Review: Brave (2012)
Cast: Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson
Director: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell
Country: USA
Genre: Animation | Action | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy
Official Trailer: Here
Pixar Studios has set the bar astronomically high for family films and, consequently, itself. Since its groundbreaking instant classic Toy Story (1995), the studio has consistently delivered witty, thoughtful and moving films where quirky characters are brought to life and unlikely relationships are explored. The studio’s main priority is to imbue their films with child like wimsy but also an intelligence that adults can appreciate, which it usually achieves, smashing through most demographics.
With Brave, the latest offering, once again simply equals, choosing to tell a straight forward story in a straight forward fashion.
While other studios have had similar financial and critical success throughout the years with the Shrek and Cloudy With a Chance Of Meatballs to name a couple, it often feels like a continuous game of catch up. None have firmly planted themselves into the audience’s psyche as masterpieces of film making like Wall E and Up. Pixar has often equalled and in some cases surpassed the bar it set with its debut film, (and, let’s be honest, in some cases has failed to do both). With Brave, the latest offering, once again simply equals, choosing to tell a straight forward story in a straight forward fashion.
Tomboy, free-sprit Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald), who is particularly skilled in archery, gets a shocking wake up call when she learns she is being set up for an arranged marriage. As if the relationship between Merida and her controlling, overprotective mother Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) wasn’t strained enough, this latest development is threatening to tear the two irrevocably apart.
When the defiant Merida cannot change her mother’s mind about inviting three suitors to the village to compete for her hand in marriage, she enlists the help of a strange witch (Julie Walters) who lives in the forest. A spell is cast on Queen Elinor, which backfires as she is turned into something, shall we say, much less dignified. The mishap prompts Merida to reverse the spell and make things right.
The voice cast is some of the best in recent memory with Kelly Macdonald bringing some maturity to a role that could easily have felt like a bratty teenager without her skilled interpretation.
There is nothing particularly wrong with this sweet story of the rift that develops between mother and daughter. It is territory that the studio has not previously explored and it offers its first female protagonist - a nice change from its male-aimed Cars films. Mothers and their daughters are sure to relate to the story here (the bickering resembles much of what takes place once girls hit their teen years) and will lap up the hijinks that ensue as the characters try to mend what is broken. The voice cast is some of the best in recent memory with Kelly Macdonald bringing some maturity to a role that could easily have felt like a bratty teenager without her skilled interpretation.
However, it all just feels a little too easy for the folks at Pixar. We have seen some impressive moviemaking from this crew from talking toys that make us misty eyed, a moving 10-minute montage of an old man and an almost dialogue-less feature. Those that worked on Brave have delivered a perfectly gratifying animated feature with plenty of action, laughs and drama. The only quibble is that there is nothing especially inventive about the way this story is told - it doesn’t push the envelope. It seems Pixar have settled the bar for the time being but Brave is an enjoyable effort to tide us over until it decides to raise it once more.
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