I m wondering where the pixar exactly was inspired about this story of Brave- I only know the surroundings is like from north Great Britain- Old Scottish lands, right? What about culture in the movie? Are they gaelic?
I am asking because I try to find information in which period the story is used to. I would like to know more about it. especially I want to know if I am right- they are gaelic? For reason to know their native language and alphabet- are they used this one?
Brave is roughly set in the 10th century, but it really isn’t a documentary. It makes enormous anachronisms. It seems Brave is a mash-up of everything you would find in Scotland that sounds ancient… This is best shown during the suitors presentation scene, where Young MacGuffin is said to have battled against something like Vikings, while Young Dingwall is claimed to have battled against Romans… There is a large time space between the invasion raids of these two nations…
I am far from being an expert in culture, and I don’t know much on the research Pixar did for Brave… But it appears they looked at the Celt, Gaelic and Pict cultures, and elements of all three appear at the same time throughout the film. For example, Macintosh’s blue paintings come from a Pictish tradition. Other example: I think the witch’s automated message mentions its message can be repeated in Gaelic.
For what kind of alphabet they use, I don’t know. It might be possible to see some text somewhere, but I will have to look… The only I remember is A113 that appears in Roman numerals (as ACXIII).
Hey. Thank you very much for a such useful respond. Dot joking man. Its seems you ve got pretty much information about historic, cultures etc which is used in the movie. At least much more then me.
If you can look to it more closer i will be so grateful I find out in it myself- I like to culture which was used in this movie but I need it to 100% prove. For my purpose- for my project where I would like to use GAELIC LANGUAGE and ALPHABET. But the requirement is if it is was used in the movie, was it?
Or better say- you said the macintosh s are probably pictish. I am interested in Merida s family- what culture it is? the king fergus and his kingdom? That is what I would like to use… what kind of culture? probably?
What we know for sure is the Scottish highlands, and around the 11th century. (Some perspectives to this is the other recent Middle Ages Celtic story of late, Secret of Kells, is circa the 9th century).
However, artistic license was taken. For example, Kilts weren’t used in this time period in Scotland. The Picts, well known for their blue tattoo marks, were bygone by this time. One Lord mentions that his son defeats an armada of Romans. He was obviously fibbing, but probably wouldn’t be on Highland Scots at the time, as the Romans had little influence there.
A note on “Gaelic and Celtic” cultures. Most of the time, Gaelic isn’t referred to as a culture, but as a language. Celtic is a culture, and needs more specification. At one time, The Celts not only inhabited Scotland, but virtually all of Europe, save the Mediterranean area. Now, We consider only parts of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, and sometimes Wales to be Celtic.