Did anybody like how [spoil]Merida doesn’t fall in love with any of the lords’ sons?[/spoil] I liked that since it breaks away from a tired cliche done in almost every Disney or Pixar film.
Yes I agree. None of the sons were good enough for her.
I thought it was great! The toilet humour was not to my liking, but most other things were great I thought. It’s an improvement over Cars 2. I think The Witch is a great character and would’ve liked to see more of her. I give it an 8/10.
I think that was a good decision.
Toilet humour? God, I mostly hate toilet humour. It’s just immature and unfunny.
I dislike it intensely too^^.
I will admit that the humor felt a bit childish but at least they used it effectively.
I saw it last night with my parents and grandma. I thought it was good and I definitely look forward to seeing it again (and desire to have my own art book). However, I felt the film was not as strong as the traditional Pixar lineup, imo.
I saw it two days ago I thought it was pretty good. It’s a huge step up from Cars 2 but at the same time I thought it wasn’t as powerful as previous Pixar films. And to be honest, I really got reminded of brother bear when I watched this movie and I thought some of the jokes were a bit childish ([spoil]and that one scene where all the men’s butts were showing reall made me want to facepalm. Come on Pixar, I don’t even think Dreamworks would do something like that to get a laugh!)[/spoil]. But despite my issues with the film I still managed to be entertained by it.
Same.
I don’t think it’s that bad per say but it feels a bit childish.
There were adults in the theater I was in that laughed at that. The kid’s I can understand but not the adults. It’s a butt, you see your own everyday, it’s not funny…
Did anyone notice how I made the title in old english?
The score is now at 77%. While not exactly typical Pixar standards, it’s not bad. Certainly not low enough to say Pixar is losing their touch. I still have yet to see it. I don’t it’s been released in the UK yet.
And it won’t be released there until Aug. 17th. Well, 77% is a good score for this film, given how flat the ending was compared to most movies.
Brave reminded me more of the Little Mermaid than Brother Bear. [spoil]Like in the scene where Elinor threw Merida’s bow in the fire, reminded me of when Triton destroyed all of Ariel’s human artifacts. Which afterward the eels convince Ariel to see Ursula, who’s also a witch, and gives her kinda of a spell.
Merida ran away, and then the wisps found her, which led her to witch. Also Ariel had three days for her “spell”, and Merida only had until the next morning.[/spoil]
I left a comment on your blog.
Thanks, Milan! I’m glad you liked it. 
So I made my review. I wish I can use clips but I don’t know where to get them.
The setup is pure Disney cliché, but the execution has some Pixar touches. Merida is a main character in the tradition of Woody, in that she had a good heart but makes a bad decision. In her zeal to be who she really is, she has no problem with trying to change who her mom really is. Pointing out that irony gives a new angle to this Princess story.
I liked that it was pretty balanced between the mom and the daughter, with neither being 100% right or 100% wrong.
The rival lords and their sons served their purpose, but they were the weak point for me. Movies with strong, action-oriented heroines often seem to surround them with males who are boorish, inept morons. (Note: all three of Merida’s suitors stink at archery.) Sometimes I wonder if this is a way of saying to the fragile male egos in the audience, “Well, she’s better than these losers, but if a ‘real man’ was there, he’d be better than her…'” (I’m a guy myself, but I wouldn’t have minded seeing Merida beat a skillful male archer).
The part I didn’t really care for (although again, it served its purpose) was the big slapsticky brawl between the clans.
What sold me on liking the movie (besides Merida’s deservedly praised crimson locks) was the bear (and I don’t mean Merdu). Pixar is brilliant at doing pantomime characters. I don’t think I can say much more without spoilers…
[spoiler]Maybe it’s because I love animated animal characters, but I’m surprised to see that many people hate the plot twist. (We just saw a commercial on The Disney Channel which spoiled the twist. Good thing we had already seen it!)
Actually, I worked out the twist before seeing the movie, from seeing the trailer with the three identical boys and three identical cubs, and then a set of stickers with the female bear character, who I guessed to be Elinor. But it was nice to be proven right .
Elinor being a bear who act like Elinor, and then reverting to a bear that acts like a bear, points up who she really is and how devastated Merida would be if she lost her mother. This premise also sets up a lot of emotional dramatic moments - a mother not recognizing her own daughter, a man nearly killing his own wife, etc.
In the plot department, it did remind me of Princess and the Frog, in that they have to go waaaaaaaaaaay out in the wilderness to find out…that they have to go back to where they started.
A lot of people are saying they were disappointed that the witch wasn’t as strong of a villain as Malificent, Syndrome, etc. But I don’t think she was supposed to be a villain. (There was that one trailer that dubbed her over a scene laughing evilly…I don’t think that ever happened in the movie). Who I would compare her to is Edna Mode. Like the witch, Edna appeared halfway through the story, and only in a couple of scenes, but she was way more memorable. Still, I did think that modern reference cauldron gag was really funny, because, with the vials of potion, it seemed concievable to that universe (as opposed to if they had put a number keypad on the side of the cauldron or something).
The three boys/cubs are another nice example of Pixar pantomime, but it was interesting that their transformation (and the idea that they might spend the rest of their lives as “real bears”) didn’t seem to carry nearly the same dramatic concern as their mothers’.[/spoiler]
So yeah, a solid entry to the Pixar canon, but I do hope that Disney lets them do more weird premises like a rat who wants to be gourmet chef or an old man who attaches balloons to his house and flies to South America. I wonder how many of those kinds of films were in development before the official Disney purchase, and how the purchase has changed the way Pixar develops stories
I’ve been trying to think about what I want to say about Brave. I liked it and I agree its better than Cars 2, but not quite up to the level of some of their previous movies. I think there was a pretty good balance between the humor and the darker elements of the story. Fergus and the guys going after the bear all through the castle was funny There seemed to be more adult humor than usual, but maybe that’s just me. The animation was stellar, which probably goes without saying. I like that it was a mother/daughter oriented story rather than father/daughter. I like that she’s a princess who isnt just interested in snagging a guy. I really liked the soundtrack and I’m thinking about getting it.
But on the other hand, the story lacked…something…for me. I’m not really sure what. Based on the trailers I had kinda figured out what was going to happen, I just didnt know how. Maybe it was the fact that it didnt seem as original as it could have been. It really did remind me a lot of Little Mermaid and Brother Bear. I didnt really like Merida at times, because she seemed really selfish, and I know from hearing people’s comments in the theater that I’m not the only one. I guess there was also the fact that she was the one who did that to her mom, however unknowingly.( It was during this part that I heard people commenting on Merida like, “Shame on her” and “She deserves a spanking”) There was some violence in the ending, which could bother some parents, though I didnt have a problem with it.