Tangled

 

Year:  2010

Filming:  Color

Length:  100 minutes

Genre:  Animation/Fantasy/Family

Maturity:  PG (for mild fantasy violence and brief rude humor)

Cast:  Mandy Moore (Rapunzel), Zachary Levi (Flynn Rider), Donna Murphy (Mother Gothel), Ron Perlman (Stabbington Brother), M.C. Gainey (Captain of the Guard), Jeffrey Tambor (Big Nose Thug), Brad Garrett (Hook Hand Thug), Paul F. Tompkins (Short Thug), Richard Kiel (Vlad), Delaney Rose Stein (Young Rapunzel)

         

Directors:  Nathan Greno and Byron Howard

Personal Rating:  4 Stars

***

     For a long while, people urged towards watching some recently-released 3D animated flicks. I was generally hesitant, as I tend towards the simpler artistic style of a previous generation and am wary of excessive CGI. Nevertheless, when I watched the beginning of Tangled over at a friend’s house, this fanciful new take on the story of Rapunzel brought a smile to my face, and I decided I really should take her advice and order it from the library to see what happened after our heroine knocks the outlaw in the head with a frying pan!

     Our story begins with a flower, a very special, magical flower that has the power to heal illnesses and unlock the secret to eternal youth. An old woman named Mother Gothel hordes the flower in order to make herself young and beautiful ever and anon. But when the queen of the kingdom becomes deathly ill, soldiers are sent to track down the flower to heal her. When they finally locate it, she drinks the liquefied golden petals and is restored to health. Later, her baby daughter winds up having hair as gold as the flower…and with the same healing and rejuvenating properties!

    But Mother Gothel isn’t about to take the loss of the flower lightly, and she kidnaps the baby princess, realizing that by fondling her hair and singing the same song she used to sing to the flower (as the narrator observes, creepy, right?), she is able to restore her youth and beauty just as well. She keeps the child in a high tower so no one will find her, and raises the little princess as her own. She is named Rapunzel, and grows up to be an artistic and spirited teen, turning her tower into a place of light and creativity. However, she still yearns for contact with the outside world, which her “mother” always denies her.

    However, Rapunzel gets her chance to sneak away when an unsuspecting, rather cute outlaw named Flynn Rider climbs into her tower for sanctuary after stealing the royal crown! She convinces him to be her guide so she can go see the floating lanterns that are released every year on the long-lost princess’s birthday. Of course, Rapunzel is unaware that she is in fact said princess, and she just wants to enjoy the experience and soak in the beauty. So Flynn, a good-at-heart sort of guy who also has just been hit in the head by a frying pan, agrees that he will take Rapunzel out on the adventure of a lifetime, and she in return will keep his bag of treasure safe for him.

    Along the way, they encounter a variety of obstacles, including a gallant mount that seems bent on trying to sabotage Flynn, soldiers of the king bent on trying to capture Flynn, and Mother Gothel, who has now realized Rapunzel has escaped and is determined to get her and her magical hair back to the tower. At the same time, Rapunzel transforms Flynn and inspires him to give on himself and reform his roguish behavior.

But as they begin to fall in love, secrets of the past and misconceptions of the present threaten to tear them apart. Will Rapunzel have the courage to liberate herself from past bonds and embrace a whole new world?

    Tangled is an artistic delight, combining the best of both worlds with regards to traditional flat-screen animation and new digitalized 3-D animation. The floating lanterns scene is particularly dazzling with regards to multi-dimensional effect, song choice, and general romantic feel. Everything from facial expressions to flowing hair looked incredibly realistic. The animators and technicians managed to capture not just accurate form but also movement, not a mean feat whatsoever. They also managed to capture the flavor of past time periods, and integrate them into a modern expression. Occasionally I wish the slang was curtailed to keep with an older mood, but I can take it in stride. As a note, I noticed that the costuming used for the guards looks like a combination of Ancient Roman Legionaries, the Vatican Swiss Guards, and British Infantry from the Napoleonic Wars!

