Brave

Year:  2012

Filming:  Color

Length:  93 minutes

Genre:  Adventure/Animated/Family/Fantasy

Maturity:  PG (for some scary images and rude humor)

Cast:  Kelly McDonald (Princess Merida), Emma Thompson (Queen Elinor), Billy Connolly (King Fergus), Julie Walters (The Witch), Kevin McKidd (Lord MacGuffin), Craig Ferguson (Lord MacKintosh), Robbie Coltrane (Lord Dingwall)

Directors: Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews

Personal Rating:  3 Stars

***

    I am admittedly new to the world of modern animation, and by modern I mean anything newer than the 1970’s. This is especially the case with Disney Cartoons. With regards to Pixar productions, I am even less accustomed to the 3-D characters and scenery, and hence certainly no professional commenter. However, due to the encouragement of friends, I finally took a plunge and got acquainted with a few Pixar Princess Productions. One of them was Brave.

    The story opens in the lush and magical Highlands of Scotland, where we meet Princess Merida, a feisty teenaged royal with a strong will and a head full of unruly red hair, whose voice is brought to life by Kelly McDonald. A free-spirited youth who takes after her rugged yet lovable warrior father, King Fergus, Merida excels at archery, horseback riding, and climbing treacherous precipices. But her mother, Queen Elinor, insists that her daughter become a proper lady and start to behave like a true princess.

    Merida grumbles at having to take etiquette lessons, but when is informed about an ancient custom by which the young lords of the land will vie for her hand in marriage through an archery contest, she takes matters into her own hands to restore her freedom. So taking up her bow and arrow, she wins the contest herself and sets the lords of the realm in an uproar. She and her mother have an intense confrontation, and Merida impulsively tears the tapestry portraying them both together.

    The red-headed princess rides off into the woods on her faithful steed, and finds herself in a magical circle of stones. Spying some strang, moving lights in the darkness of the woods, she follows them to a small cottage where an old woman gives her a potion to “change her mother” and her fate. But instead of convincing her mother not to force her into an unwanted marriage, her mother literally “changes”…into a bear!

    Tracking back an ancient curse involving three brothers who shared a kingdom and one who was turned into a ravenous beast called Mordu for his desire to possess all the power himself, Merida sets out on a mission to break the spell and rescue her mother before her King Fergus finds a “bear” in the palace! Famous for losing a leg in a battle with Mordu, the king has no love for bears, and will stop at nothing to irradiate them should they be found. In the end, love will conquer all – but this time it will not be the kiss of Prince Charming and his Lady Fair, but the abiding love between a mother and her daughter.

    I love the setting of Brave, so that tended to make me more forgiving towards the plot foibles and occasional bad taste. The artwork is just so gorgeous, especially the spread of the Scottish Highlands. It looks so real! Mirada climbing the sheer cliff and drinking from the rushing waterfall was breath-taking. And I simply loved all the darling Scottish accents. They were terrific! Plus, Mirada herself is so lovably fiery, with her wild red hair and skill at archery. The music score is also pretty cool, especially the first song as she gallops through the forest to “freedom”.

    But I’m sorry to say all these goodies are pretty much sabotaged by a major plot twist that altered the whole course of the film. It had to do with the bears. I mean, come on, what do you bears have to do with medieval Scotland, please tell me? No one seems to know. Okay, so if I had had control over this whole production, my first thought have been would be to utilize a Loch Ness Monster-type creature if we had to have some sort of big scary monster for our young heroine to face. But honestly, I don’t even know if that was necessary for the plot.

    I think the story-line could have developed in a slew of other interesting ways aside from having her mother magically transferred into some sort of creature in order for them to be reconciled! Plus, after the archery contest, Merida’s skill with the bow hardly influenced the plot at all. The whole setting of a fantastical medieval Scotland was so delightful to begin with, and so many allusions could have been made to real legends from Scottish lore. Who needed the bear twist? Save it for another movie!

