellent as Merida and really brings out the fieriness, the feistiness and the stubbornness required to bring the character to life. Although she can be hot-headed, immature and even selfish, it comes from

Emma Thompson is wonderful as Queen Elinor, Merida's mother. Merida and her are incredibly close   and she loves her dearly but unfortunately Merida's rebellious tendencies and desire to forge her own path and break tradition put them at odds with each other.

Billy Connolly is hilarious as King Fergus, Merida's father,

Julie Walters is fantastic as the witch who grants Merida's wish and

Robbie Coltrane, Kevin McKidd and Craig Ferguson also

provide top notch Comic Relief as the lords who bring their sons to compete for Merida's hand.

Brave might not hold up to normal Pixar standards, but it almost holds up to previous Pixar groundbreakers quite well, 4/5.

The Anonymous Critic.