    Rapunzel is a charming leading lady with spunk, ingenuity, and quite a bit of courage. While she loves her smothering “mother”, she cannot bear to remain shut up in her tower forever, and must allow her spirited nature more room to move. Like the Lady of Shallot, the final break with the past comes with the arrival of a man, who finally gives her the chance she’s been waiting for to broaden her horizons. It was great the way Tangled had Rapunzel’s golden, healing hair is tied in with the golden flower with healing powers that was given her ailing mother when she was enduring a difficult pregnancy. This explains why Mother Gothel kidnaps our heroine to begin with, and allows her hair to grow so long. This creative explanation in Tangled gives it one up on Frozen, which basically gave explanation for the incredible princess-powers that generate the plot.

    Honestly, I feel rather sorry for Mother Gothel. She’s self-consumed and can be pretty ruthless when pushed to desperation. She tries to hoard the magic flower and keep it all to herself when other people are in need. If she had been willing to share it to begin with, perhaps she wouldn’t have to go through so much work to keep it later on. Plus her kidnapping a baby princess for her magic hair in order to be forever young is pretty parasitic, to say the least! I have to wonder why she wants to be forever young in the first place...does she have any boy-friend prospects, or anything?

     And yet, I’m afraid it is her character that makes me have one major reservation about the movie. For all her faults, Mother Gothel is not your typical Disney witch. She’s much more human than that. We can’t despise her outright. While her motives may have started out quite base, she did raise Rapunzel as her own, and was the only mother the little girl ever knew. There is a scene in which Rapunzel asks Gothel to go get her some special shell paint for her birthday. Gothel had just freaked out at Rapunzel when she asked to leave the tower and go see the lanterns, and now she feels guilty. Hence, even though it will mean a long journey, she agrees to go as requested.

    The point I’m trying to make is that deep down inside, I believe that in spite of her manic desire for eternal youth she has come to love Rapunzel, as much as she is capable of loving anyone, and Rapunzel has come to love her as well. I suppose I didn’t like the assumption projected in the film that just because Gothel wasn’t her “real” mother the bond could somehow be instantaneously dissolved with no further ado. As I’ve expressed in the past, the concept of family as much as friendship depends more on emotional attachment as opposed to bloodlines.

    To make the whole situation more intense, Mother Gothel dies a terrible death, falling out of the tower window after being tripped by Paschal the chameleon, ostensibly one of the good guys! Rapunzel doesn’t seem lastingly disturbed by this. Granted, Gothel did stab Flynn a few minutes earlier, but all of these complex relationships should have put Rapunzel in therapy by now! I mean, this woman who has been the only mother you’ve ever known dies horribly in front of your eyes, and how is the restoration of Flynn supposed to make up for that and give the finale an oh-too-happy feel?

    I would have liked it so much better if Gothel had actually had a conversion experience, realizing that the most important thing is relationships, not physical beauty. Otherwise, she could have just disappeared into the forest or something, and spared us all from some of the traumatic connotations! I’m totally in favor of Rapunzel getting away from her, since has shown herself to be a possessive spirit and toxic character, but does it all have to end so gruesomely? Especially for a kiddie flick?

    Of course, there is a redeeming aspect to all this, since Flynn sacrificially cuts off Rapunzel’s magic hair that could have healed him after being stabbed. Like in Beauty and the Beast, the protagonist dies, but is restored to life through the tears of his lady love. The only loss here…I miss Rapunzel’s cool, glowing, song-reactive, healing, youth restoring, golden flower hair! :-(

    But beyond all these rather intense aspects, there is some genuinely humorous content, mostly revolving around the irrepressible Flynn and his less-than-amicable horse who is “out to get him”! Also, we get to stop by “The Snuggly Duckling Inn”, un-aptly named thug-land extraordinaire! Even though some of the action sequences are over-extended and over-the-top, the mix between excitement and character development is pretty good. Plus, Flynn’s narration is genuinely hilarious, and helps draw the viewer into the story as one of his confederates. I’m thinking here of the method used in Sir Laurence Olivier’s outstanding production of Richard III…only this is the fun version!

