Brave

Directed by Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell. Written by Brenda Chapman (story), Mark Andrews (screenplay), Steve Purcell (screenplay), Irene Mecchi (screenplay). Starring Kelly Macdonald (Merida), Billy Connolly (Fergus) and Emma Thompson (Elinor)

Bottom line: Pleasant family movie but it ultimately falls because it wasn't really anything new. I was also disappointed with the halfhearted feminism.
2.5/4

Brave is Pixar's latest princess movie. It begins with a wonderful scene of a royal family camping in the woods. One of the things I love about Pixar is their ability to capture the innocence and energy of children and the opening sequence is a perfect example.

The queen is playing hide and seek with her young daughter, Merida. The large, kinda goofy king enters and gives the sprightly little girl her first bow. She runs off in the forest, following some Willow-wisps all the while stalked by a "demon bear" which jumps out of the forest and attacks the family.

Fast forward ten or so years. The bear took the leg of the king and escaped into the forest. By this point we hear the message from the trailer: "This is my mum...she's in charge every single thing in my life". Merida has grown up being trained to be an ideal future queen. And yet, also as we know from the trailer, she is a tomboy who wants to live on her own. On the subject of marriage, Merida says, "I am not ready to get married and I don't know if I ever will be." This is the type of princess that I was hoping for. Finally, there will be a strong woman who actually stands on her own: She can hold her own in archery contests, ride horses and climb mountains (albeit in a dress).

All this potential and Pixar cops out! About a third of the way through, the movie becomes a pretty cliche mother-daughter bonding movie. In desperate act of defiance, Merida goes to a pretty cookie-cutter witch who offers a spell to "change your fate", read, "stop my mom from being so mean". The mom is changed and the two spend the rest of the movie trying to reverse the spell.

Why couldn't Pixar just keep going with the original sentiment? The whole "I don't know if I ever will get married" thing changes to a reluctance to "grow-up". Appropriately, you know that really deep sounding Gaelic song used in the trailer? If you look at the lyrics it is about a woman crying because he husband is out at sea. Of course I'm not suggesting that a strong female character can't cry but there is a difference between "I miss my husband" and "Merida doesn't want to get married...yet". Maybe the lyrics were a warning. One might argue that she does show independence because she is going to get married someday but more on her terms. Whoever wins her heart, she will marry. In the scheme of things, that isn't very progressive at all. So when Merida is finished playing with her little toys, she can be a woman and do a woman's job by assuming her position in the patriarchy.

Aside from the disappointing turn of events in story, everything else is great. The animation is every bit as beautiful and colorful as what you would expect from Pixar. The soft glow of the willow-wisps, for example, feels magical. Does it save the missed opportunity of progress? Not really. So, I would recommend this for an inexpensive rent.