Pixar has been so money for so long that these last two pics (Cars 2 & Brave) have felt like huge let downs regardless of merit. Pixar films have suddenly gone from iconic to enjoyably forgettable. Do we need an intervention here? Who do you invite to the Pixar intervention? Bare minimum – John Lasseter and John Ratzenberger.
Brave is Pixar’s answer to Tangled – ambitious, sheltered tomboy with CRAZY hair yearns to make her own mark at the expense of a mother who has other, more docile, plans. Did I get that right? And if our young redheaded heroine Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) doesn’t remind you of Rapunzel, her mother and father combined are the spitting image of Hiccup’s larger-than-life parent in How to Train Your Dragon. In fact, I feel terribly let down that so much 
of Brave feels like it’s been done before. At least the setting is a little different, I suppose. But even at that, how is semi-medieval Scotland any different, really, from the Norse islands of where Dragons get Trained?
You know what’s truly different here? The hair. Merida’s wild, enigmatic and superlative reddish mane is easily as intricate as Medusa’s snakes or anything dreamed up by Salvador Dali. I swear for over 80% of the film, I was simply asking, “who animates her hair?” It is simply fabulous.
Merida’s Kingly father (Billy Connolly) is enormous in both stature and personality. Merida’s conflict, however, is mom, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) who has patience for her shenanigans and bullheadedness like tapestries have patience for moths. An elongated suitor tournament turns ugly and Merida gets a sign from Will o’ the Wisps to score a life-changing potion. It turns mom into a bear. Well of course it does. (Will o’ the Wisps, dudes? What are you doin’ here? How does this help change fate?) Mom doesn’t realize she’s a bear for a bit. When she does, she’s the most civil, decorous giant woodland mammal you’ve ever met. This is what Pixar does better than anybody – takes the fantastical, normalizes it, and plays with the parameters. The best scenes in Brave were Merida bridging the communication gap with her mother, the bear. And we as an audience see that incapable as the bear Queen is of speaking English, the communication between the two is suddenly far better than ever before. Lesson learned.
But that’s where the lessons stopped. The title and conclusions to Brave are almost suspiciously weak — as if a better movie had been drawn up and then dashed in favor of the big bear tale. And suddenly, the bear-suited Pixar is on something of a short leash. C’mon, Monsters University, show me the money.
Ursine Queen mother/It’s easy to see
Is that her fury/or just the furry?
The chick with the locks/must pilot the way
But lose that pride, girl/or you’ll rue the day
Ooo-o-o we got bears in da house
Ooo-o-o we got bears in da house
Rated PG, 93 Minutes
D: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell
W: Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman & Irene Mecchi
Genre: Modern female empowerment
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Athletic girls
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Hunters