    Needless, to say, the “Prince Charming” bit just doesn’t enter the equation here! Not that I mind in this case (Flynn, for the most part, rocks!), although I do like my fair share of  genuinely noble nobleman too, and sometimes think there is a modern conspiracy afoot to constantly belittle the landed and make them horrendously unheroic. Nevertheless, it should be noted that Rapunzel is a royal, as are her parents (whose characters are scarcely explored at all, but still they seem like good-guys). Hence, there isn’t a complete bias towards the lower classes…;-)

     So my generally feeling towards Disney’s reboot of the Rapunzel story is mostly positive, with a few reservations, mostly involving Mother Gothel.  The artistic quality alone is impressive, and the plot holds together much better than some other Disney princess stories such as the botched-up Brave and to a lesser extent the frazzled Frozen. Some believe that Tangled may in fact have ushered a neo-Renaissance for Disney studios. Whether or not the productions live up to this hoped-for generational trend is yet to be ascertained, but Tangled at least will continue to be enjoyed as a classic for years to come, entertaining, thrilling, and teaching lessons about spiritual freedom and sacrificial love.

Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) and Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) fall in love

Frozen

Year:  2013 

Filming:  Color 

Length:  102 minutes 

Genre: Adventure/Animated/Family/Fantasy

Maturity:  PG (for fantasy action and some rude humor)

Cast:  Idina Menzel (Elsa), Kristen Bell (Anna), Jonathan Groff (Kristoff), Santino Fontana (Prince Hans), Josh Gad (Olaf), Alan Tudyk (Duke of Weselton), Chris Williams (Oaken), Ciaran Hinds (Pabbie), Eva Bella (Young Elsa), Liwy Stubenrauch (Young Anna)

 Directors: Jennifer Lee and Chris Bucks

 Personal Rating:  4 Stars

***

     Fads come and fads go, especially in the realm of the Silver Screen. Most are far less supercalafrajalistic than made out to be. However, there are a few that at least live up to the title “enjoyable”. Among them are Disney’s Frozen, a 3D animated spin on Hans Christian Anderson’s classic fairytale, The Snow Queen. Although I can’t say this one stuck to the original script, it was a worthwhile entity in its own right, and minus a few ill-chosen remarks in the dialogue and possibly agenda-driven implications, I would recommend it as a fun holiday film to view during a snowy day. 

    Our story opens in the Scandinavian kingdom of Arendelle, where two young princesses, Elsa and Anna, are playing in the snow. This would be normal enough, except for the fact that Elsa is the one creating the snow inside the palace with her magical freezing powers, and Anna gets accidently zapped with an ultra-brain-freeze! The king and queen are naturally disconcerted, and immediately whisk Anna off to a troop of trolls to have the memory of her sister’s powers erased…which will somehow unfreeze her brain! Then they have Elsa confined to private quarters in the palace until she can master her icy powers.

    For years, Elsa has limited contact with anyone, including her sister Anna, who cannot understand the sudden separation, but continues to love Elsa and believe that Elsa loves her. After their parent’s death, Elsa becomes queen and must emerge from her seclusion for her coronation. At the same time, Anna get her first taste of first love, in the form of the tall, dashing Prince Hans. But when Hans and Anna decide to be wed immediately, Queen Elsa withholds her permission. The ensuing struggle of wills between the estranged sisters results in Elsa accidently revealing her icy powers, and the sinister Duke of Weselton convinces the people that she is a monster. In response, Elsa runs away from Arendelle, leaving a frozen trail behind her.      

