TotalFilm Magazine Article and Interview on "Brave"

[Nausicaa]

I picked up the November 2011 issue of Total Film today, and none other than Princess Merida was on the cover! (along with stills from 7 other movies). The magazine did a piece on the "10 Coolest Movies" coming out over the next year, and Brave was included.

The article on Brave is pretty short, but as far as I can tell it hasn't been posted online, so I thought I'd better repost some of the info for those of you who can't get the magazine. I'm not retyping it in full because that would take too long and it might get put up on their site anyway once the next issue is out. The information below is taken from an interview with Production Designer Steve Pilcher and Art Director Tia Kratter-

Spoiler: show

- When designing the castle, their mindset was "This is a fairytale but we're thinking in a serious way. We want you to buy into this world with all the power that it brings with it... We want you to believe in every detail."

- They said that "Our film takes place in Scotland with real people, but it does have an element of fantasy. I think the only film that rivals what we're doing is Avatar, in terms of its lushness and epicness."

- The film is set in the "10th Century, so colours were more naturally dyed then. [Tia's] job was to keep those colours down and make them rich and subtle"

- Talking about the clawed foot in the foreground of the still of Merida crouched down with her bow and arrow- "Mordu is the demon bear. He's like Moby Dick on land. You might say he's a loner"

*spoiler marks for those who don't want to learn about the film ahead of release. There's some plot-related stuff in there*

Thoughts? By the way, no new images were released with the article.

[definedancing]

I bought that issue but thanks for posting anyway!
Mordu is a loner? So Merida will try and befriend him, right?

[Snipe]

I love that part about Brave being outmatched only by Avatar in lushness and beauty... I'm seriously looking forward to the visuals of this movie, if nothing else.

[Spirit of Adventure]

I hope the similarities with Avatar doesn't include a weak script.

[Pixarfan91]

Me too, I'm hoping that this will be one of their best, as of noew, I see it hoing in my top 5 list.

[ellie-jessie-eve]

Thanks for sharing this with us! I like what they mentioned about the use of dyed colors, really paying attention to details of the time period, that's great.

[thedriveintheatre]

Ooh... visuals on parr with Avatar? That's a very bold claim - hopefully they can live up to it!

[IncredigirlVirginia]

Ooh... visuals on parr with Avatar? That's a very bold claim - hopefully they can live up to it!

True. I am a bona fide Pixar fanatic--but I certainly can't think of a Pixar film that beautiful.

[Spirit of Adventure]

I, on the contrary, think that most Pixar films have looked as good or better than Avatar, and Brave doesn't seems like an exception.

[Leirin]

Glad to see they're aiming high! I can't wait for this movie. Just picturing the sheer scope of the settings is blowing my mind...

[ellie-jessie-eve]

I, on the contrary, think that most Pixar films have looked as good or better than Avatar, and Brave doesn't seems like an exception.

I approve of this statement.

[Leirin]

I think Avatar is genuinely beautiful, because the look of the settings and characters was a wholly new creation (IMO at least), but I do think several Pixar films, especially recent ones, are pretty equal in beauty. I've always been astounded by the color palette of Up and the clever use of symbolic lighting. I'm sure Brave will do something similarly creative.

[IncredigirlVirginia]

I suppose I agree with what Leirin said. I'm just so amazed by Avatar's visuals that I don't see how to compare Pixar films to it, as they have a more conventional look, even if their plots are much less conventional than Avatar's.

[Spirit of Adventure]

I don't think there's a single Pixar film with a conventional look. I actually think that's the area where they NEVER fail to excel. I think they've created the most visually stunning worlds possible.

Avatar looks kind of pretty, yes, but there are some of the designs (specially the animals) that I think aren't very good, and that detracts a lot from the whole experience.

Also, looking through past works (specially video games), you can see that a lot of the Avatar designs are previously existing, if they maybe just combined all in a successful way.