Brave

One of Pixar’s most disappointing as well as perplexing movies was their 2012 film, Brave. Although the film was a critical success, earned $540 million against its $185 million budget, and took home the award for Best Animated Feature Film at the Oscars, Golden Globes, and the BAFTAs, it wasn’t held in such high regard by the general public, with many looking back in retrospect and not seeing it as the crown jewel of animation that it was credited as, especially given the competition for that year (it beat both Wreck-It-Ralph AND ParaNorman at the Oscars). Despite winning the gold prizes, not many people speak of it in the same way they have other award-winning animated features, and viewing the film will give a pretty good indication as to why.  In Medieval Scotland, a young princess named Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) finds herself feeling suffocated by the rules that are constantly drilled into her about being a princess by her mother, Queen Elinor (voiced by Emma Thompson). Despite meaning well, her dedication to the old ways has caused a rift between mother and daughter, and it only worsens once Merida is told she is to be betrothed to a son from one of the neighboring kingdoms in order to heal a growing rift between the clans. Refusing to become a puppet to fate like her mother was, Merida runs away and finds herself following the trail of these wisps which lead her to the hut of a wood-carving which witch (voiced by Julie Walters) who gives Merida a spell that will allow her to ‘’change her fate’’. Merida realizes the double meaning of the spell far too late when the cake turns her mother into a bear, which is very dangerous seeing as her father, King Fergus (voiced by Billy Connolly) holds a grudge against bears after a huge demon bear named Mor’du, took his leg years ago. Needing to find a way to reverse the spell before her mother is permanently left as a mindless animal, Merida and her mother travel outside the kingdom to learn how to ‘’mend the bond’’ in order to break the spell, all the while repairing their broken relationship and discovering how to best lead their kingdom into a bright future. Brave is a very messy movie with conflicting themes, inconsistent characters, poor writing, and a tonal problem that feels very un-Pixar, but still contains enough pretty visuals, occasional good ideas and a nice narrative arc between the lead and her mother to make it a passable watch.

Even though most people don’t realize it, this film actually had a lot of ”firsts” attached to it. It was the first Pixar film to be based on a fairy tale or at least have a fairy tale quality to it, the first Pixar film to have a female lead, the first Pixar film to be directed by a woman and was the first film animated with Pixar’s new proprietary animation system, Presto.  In many ways, this film felt like it wanted to be a breath of fresh air for the animation studio, which was further proven by the advertising which did appear to promise something entirely unique from their usual line-up. While most Pixar trailers are quite bad (even for their good films), this trailer was atmospheric, engaging, seeped with cool anticipation and captured a unique fantastical vibe that almost felt Ghibli-esque, it had a lot of promise that sadly wasn’t met. Despite the fresh coat of paint, the movie feels oddly cliched and filled with outdated tropes and dialogue that doesn’t mesh well with the occasional spouts of cleverness and creative ideas, highlighting elements like Scottish folklore, the troubles of familial strife, and the world’s magical properties and how it ties into fate and destiny. Writer and director Brenda Chapman may have been given credit as Pixar’s first female director of a feature length film, but she was actually replaced due to ‘’creative differences’’ by John Lasseter, even though she helped create the story. The film and a lot of the story got a huge overhaul by new director, Mark Andrews, who supposedly ironed out the faults of the previous script but tried to make sure that Chapman’s vision was still kept in check (Chapman did state later on that she was satisfied with the project despite feeling bittersweet about being replaced). While its hard to determine whether or not the faults in the story came from Chapman’s original script or the rewrite that came from Andrews, co-director Steve Purcell and fellow screenwriter Irene Mecchi, there’s no denying that there were too many cooks in the kitchen when creating this film, resulting in a mangled mess that stitched together ill-fitting elements to result in a movie that has individual sparks of cool concepts that just don’t work as a whole. There are good scenes in this movie that are emotionally effective and carry with them good messages and visuals, but the manner in which they can be delivered and tied together through the story just doesn’t feel that satisfying or even intentional. There is a feeling of inexperience felt throughout due to Andrews and Purcell never directing a movie prior to this, whereas Chapman did have prior training after being one of the directors on The Prince of Egypt (being the first woman to ever direct a feature-length animated film at the time), so it stands to reason she probably would’ve held things together a little bit better.