    But Anna is determined to set things right be reconciling with her sister and convincing her to return and melt the ice. But first, she has to find her in the wilds of the mountains, with the aid of three faithful companions: Kristoff, the rough-and-tumble yet dependable mountain-man, Sven, he beloved reindeer companion, and Olaf, the magical talking snowman who “likes warm hugs” and longs for warm weather…er…yeah, he doesn’t know the harsh realities of a snowman’s life expectancy rate! But anyway, the dynamic quartet manage to make their way to Elsa’s new place of residence: a humungous ice palace, guarded by a humungous abominable snowman! 

    When Anna finally does manage to have a meeting with Elsa, she informs her sister that Arendelle has been frozen over. Elsa, still struggling to control her powers and terrified of harming anyone, is horrified by the suffering she unintentionally and unknowingly caused, but does not know how to undo the spell. Even though Anna insists that she should return to her kingdom, and that they can work it out together, Elsa angrily sends her away, against accidently shooting her with an icy ray that always emanates from her hand when she is upset. Although shaken, Anna insists that she is fine. Elsa, equally shaken, has them chased out of the ice palace by her abominable snowman guard.  

    Despairing of ever convincing Elsa to come home, Anna and Kristoff make their  way back to Arendelle empty-handed. But along the way, Kristoff decides to visit his own home so Anna can “meet the family” – a bunch of rocks that turn out to be the same trolls that healed Anna from brain-freeze when she was a little girl! Under the assumption that the two of them are an item, they make quite a to-do of welcoming her to their festive gathering, but when she feels ill and collapses, they are able to deduct that something is dreadfully wrong. In fact, her heart has been frozen by Elsa’s ice ray! The trolls inform her that only an act of true love can save her life, so Kristoff rushes to get her back to Arendelle and her “true love” Prince Hans who he believes can save her through a kiss. But things go a little differently than everyone expected as they search out what true love really means and how it effects us all.  

    I personally thought Frozen was the best 3-D Disney Princess film to date. The animation was quite spectacular, especially the panoramic shots of the charming Kingdom of Arendelle and the Scandinavian surroundings that seemed to leap out from a Hans Christian Anderson fairytale. Also, the formation of the ice castle was quite magical. Plus, the music really did branch out into something of a Broadway production, which was impressive for a cartoon. Tangled certainly started the trend of characters singing, Brave moved away from it, and Frozen came back to it with force. Also, beyond all this, the story really was a very good one, teaching some deep lessons about the meaning and power of love. 

    This is not to say it didn’t have its problems, because it did. Among them were occasional, unnecessarily crude language and gags (including references to urination and nose-picking) and rapid-fire humor that left one feeling out of breath. As I usually remark upon watching a “modern” cartoon, I don’t understand why they feel the need to try to force us to laugh instead of letting it all come naturally.  Also, there were several gaps in the plot. For example, how did Elsa get her magic freezing powers, and how was it that the trolls were able to heal Anna’s frozen brain by simply erasing all memory of her sister’s powers? Did the two sisters have any interaction at all after that point until their parents’ death? If not, who did have contact with Elsa all those years as she struggled to control her icy powers? Surely someone had to care for her!  

    The part that shocked me the most was when Hans revealed his true colors. I mean, I know it was supposed to be shocking but – couldn’t they have given us at least a little foreshadowing? With Kristoff entering the equation and the issue of “love at first sight” being brought up in a negative light, I think most of us surmised that Hans wasn’t going to be the leading man after all (at least, not with regards to Anna). But I thought he might wind up falling in love with Elsa instead, or otherwise just rather superficial and incapably of truly loving the way Anna needed to be loved in order to save her life.  

    But I never expected him to be a latent assassin or crown-snatcher! Honestly, I don’t think it was necessary to go that extreme! Besides, reading between the lines, I can’t help but get the feeling that the writers were going out of their way to completely obliterate any image of “Prince Charming” that might be lingering in the female subconscious. Now, I’m not crazy about charmers myself, and the “love at first sight” bit is usually a good recipe for disaster. But does that mean that all those exhibiting gentlemanly qualities are somehow suspect?

