MOVIE REVIEW: Brave

Film: Brave
Directed by: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell

There are a few things certain in my life. I’ll always love pop punk music, I’ll always wish I was Indiana Jones, and I will always, almost to an obsessive point, love Pixar films. It’s a well-known fact that Pixar can put out almost any movie and I (read: almost everyone) will not just enjoy it, but I will revel in it. There are two exceptions to this rule (in my opinion) – The Cars series is generally  boring (in comparison to all other Pixar films).

When I saw that advance screening passes were out for Brave I immediately jumped at the opportunity, but I felt something different than I felt before going into a Pixar movie: I was nervous. Yes, nervous. I’m not totally sure what it was, maybe it was the animation that looked a little different than the most recent Pixar films, or maybe it was that the trailer didn’t get me overwhelmingly excited like their other projects, but I was uneasy. I didn’t want to be let down, but I knew that I had to go and make a judgment for myself. As I write this review now I still don’t understand why I ever doubted Pixar, because Brave is Pixar at their finest.

For those who are unfamiliar, Brave is the story of a young princess who is unsatisfied with the predetermined life she has been given by her parents. I know what you’re thinking, “that sounds a hell of a lot like a 90’s Disney movie.” And guess what? You’re right. It sounds exactly like an old Disney film, and that’s not something to be ashamed about. Seriously look back at those movies and tell me an animation studio that holds a candle to golden era Disney. None. Brave takes the storytelling of this fantastic time in animation and updates it with that Pixar flair that we have all grown to love. Visually, this film is absolutely gorgeous. The landscapes were rendered flawlessly, to a point where during some sweeping shots you forget you’re watching something made on a computer. The character models were incredibly detailed (I couldn’t help but continually stare at Merida’s hair), but still well within the realm of other Pixar creations.

For some, especially young girls I imagine, this movie will be the starting point for a new generation of “Disney princess” tales. Many girls who grew up in the 90’s will say that they love the Disney princess films, and with good reason. Those movies are absolutely breathtaking, and Brave captures that same wonder. However the thing that makes this film unique is that the female lead, Merida, is stronger and more independent than other princesses (there is an argument to be made that Mulan may be stronger, but that’s another discussion for another day). In a society where strong female role models in pop culture can sometimes be few and far between, Merida is the kind of character that girls can look up to as someone who takes control of her life and deals with the consequences of her actions without asking for a male to fix it for her. If you really look hard at old Disney films, a lot of the women are portrayed as kind of helpless beings who, through the love of a (generally masculine) male, gets through her problems (Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Snow White). This movie will stand up with iconic Disney films because while sticking to the storytelling formula that Disney capitalized on, Brave contains stronger characters that will hold up in a society that more and more each day values strong females.

While the story is still relatively basic, it’s the characters you really grow to love and that’s what I think sets Brave  apart from other animated films these days. Pixar creates stories and characters, while other studios create animated films.

Written by: Tyler Osborne (Twitter)

Tyler Osborne
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