A lot of people drew attention to the fact that since this was Pixar’s first fairy tale-like story, it was essentially Pixar’s attempt at a Disney Princess film, with Merida even eventually joining the ranks as a Disney princess later down the line. Merida as a lead has a few things going for her; Kelly Macdonald is pretty good as the voice, seeing the relationship between her and her mother was something not really seen in these kind of stories at the time and is genuinely touching to see unfold, and her design is very eye-catching with her frizzly bright orange hair drawing everybody’s attention immediately. The downside to her becoming a traditional Disney princess means that she carries the same kind of base characteristics that any of the other Disney princesses have; general niceness, wanting to express beyond what is expected of her, stubborn but possess a good heart, feisty yet never to the point of being harmful, etc. Even though the character is still fine, she doesn’t leave much of an impression outside of her design. Also, despite being portrayed with a bow and arrow throughout all the trailers, she isn’t an action heroine by any means and barely does any fighting whatsoever (which wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t continuously advertise her like she was the next Katniss Everdeen). Emma Thompson as the mother is handled pretty well; avoiding the stereotypical evil mother trope that would’ve so easily slotted into this story and rather creates a conflict of misunderstanding that does get mended over the course of the film. Turning her into a bear seems like a really weird choice (especially since Disney already showed from Brother Bear that they don’t know how to make them work in their movies), but the animation on her when she’s transformed is very impressive, and you can always tell what emotion she’s feeling even though she can’t communicate. The relationship between the two is the real meat of the story and is handled relatively well as both grow together and learn from the other in order to compete against the physical and political issues of their kingdom, but the writing can be a little generic and cliched in their conflict, so it doesn’t feel as rich or as mature as it could’ve been. Most of the side characters feel a little overly comedic and cartoonish for an environment that feels like it’s trying to exist in this fantastical realism state. While some like Merida’s father and the witch are okay, others like the tribe leaders and the three little brothers just kill a lot of the film’s mood and make for some pretty annoying characters.

The animation was in new territory since it was the first project done in their new system, and you can really feel the effort. The backgrounds in this movie are very pleasing to look at and capture a realistic form of lighting and texturing that makes Scotland look incredible. Its vibrant and full of great greenery and environment shots, but the designs of the castles, the lochs and even the sporting arenas look distinctly Scottish, and it provides a very different look for Pixar who haven’t really tackled a location like this before to this extent. The music also adds to the Scottish vibe helped out by Scottish composer, Patrick Doyle, using a lot of traditional Celtic instruments for setting the mood, atmosphere, and tone of several scenes, whether they be instrumental or even sung. The touches of fantasy in this world like the wisps, the witch and even a backstory regarding an ancient fallen kingdom really contributes to this folktale-like atmosphere the movie is going for, but it has to compete with a sense of humor that just seriously falls flat in this environment. Humor is usually a component that Pixar is very strong at, adding a modern but still mature sense of comedy to their pictures that kids and adults could appreciate, whereas here it really only feels catered to children and even then, isn’t done very well with ill-fitting jokes that feel out of place in a medieval world, slapstick that is pretty lazy and dialogue that is pretty pedestrian and low-hanging. Chapman was attached to a lot of DreamWorks projects before and after she wrote this story, so that could explain some connections as the pacing, style of humor and even designs of some of the characters screams something that would be a part of DreamWorks’ later library, but it’s hard to say exactly.

Brave is a difficult movie to pin down, and that’s not even factoring in the title (it really has to stretch to find a reason to call itself Brave). On the one hand, it isn’t a great movie by any means with too many ideas tossed together with none of them feeling complete, characters that teeter between generic and expected, to annoying and overly comedic, and a tone that is way too cartoonish and childish in nature to fit with the established environment or even Pixar’s current style. However, with all that said, the film isn’t really bad either as the end result of the narrative is clunky but passably effective, the relationship between the mother and daughter is handled generic but likeably and emotionally engaging, and the visuals and atmospheric qualities bring a lot to the story and showcase a nice element of culture and folklore. It’s definitely one of the more complicated Pixar properties but given their track record which ranges from some of the best to the some of the worst films in animation history, it’s no surprise one that wanted to shake things up a bit could be stuck right in the middle. Fate sadly wasn’t in this films favour in the long run, but it still left its mark on the world, nonetheless.