Thy Brave Reviews

Pixar's Feature Films Brave
#1

Hear ye! Hear ye! All thy Brave reviews here!

There isn’t a topic for people’s reviews here yet so I decided to make one. So what did you think of the movie? Was it awesome? Was it good? Was it okay? Was it bad? Why did you like/hate this movie? Will you see it a second or more times in theaters. Plan to get the DVD? Post all reviews here!

Thee all should respect one’s review me-thinks. Or thee will be in trouble.

#2

I think it’s a little too early for this to be open. The film isn’t being released for another couple of weeks.

#3

Hey guys! My name’s Morgan and I’m the host/webmaster of The Rotoscopers: A Podcast for Animation Addicts. My co-host (Chelsea) and I got to see an advance screening of Brave earlier this week and posted our reviews for Brave. So I thought I’d post my review for you all to see.

I enjoyed the movie very much. It’s not my favorite Pixar film, but it falls somewhere in the upper middle, if that makes sense. Not Toy Story good, but The incredibles/Ratatouille good…(but then again, those might be some of your least favorite Pixar films, so that might not mean much). But I would say that Brave is definitely the most “real” Pixar film–meaning, there’s no cars, no bugs, no toys. Even though the movie has some mystical elements, the movie and characters are very much based in reality.

I gave it ★★★★1/2 and Chelsea gave it ★★★★.

I’ll post the link to my long review so I don’t take up too much space here:

Podcast review: [url]http://www.therotoscopers.com/episodes/2012/6/8/episode-13-brave-review-part-1-spoiler-free.html[/url]
Written review: [url]http://www.therotoscopers.com/reviews/2012/6/8/review-brave-pixars-first-fairy-tale-is-real-fun-hits-the-he.html[/url]

Tell me what you guys think!

We tried to keep it spoiler free, but our definition of a spoiler might be different than yours. So if you don’t want to know anything about the film, you might not want to listen until you see the movie. :smiley:

#4

more positive reviews!!

bleedingcool.com/2012/06/10/ … ol-review/
scotsman.com/lifestyle/film/ … -1-2348606
entertainment.stv.tv/film/308103 … ar-shines/
heyuguys.co.uk/2012/06/11/brave-review/
eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/brav … -wilkinson

#5

So… three reviews have been published on RT, and already a major publication has deemed the film rotten. :confused:

hollywoodreporter.com/review … xar-335633

However, as I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t think the review makes it sound rotten so much as disappointing because of its familiarity and lack of adventure (or something). Does that make the film a rotten one? Only if it’s incredibly cliché and familiar, in my opinion, which Brave does not seem to be. In fact, much of the interest in the film is due to what’s fresh about it’s take on the princess fairy tale genre! No love interest, a full family, authentic Scottish accents, lack of singing, no talking sidekicks, a mother-daughter relationship (which has not really been explored outside of impostors and stepmothers).

#6

Indeed, one of the first Top Critic reviews being rotten is mildly concerning, but it does not seem like he outright loathed the film, or at least from what little I read (trying to avoid spoilers as much as humanly possible). Trying to take everything with a grain of salt here. Like you said, it seems like the criticism is mainly drawing from ranking it against other Pixar movies and calling it less groundbreaking, which isn’t really a fair way to judge a movie anyway. :confused:

#7

The thing I hate about these reviews are that people are saying “It’s good, but not up to Pixar’s better efforts.” That is starting to irk me a bit. I do hope they don’t approach this as “Oh, Cars 2 sucked so this won’t be good” type of bias.

#8

youtube.com/watch?v=muCA-w45UAE I found this review. (Beware of spoilers)

#9

That’s true, but didn’t Pixar bring this on themselves by saying countless times over the years how they are different from everybody else? Especially saying that and making Ratatouille, Walle and Up. And doing something that most studios have failed to do. Which is make a third movie to a franchise that most consider just as good, and some consider bette than the first two movies.

#10

Just got back from seeing it! I’m working on a full review for a later date, but on its own, the movie is amazing. It just isn’t as original as Pixar’s other movies.

Quick rundown:
-Very solid story (but fairly predictable)
-Wonderful characters (you’ll be surprised how much you like everybody)
-Surprisingly funny. I didn’t expect to laugh nearly as much as I did (MAUDIE)
-Brilliant animation that helps to really enrich the story and characters
-Solid score (not Giacchino level though)

The not-so-good:
-Suffers from second act sag. There are no subplots to spice things up.
-One or two jokes were pretty crude in an un-Pixar way
-A LOT of the film feels familiar. The first act feels very, very Disney (but not in a bad way), while the second and third acts were a little too reminiscent of [spoil]Brother Bear, The Iron Giant, and HTTYD.[/spoil] At times it felt like a ‘best of’ mash up of animated films, which is a bit disappointing considering the lack of convention in WALL-E, Up, etc.

Awesome movie though. WAY better than Cars 2, don’t worry. Pixar is definitely back on track.