    Perhaps the screen writers were just suffering from overwork and too little pay or something. Maybe weak coffee, too. Actually, the most likely explanation for the sudden switch in the plot is that the directors were switched out in mid-production, and it definitely shows. Thankfully, all was not lost in the way of a meaningful tale, because the outcome shows a strong sense of family cohesiveness and the need for mutual understanding, respect, and love between parents and their children. Also, King Fergus and Queen Elinor share a loving relationship, and I love the dignified power the queen holds among the warring factions of the land, allowing to merely walk in the midst of a brawl and break it up by her very presence!

    Unfortunately, the humor turned a bit raunchy at times, and there was some temporarily shocking (though not excessively graphic) animation of nudity. This involved bare back-sides on the part of the kilted warriors (to quote one of the lords lifting up his plaid: “Feast your eyes, me ladies!”) and some jiggling cleavage on the part of the plump castle governess. For most people, the first category is pretty perplexing, but having been familiarized with the long-running Scottish joke about whether or not Scotsmen wear underwear under their kilts, it made some degree of sense! Nevertheless, I really think it could have been done without, especially since this film is ostensibly supposed to be for younger audiences.

    I have seen the ongoing “joke” executed tastefully in the wonderful film The Hasty Heart, but nothing was ever shown on screen. Of course, as I’ve mentioned in the past, there is a scene in Braveheart where the whole thing is visually photographed (highly disturbing!), and that may well have been why they decided to include a version in this cartoon. While this was animation and not live action, it was a very real sort of animation, and as such, equally inappropriate and ultimately unnecessary to the plot.

    Another aspect of the story that has caused parents some consternation was the inclusion of a “good” witch who goes off to a Wicca Convention at Stonehenge. Also, the whole mood of the magic that takes place in this story is not the tinker-bell type. In fact, it has a mysterious and sinister element, neither entirely good nor entirely bad, capable of causing good or harm depending on the circumstances. I can understand why some parents have taken a step back because of this, and do wish they had left the word “Wicca” out of the film entirely. However, I will say that the darker feel matches with Celtic mythology and fits the Scottish setting appropriately. A lighter approach, with Peter Pan and pixie dust, would probably have felt out of place.

    Like The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Brave proves that Disney animation is not primarily aimed at younger audiences anymore. The frightening bear battles alone make that quite clear. If anything it’s more of a “family” show, often geared towards the older members in lieu of plot complexity, scary images, and some off-color insinuations. I’m not against the concept of making animation that all ages can enjoy, but I don’t think producers should have to “test the boundaries” of the censors to see what they can get away with under the cover of “maturity”. Also, if intense aspects are put into a cartoon, it should be more specifically explained that this is not a kid’s film per se.

    The naming of the film apparently follows the chic trend of one-word titles used by Disney for Tangled and Frozen. But after a while, that sort of thing can get overdone quickly. I must say I’m not exactly sure what made bravery such a big part of the plot; if anything, the main morals of the story were reconciliation and togetherness. I personally think it was just a gimmick to make a kiddie-friendly variant of the extremely popular and prosperous Braveheart and draw attention to that connection, especially since the Scottish Independence Referendum was looming when the film was released. 

    To its credit, though, Brave did not carry a covert nationalist agenda to try to make money out of the unrest and division in The UK. As a matter of fact, if anything, it carried a message about the importance of unity. My favorite scene from this film is the part when Merida walks into her father’s hall, and just like her mother, manages to silence the warring lords by her dignified presence. Then she goes on to explain to them why they are “better together”, with each one of them working for the common good and protecting the common land. She also takes a cue from Queen Elinor, and announces that traditions should be honored, and yet they sometimes need to be altered. And so it is decided that the lord’s must win her heart before her hand.

    So while Brave has its multiple plot foibles, occasional innuendoes, and as Plugged In review site aptly put it, too many “bear rears and bare rears”, I think it is still a fun film that teaches a number of excellent lessons and can be enjoyed by families. I would say kids 10 and up should be prepared for it, although it’s really up to parental discretion. One thing’s for sure: after watching, I bet a crown you’ll be mimicking a Scottish burr in the bathroom mirror for days to come!

  

Princess Merida (voiced by Kelly McDonald) prepares to battle Mordu the Bear