    It all goes back the way the upper classes are handled on screen in period pieces. Basically, according to Holly wood perception, the tendency of being attracted to dashing, well-dressed nobleman has been completely spun around to the point where it is a given that a dashing, well-dressed nobleman is bound to be evil. Beyond that, there is a notion that girls should never want to be rescued. While I agree we don’t always want to be (sometimes we can take care of it better ourselves!), that’s not always the case. Is the concept of a perverted “Prince Charming” invocating a liberal feminist agenda? 

   On that same subject, there are some who believe that there is a covert LGBT agenda running through the film as well, although I’m not sure I’d really agree. If it’s there, it’s far too light to detect directly…so why make a fuss? It’s been pointed out that Elsa has no male love interest (probably the only princess in Disney history not to have one…but considering her freezing problem, is that so odd?). I will admit that the song “Let It Go” could be applied to some sort of sexual liberation (especial with the reference to Elsa being forced to be a “good girl”), but really, it could mean anything. Indeed, Elsa is expressing only one phase in her journey, not the conclusion. She does not remain in her icy palace forever; she is brought back into the human race through the love of her sister, and this learning about love is what enables her to control her powers and save her kingdom.  

    But even if Elsa does not have a big love life (certainly not a crime in and of itself), Anna and Kristoff do make a lovable couple. She’s sweet and stubborn; he’s clever and stout-hearted. He’s also pretty funny, and knows how to tease and be teased, which to me is a very important trait. It’s obvious they have a chemistry from square one, and it was pretty easy to figure out they would be together in the end. But of course there was the question of what to do with Prince Hans. After Anna is struck by the icy ray, Kristoff is willing to give her up in favor of Hans who he believes is the only one able to save her life through a true lover’s kiss. However, when Hans betrays her, he rushes across the fjords to save Anna himself.  

    If Anna and Kristoff are a match made in heaven, Olaf is the best sort of third-wheel (well, fourth wheel, counting Sven…but the reindeer is not half as colorful as the snowman!). The comic concept of a snowman dreaming about the glories of warm weather is just hilariously incongruent, not to mention to erudite commentary at tense moments (“Hang in there, guys!” he shouts, whilst Anna and Kristoff are dangling from the edge of a cliff)!  But Olaf is not just hanging around for comic relief purposes. Actually, he has a profound role to play in teaching Anna about true love after she is ruthlessly left to freeze by Hans. Seeing her slumped in the corner shivering, he immediately begins to build a fire. When Anna tries to stop him, insisting that he’ll melt, he replies, “Some people are worth melting over.” (Aww…) 

   While Kristoff and Olaf are certainly important elements in the revelation of love, the relationship between Anna and Elsa takes priority. Even though Anna had seen barely anything of her sister for years, she has enough memory to know that she did indeed have a fond relationship with her sister in their youth, and she continues to believe they could have the same sisterly love again. It is this belief, this inner knowing, that inspires her to save Elsa by throwing herself in front of her and taking the blow from Hans’s sword. At the same time she freezes, and her icy hand smashes the blade. Through this act of true love, she saves both herself, returning to life, and Elsa, who finally understands that love is the only way to conquer fear and melt the ice encrusting Arendelle.  

    So overall I give Frozen a good rating. Some would even say that it has some Christian allegorical overtones, although I would probably just stick with saying it has a sturdy moral backbone. Even though it carried touches of liberation theology here and there (I can do what I want to do because…I can do what I want to do!), I think the plot successfully worked out the trouble spots and taught that we do have a calling to show true love to one another, and never to settle for giving or receiving second best. That being the meaning of Christmas as well, I suppose it makes a very appropriate holiday flick at that!

Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) rides in a sleigh with Anna (Kristen Bell)

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