#11

Great analysis Bryko! Did Brave have any kind of scary or spooky moments?

#12

Just saw it as well!
I’m on my lunch break right now, so I can’t go into a full-on detailed review, but here’s some of the highlights for me:

  • Very interesting characters that are voiced and animated beautifully.
  • Merida’s hair! It’s like a character in its own right, it looks so realistic, bouncing around when she walks or rides.
  • 3D. Pixar utilised the 3D beautifully! While in other movies it doesn’t really contribute much to the story, Brave has a lot of sweeping panoramas of the Scottish highlands. Like, a lot. They look incredible rendered in 3D. I’d fully recommend you go see the film in 3D.
  • The triplets. There’s a scene where [spoil]they have to lure the lords away from Merida so that she can sneak her mother out of the castle, so they use pots and roast chickens to make bear sounds and cast silhouettes against the walls.[/spoil] I was absolutely in hysterics throughout that entire sequence!
  • Different ‘feel’ from other Pixar films. I guess it’s kind of hard to rank Brave as it’s really completely different from the regular films that Pixar do. It was extremely refreshing to see them go back to new characters and settings after the last 2 years of sequels, as well!
  • La Luna. The animated short shown in front of the film is extremely charming and would be one of my favourite short film’s they’ve done so far.
  • The soundtrack. There were 2 or 3 actual songs, the rest was just score music. The songs aren’t all that memorable, but they do sound beautiful. The score, on the other hand, is brilliant. It really added to the overall feel of the film.
  • Brenda Chapman was credited. I know it sounds kind of silly, but I was actually very relieved when the end credits started rolling and Chapman’s name was first and foremost at the beginning. I was sort of worried that her falling out with the film would result in her not getting credited for it, but thank goodness I was wrong.

There was one main thing that kind of bugged me though…

  • The witch. She didn’t play as prominent role as I thought she would have, and it was kind of hard to tell whether she was supposed to be viewed as a villain or just as a plot element. On one hand, [spoil]she keeps turning people into bears[/spoil], but on the other [spoil]she gave them the help they needed to break the spell.[/spoil The scene where Merida and her mother re-visit her [spoil]seemed very Dreamworks-ish, with the ‘for such and such information, pour the first vial into the cauldron’ sort of answering machine parody.[/spoil]

Overall it’s a very charming, different movie. There are, of course, some cliches that pop up here and there, but that’s kind of hard to avoid when you’re doing a fairy tale-type story. I’ll definitely be going back to see it again on Monday or Tuesday, and maybe even again at the end of next week! 8D

#13

I’m hoping that the story doesn’t seem too much of a mess with the change of directors.

#14

Will I like it if I’ve loved every other Pixar film?

#15

If anything, the story’s quite simple. [spoil]Elanor wants to marry Merida off, Merida wants her freedom, Elanor wants her to act like a princess, Merida cuts an elaborate tapestry of Elanor’s in anger, Elanor throws Merida’s bow into the fire, Merida goes to witch, asks for potion to ‘change’ her mother, Elanor drinks potion, turns into bear, Merida and Elanor go back to witch, witch tells them they have to ‘mend the bond’ broken between them, Merida takes it literally and stitches the tapestry back together, big bear-hunt that ends in the centre of the Stone Henge thing in all of the promotional pictures, side-plot with the demon bear culminates in him getting crushed, Merida apologises to Elanor and tells her she loves her, Elanor turns back into a human.[/spoil]

Like I said above, it feels a little different to other Pixar films. There’s definitely a Disney-esque influence in the story, either because of Brenda Chapman’s previous influence on the Disney Renaissance films or because Brave is the first original Pixar film that started development after Disney purchased Pixar back in 2006.

Either way, it’s like a combination of the best features of both studios. There’s the ‘Disney magic’ element mixed in with Pixar’s animation and storytelling.

#16

I should then, based on your reply.

#17

So Brave is currently has a 64% rating on rottentomatoes. I don’t mind a reviewer talking about Brave having a story that’s not breaking any new ground. Like i said before, Pixar didn’t it to themselves by saving how different they are. But I hope this movie doesn’t end up with a rotten percentage because it’s Pixar. If Tangled and The Princess and the Frog can get solid reviews, i think this movie should to. To me it shouldn’t matter if those movies are like classic Disney.

#18

I’m thinking the critics are being a bit too harsh since Pixar has raised their reputation high over the years, people come to expect A+ films from them every year. They can’t do that.

#19

I say that everything in the movie is up to Pixar standards except for the originality factor. I don’t think an unoriginal but well-executed film deserves a negative review, in my opinion.

#20

Yep. It just astounds me that some people would turn on Pixar after one film ended their streak. The critics tend to suffer from that mindset. I hate how they act as if the first 11 films are some sort of benchmark that it must live up to. What made all those 11 films great was that they were all different. Nemo doesn’t have to be a Toy Story and Incredibles doesn’t have to be Up. Brave seems like a different approach on storytelling, and should be judge on its own merits, like the other Pixar films.