A Second Opinion: Brave falls short of former Pixar favorites

I am happy to introduce a guest blogger for this review, Shannon.  Shannon is a good friend of Victoria's and mine and is a contributing writer for our college's newspaper.  We are both very happy to have her write her opinion on Brave, and I hope you all do as well.

-Katelyn

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Note: This review contains spoilers.

Brave, Disney/Pixar’s newest film, is a courageous attempt to live up to the renowned names of Pixar classics like Toy Story and Finding Nemo, but this attempt falls sadly short of the aforementioned childhood classics.

Merida, the young protagonist, is a Scottish princess who doesn’t meet the princess standards of her mother, Elinor. One thing her mother truly can’t stand is a princess shooting archery. In Hollywood female characters shooting bow and arrow are gaining popularity—Queen Susan and Katniss Everdeen, anyone?—and tragically, Disney joins the bandwagon.

This movie contains several tense moments. After Merida gives her mother a cake holding a spell, her mother begins experiencing internal bodily issues. She stumbles, becomes queasy, and frantically questions her daughter on the sweet’s contents. Following a minute of uneasiness, Merida is horrified to discover she has turned her mother into a bear.

To right her wrongs, Merida is given a riddle to solve, and she comes to the conclusion she must fix a physical tear she made out of anger. What she doesn’t realize is she really needs to mend the broken relationship with Elinor.

Her mother, as a pathetic bear, never makes any obvious realization she is partly at fault and never directly apologizes to Merida. No apparent attempts are made on Elinor’s behalf to mend the relationship. The creators barely mention the riddle’s second half, leading one to wonder if this was accidentally looked-over. Merida keeps repeating she must mend the tear, but doesn’t seem to remember it was “torn by pride.” Both mother and daughter made grave errors because of their pride but neither confesses nor apologizes. It is only when Merida thinks she is too late to save her mother that she gives a sobbing apology—but not for her prideful actions. Even when Elinor transforms back into a human, she doesn’t apologize to Merida, suggesting either the filmmakers didn’t notice the omission of the riddle’s second half, or they thought the ending was satisfactory without the lesson of pride’s dangers.

On the positive side, the Celtic sounds are haunting and the scenery is beautiful beyond belief. For an animated film, the forests and mountains of Scotland look real and breathtaking—even without 3D—and make the audience look to see the sights in person. Another great work of art is Merida’s steed. The broad black stallion is lifelike and majestic. Every characteristic, including his rolling white eyes and pawing hooves, is reminiscent of the real creature.

Brave does have some moments of laughter and jolliness, but for the most part, the film had a depressing feel to it, complete with some tears. Most of the laughs come from Merida’s younger brothers, thanks to the prankster threesome’s crazy antics. Even as bear cubs, the trio stirs up audience laughter by terrorizing castle occupants.

Overall, I felt this movie is not up to par with former Disney/Pixar makes. The creators tried nobly, but their attempts just can’t measure up to the standard that Pixar set when they made Toy Story. Brave is not a terrible movie, but I don’t think it’s really a child’s film due to some of the tense and sad scenes. It seems to better for older children and adults, if only it would have been more consistent on the issue of pride. Regardless of my personal pet peeves, Brave deserves a B-.

-Shannon