This film has a lot of firsts. Brave is the first Pixar movie to have a female protagonist, to be a period piece and to be included in the Disney Princess line. And it is all good. Princess Merida with her fiery red hair that springs in waves of unruly tangles is a spirited protagonist one immediately warms up to. While she shares some of the Disney Princess DNA, she is not cloyingly twee so that’s cool as well. And setting the tale in ancient Scotland means an utterly brilliantly realised landscape and that lovely Scottish burr that is addictive music to the ears.
The movie tells the story of Princess Merida who stays with her parents Queen Elinor and King Fergus. While Elinor is trying to bring up Merida as a lady, her efforts are thwarted as Merida’s inclinations are towards riding, shooting and climbing the highest cliffs.
Matters come to a head when three Scottish lords MacGuffin (Har har), Macintosh and Dingwall come with their sons to fight for the princess’s hand—a Scottish swayamwar no less. Merida will have none of it, has a terrible fight with her mother and runs away.
She meets a witch in a cottage by the woods and makes a deal with her not knowing the terrible price she will have to pay. After a whole lot of absolutely thrilling running and shooting, bears and bows, it all comes right in the end with a few life lessons thrown in for good measure.
Everything about the movie worked from the animation and the voice cast to the humour and the absolutely adorable red headed triplets. The short feature in the beginning of the film, La Luna, directed by Enrico Casarosa was nothing short of magical and an added bonus.
BRAVE
Genre: Fantasy/adventure
Director: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell
Voice Cast: Kelly Macdonald, Julie Walters, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, John Ratzenberger
Story: Princess Merida brings a curse upon the land and has to use all her ingenuity to save the day
Bottomline: A fiery feisty heroine, a hair-raising adventure and a heart-warming fairy tale
