Review: Brave (2012)

Tagline: "Change Your Fate."

Release date: June 22nd 2012 (USA), 13th August 2012 (UK)

Running time: 1 hour, 40 mins

Rating: PG
Directed by: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman and Steve Purcell
Written by: Brenda Chapman (story), Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell and Irene Mecchi
Stars: Kelly MacDonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters
Synopsis: Determined to make her own path in life, Princess Merida defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, Merida must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse.
Average rotten tomato rating: 6.9/10
Average IMDB rating: 7.6/10
My rating: ★★ ★ ☆ ☆

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
❝ Fate be changed, look inside. Mend the bond torn by pride. ❞

I don't know about anyone else, but when I think of Pixar, I always think of it as a more daring form of a classic Disney tale. Pixar's films have always maintained a sense of freedom and independence from the classic Disney brand. So far they have not disappointed and I had high hopes upon hearing they were to introduce a film about a new princess. Pixar's first princess, in fact. My delight soon turned into disappointment however, about half way through my viewing of Brave.

That being said, the film wasn't all bad: if anything, this was probably Pixar's finest feature length cinematography work to date. The visuals were breathtaking and the vibrancy of the piece was astounding. Coupled with some fine voice acting and a beautifully created score, Brave does it's job spectacularly well by inviting the audience into it's mythical world almost immediately. As much as I didn't like the way the film's narrative was carried out, I still teared up in an emotional scene from the past that Merida remembers. I also enjoyed the subtle references to other Disney classics and even the reference to Hayao Miyazaki film, Princess Mononoke (1997) which was a huge part of the story itself. (See if you can spot what that was, Miyazaki fans!) Merida as a character herself was wonderful. She was someone who lived life as an adventure everyday, treating herself as her own knight in shining armour in the face of danger; which is very reminiscent of Mulan (1998). Perhaps not original, but nonetheless, still admirable.

So then, what happened to make me feel so underwhelmed by the end of it? The premise of the film was nothing short of brilliant and brimming with potential but the execution of the story was poor by Pixar standards. I blame that on the script itself. It felt incredibly awkward and so fast paced that there was no time to let anything sink in. Soon, Merida and other characters just began stating the obvious to move on with the narrative. With scenes unusually similar to that of old Disney princess classics, (a scene in which Merida and her mother argue reminded me far too much of when Mulan (1998) was told to learn her place by her father) Pixar struggled to put their own mark on the script and became lost in the search for acceptance of Merida as a Disney princess. It's as if her lack of wanting to be like the other princesses was such an insult, they felt the need to compromise at the end of the film to apologise for trying to be different. Pixar films usually spend time focusing on the side characters and antagonist's backstories, reminding us that each character matters to the development of the plot and exhibits their own complications as these characters, however Brave only focused on Merida and Queen Elinor's mother-daughter relationship. The side character's development became forced and so quick paced, I wasn't really sure how to feel about any of them.

Brave is a good first attempt for Pixar at introducing a fresh princess on the scene. Merida is still a wonderful addition to the Disney franchise as a person herself. Regardless of how much screen time was given to Merida and Queen Elinor's mother-daughter relationship, it was still an issue dealt with in a beautiful manner. However the structure of the narrative seemed to suffer as a result, and the film didn't boast any of that usual Pixar magic (with the exception of the visuals) as a whole. "Change Your Fate" is the tagline for this film but whilst Merida seemed to pave her own path and create her own destiny, she still accepted the conventional princess story as a part of her future. It's not so much a message of "Change Your Fate", but more "Compromise Your Fate".