Brave Review.

What can be said about Pixar that hasn’t been said already? They've become one of the most beloved film companies in the world and have made some of the best movies of all time animated or otherwise.

However...they have had their screw-ups like any good company.

In 2011 they released a sequel to their 2006 movie Cars. Cars 2 would go on to be their worst-reviewed film and generally considered one of the worst animated films ever.

So Brave which came out the following year had the really difficult task in restoring faith in the company...they did not succeed to put it lightly.

Look guys I’m gonna be honest here….I think Cars 2 is better than Brave. There I said it. And maybe I”m just biased because I actually do like the Cars movies but Brave just seems like the overall weaker product. I’m sure this is down to the extremely troubled production it had. From what I’ve heard the film went through multiple different drafts and two different directors and several scenes that were almost completed got cut. And frankly, it really shows in the final product…

I think my big issue with Brave is...well...there’s no real plot. It’s just a series of events tied together by the central premise.

What is the premise exactly? Well, the premise is that Merida is a young Princess from Scotland who feels like she’s being suffocated by her mother Queen Elinor who has some very specific ideas on how a Princess should act. Merida just wants freedom and to make her own choices in life. The story kicks off when in what’s supposed to be a contest to decide who gets Merida’s hand in marriage Merida enters said contest basically saying “If I win I get to choose”...and she does. Mother and daughter get into a fight, and Merida wanders off into the woods where she finds a witch. For some reason, Merida thinks it’s a good idea to get the witch to help her with her mommy issues and asks for something to “Change Her mom”

Predictably this goes horribly wrong when the Witch’s “solution” turns Elinor into a Bear. Hijinks ensue.

One of my problems with the premise is that...well...Merida kinda walked right into something like this happening. She asks for a spell under the vaguest terms possible. She just said she “Wanted something to change her mom” without actually specifying what needed to change about her. She was basically ASKING for something to go wrong!

I wasn’t really around when the Marketing for the movie was going on but I’ve read that apparently NOTHING indicated that the movie was gonna be about this. They went so far as to hide the plot about Elinor turning into a bear they changed the original title of the movie “The Bear and the Bow”(Although even that title has issues because Merida being an archer is nowhere near as prominent as the marketing makes you think). If I had to guess why this happened maybe the marketing department thought that a movie about a mother and her daughter trying to resolve their differences after the former is turned into an animal wasn’t a big enough hook. I thought maybe going into it knowing about the twist would allow me to appreciate it more...and in some ways it did and in other ways, it didn’t.

There’s also another problem in that Merida keeps saying she needs to “Change her fate” with that being the tagline of the film even...except...it’s not really applicable here. Like Duckyworth pointed out in his review Merida doesn’t really fight to change her fate so much as try to change her mother. In fact, Merida doesn’t really LEARN anything in this movie… it tries to play it off as both mother and daughter having valid points, and both need to understand and compromise...but in the end, Merida doesn’t really change all that much from the beginning to end. (Although to be fair. She does admit she was wrong and this is all her fault at the end and apologies)

I’m not even sure why the movie is even called “Brave” because Merida doesn’t really do anything particularly brave in this film.

Other stuff bugged me too. Like the fact, the closest thing the film has to a main villain Mor’du is super underdeveloped despite the fascinating backstory he has. The movie tries to play him off as Merida’s foil but he only shows up in 3 scenes so there’s not really much impact, Merida’s triplet brothers turning into bears after they get exposed to the curse is played off as a joke and not given the amount of seriousness as Elinor’s situation, and how rushed everything feels.

I’m honestly baffled that Cars 2 is considered Pixar’s weakest output when this movie exists. Cars 2 is stupid and silly but at least it knows it’s stupid and silly. It’s got problems sure but it’s just trying to be a fun ride.

Brave on the other hand is just so...barebones, dull and underdeveloped I’m not sure how to feel about it...I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a bad movie by any stretch. The animation is fantastic and gorgeous to look at, the characters are enjoyable and it’s got some funny jokes.

But as a whole, I honestly think this is Pixar’s worst movie from what I’ve seen. If you like it. Fine. I’m glad you got something out of it. But for me? This is the most disappointing movie I've seen yet.