Emotions came through with real sincerity. But I wasn’t overly impressed with the designs of the main characters. And it doesn’t hurt that the film is very funny either!Īs for other issues, it’s Pixar, so the animation is top notch. The Pixar polish is all there even if the basics aren’t all that fresh. And while the story line is at times derivative, that doesn’t mean it isn’t well done. When you can actually see how much the characters on screen care for each other (especially when they heartbreakingly have trouble letting each other know), the audience cares about them too. Pixar has outdone themselves creating realistic family connections - the good and the not so good. In Brave, the spell reversal issue is much more nebulous, to the detriment of the final scenes.īut when it comes to pure enjoyment, most of the shortcomings are made up for in viewing the interactions between the characters. Even when the actual means of reversal is not specifically named, as in Hercules, where he has to become a “true hero”, you know it when you see it. In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast must learn to love and earn another’s love in return. In Cinderella the spell will end at midnight. In The Princess and the Frog it takes the kiss of a princess. In Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and The Little Mermaid, spells can be reversed by “true love’s kiss”. And I could have done with a few less naked rear ends!Īnother issue that mars the ending is the fact that how Merida must reverse the spell that causes all the trouble is never fully articulated. While there are a few nice twists (including one that caused audible gasps throughout the theatre I was in), the finale is never in question and is easy to see coming. The overall plot itself is a bit of a rehash of several other similar type stories. While the coziness of the story is an interesting change from the norm, there are some actual issues. And tweaking reviewer expectations seems to be a particular specialty of Pixar’s! (“A film for kids with hardly any dialogue?” “A movie about rats cooking in Paris?” “A children’s cartoon with a septuagenarian lead?”)
It’s just something the reviewers aren’t used to from their animated films, especially of late. Some early reviews have criticized how “small”, “timid”, “weak”, “slow”, and (of course!) “wee” the film feels like. The only thing different is a little bit of magic. And the basic story is familiar as we’ve all lived it - family struggles over expectations and duty as we grow up. There are very few “sets” compared to most animated films. Almost the entire story takes place in and around the castle and it’s adjacent land. “So if we’re spending all that time anyway we might as well go big!”, you can almost hear them saying.īrave is definitely an exception. Animation, whether big in scope or small, takes years either way. A live action team with a ready script could knock out a film in a matter of weeks. But with all the time and effort it takes to make an animated film most studios and writers believe it’s just not worth it to go small. A movie about a group of people who spend the whole film in and around a single location that takes place over the course of two or three days? Easy and probably well received as “artsy” if done right. Live action films have it easier when it comes to scale. But the consequences of the decision to take the easy way out may be more than her family and the kingdom can bear. A witch offers her a spell that will change her fate. When tradition requires her to be wed to the first born of one of the kingdom’s major clans, the princess defies her mother and her royal duty. But Merida just doesn’t seem cut out for it, which is fine by her. Her mother, the Queen, tries to school her in the ways of courtly propriety. As her daddy happens to be the head of the Scottish kingdom of DunBroch, Merida is a princess. Merida is a strong-willed, fiery tough, daddy’s girl. But after so much success going big, does the smaller feel of this film work? But with Brave, Pixar has gone in a much different direction.
And WALL-E actually leaves the planet to go after the object of his affection. Carl flies his house to a completely different continent in Up.
Marlin swam across vast stretches of ocean to rescue his son in Finding Nemo. Flik ventured off to the big city in that epic of miniature proportions A Bug’s Life. The Toy Story films took the toys well beyond the safety of their owner’s home. Pixar films (and really just about every recent animated film in the past decade or two) have always been spectacular in scope, and epic in the journeys they take their characters on.
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