It is not very often that I have so mixed feelings about a movie. Honestly Brave made me want to see it again just to clear my feeling about it.
The plot
Merida, a Scottish princess whose interests include archery and horse riding, is told by her mother that her interests are not what a princess should be doing and that she has to marry. But Merida chooses to defy her mother. And when she and her mother have an argument Merida rides off and meets a witch. She asks for a spell to change her mother. And the witch gives her a cake which she gives to her mother but the change is not what she was hoping for. So she tries to find a way to fix it.
The review
I will start by saying that the graphics, colours and animation are just stunning. I couldn’t stop starring at the jaw dropping curls of Merida’s fiery red hair or the amazingly lighted sceneries that made me to want to go to Scotland so very much.
The soundtrack of the movie moves away from Disney’s classic singing and dancing characters but it still accompanies each scene beautifully creating a very cheerful or full of movement and action environment. Of course each song and piece is heavily inspired by the celtic folklore songs but adds a nice instrumental taste to it.
The characters are well built but not really explored. That is one of the thing that make me doubt the final result. There was so much that it has been left unsaid and the movie feels like someone just removed a major plot twist and about an additional hour. (the movie is 100 minutes long but I would easily go for a 140 – 160 minutes version)
As with the characters the plotline remains very simple and very linear, I would love to see a more strong plot twist (see Lion King that was actually written by Brenda Chapman as well) I want to believe that the reason for it was the fact that the movie was intended for all audiences which means our young friends should also be able to enjoy it.
Once again the movie escapes Disney’s completely wrong role model standards and talks about issues like gender equality, woman empowerment, and family relations in a beautiful way that kind of surprises in a nice way.
In an unrelated note the short file La Luna by Pixar is shown before Brave begins and it’s ..beautiful
Conclusion
Brave was a beautiful experience. If you enjoyed the likes of How to train your dragon and Tangled you will surely like Brave. I believe that both IMDB and Rotten tomatoes scores are well deserved.
Rotten tomatoes: 80% http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brave_2012/
IMDB: 7.6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1217209/
