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We'd waited to see Brave Until Megen and Loni came down to visit this weekend, which meant that I'd already heard the reactions of several friends to the film. I'll admit that this was a film I'd wanted to see since I saw the trailers months ago: beautiful animation, and what appeared to be a plucky young woman who knew her own mind.
But… from what I'd read of the various reviews, I was expecting to be disappointed by the storyline. As a result, I went in with rather low expectations. In the end, though, I wasn't as disappointed in the film as I'd expected to be. It was better than I'd been led to expect.
********* spoiler alerts -- stop reading now if you don't want details *********************
********** No, really. Stop now ********************************
"Better than I was led to expect" doesn't mean that I was thrilled with the film. I wasn't -- but mostly because it wasn't the film I wanted Pixar/Disney to make, which isn't exactly fair, I suppose. The animation, yes, was breathtaking -- though I can't speak to the 3D version, as we chose to see it in 2D since both Denise and I have been disappointed with the darkness and muddiness of 3D movies in general; hardly worth the extra $$$, in my estimation. But we have the story of Merida, a young princess who is more adventurous and not interested in the 'princess' skills her mother is trying to teach her. She's a skilled archer, a wild rider who enjoys fleeing the castle and being out in the wild exploring. However, King Fergus and Queen Elinor, her parents, wish her to be betrothed to the son of one of the major clans in the kingdom in order to preserve peace. Yeah, yeah, it's a rather standard set-up, but there were all sorts of possible ways to go that would have been far more interesting to me…
My problem with the film's storyline is that it's written to the grade-school crowd's level, whereas Merida appears to be and acts 14-ish. We don't actually know how old Merida is, which I'm sure is so Disney/Pixar could say "No, her parents aren't trying to marry her off at 14; she's 18…" to possible objections from the conservative values crowd. But… I wanted the sophistication of the story to be at least at Merida's age level: a YA script, not a script for the grade school kids. Instead, the movie was aimed for kids who matched the age of Merida's much younger, trouble-making triplet brothers, whose job was to provide slapstick comic relief.
There was no sophistication to the plot. There were no layers. There wasn't (as Pixar has done before) an attempt to give the adults inferences that the kids wouldn't catch. The violence is cartoon violence: no one ever gets genuinely hurt onscreen or bleeds, arrows and weapons generally miss their targets if the target is alive, and everything is sanitized. There's no genuine darkness lurking behind the scenes in this world; there's no sense of adult duties and concerns (even if Merida wouldn't yet understand them). The resolution is far too easy -- and, very strangely, doesn't center on Merida's archery skills, of which so much is made at the opening of the picture. Chekhov's rifle has a big spotlight on it, the characters take it down and hold it, but it never gets fired.
Brave is a kids' movie -- which, by the way, showed in that the audience was largely parents with grade school (and even younger) children, even on Saturday night. That's fine; there's nothing wrong with kids' movies; it just could have been much more than 'just' a kids' movie, and it wasn't. If written to a YA audience, it could have taken the trope of the ambitious young girl rebelling against parental ties and given us a film with true heart, depth, and sophistication. I wanted a movie that had more ambition than this, and I didn't get it. I didn't hate Brave; I just didn't love it.
But… from what I'd read of the various reviews, I was expecting to be disappointed by the storyline. As a result, I went in with rather low expectations. In the end, though, I wasn't as disappointed in the film as I'd expected to be. It was better than I'd been led to expect.
********* spoiler alerts -- stop reading now if you don't want details *********************
********** No, really. Stop now ********************************
"Better than I was led to expect" doesn't mean that I was thrilled with the film. I wasn't -- but mostly because it wasn't the film I wanted Pixar/Disney to make, which isn't exactly fair, I suppose. The animation, yes, was breathtaking -- though I can't speak to the 3D version, as we chose to see it in 2D since both Denise and I have been disappointed with the darkness and muddiness of 3D movies in general; hardly worth the extra $$$, in my estimation. But we have the story of Merida, a young princess who is more adventurous and not interested in the 'princess' skills her mother is trying to teach her. She's a skilled archer, a wild rider who enjoys fleeing the castle and being out in the wild exploring. However, King Fergus and Queen Elinor, her parents, wish her to be betrothed to the son of one of the major clans in the kingdom in order to preserve peace. Yeah, yeah, it's a rather standard set-up, but there were all sorts of possible ways to go that would have been far more interesting to me…
My problem with the film's storyline is that it's written to the grade-school crowd's level, whereas Merida appears to be and acts 14-ish. We don't actually know how old Merida is, which I'm sure is so Disney/Pixar could say "No, her parents aren't trying to marry her off at 14; she's 18…" to possible objections from the conservative values crowd. But… I wanted the sophistication of the story to be at least at Merida's age level: a YA script, not a script for the grade school kids. Instead, the movie was aimed for kids who matched the age of Merida's much younger, trouble-making triplet brothers, whose job was to provide slapstick comic relief.
There was no sophistication to the plot. There were no layers. There wasn't (as Pixar has done before) an attempt to give the adults inferences that the kids wouldn't catch. The violence is cartoon violence: no one ever gets genuinely hurt onscreen or bleeds, arrows and weapons generally miss their targets if the target is alive, and everything is sanitized. There's no genuine darkness lurking behind the scenes in this world; there's no sense of adult duties and concerns (even if Merida wouldn't yet understand them). The resolution is far too easy -- and, very strangely, doesn't center on Merida's archery skills, of which so much is made at the opening of the picture. Chekhov's rifle has a big spotlight on it, the characters take it down and hold it, but it never gets fired.
Brave is a kids' movie -- which, by the way, showed in that the audience was largely parents with grade school (and even younger) children, even on Saturday night. That's fine; there's nothing wrong with kids' movies; it just could have been much more than 'just' a kids' movie, and it wasn't. If written to a YA audience, it could have taken the trope of the ambitious young girl rebelling against parental ties and given us a film with true heart, depth, and sophistication. I wanted a movie that had more ambition than this, and I didn't get it. I didn't hate Brave; I just didn't love it.
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A lot of stuff just didn't make sense -- but it was stuff that, in my opinion, wouldn't particularly bother a kid (or a non-critical adult).