Brave is another one of those movies we missed while I was recovering from surgery this summer. It’s the story of a feisty princess called Merida who is skilled with a bow and arrow. The King and Queen decide it’s time to marry Merida off to one of the local princes so they invite three clans to an archery contest. Two of the princes are inept, but the third hits the bulls-eye. Then Merida enters the competition. You can probably guess what happens. But what you won’t guess is Merida going to a witch to get a spell to change her Fate. I didn’t see that coming. And, with all magic spells, there are unexpected consequences. Brave is a little too complicated and a little too dark for its target audience. Pixar considers Brave an under-performer. But I found it surprising and subtle. You will too. GRADE: B+
Yes, you are brave.
I may be brave, but I’m also forgetful, Patti. I had that BRAVE posting as a place holder for my eventual review of the PIXAR film we missed while I was in rehab. I’ll have the review up in a few days.
Ah! Always a risk to pitch animated movies toward girls. They will see boy movies but not vice-versa. My grandson was not a fan. We couldn’t get him to see it again with us so we missed it.
BRAVE isn’t a girly movie, Patti. Plenty of faux-scary stuff for the boys. Some funny stuff, too. But the plot would confuse most kids under 10.
George – Brave lacked the ‘heart’ of the better Pixar movies. I would rate it a B-. Better than Cars II, though.
Patti – most Disney animated movies are aimed at girls – from The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast to Tangled. When they tried one aimed at boys (Treasure Planet) it bombed. Most Pixar movies were aimed at everybody – girls, boys, adults. That is why they were so successful. Since Pixar and Disney merged, they seem to have lost their way. Cars and especially Cars II were aimed at boys and did not do as well in the box office or with the critics. Wall-E was sexless and did better.
Now if they could just get Disney to stop having their characters say “This is all my fault . . .” in every movie.
Nice analysis, Stan! Disney and Pixar had great success. The split mystifies me. Pixar needs to do better marketing. The B+ might reflect my weakness for feisty redheads.
Anything is better than CARS II. I wasn’t even that taken with the first one. I will see this eventually. Nothing Pixar has done can top the first five minutes of UP for me.
Pixar had me in tears minutes into UP, Jeff. That’s great story-telling!
I often take my 7-year-old nieces tot he movies and they definitely like Pixar the best – I am actually really lookign forward to watching this one with them though I’m now wondering if they may be a little young for it …
Your 7-year-old nieces should be able to follow the storyline, Sergio. But you might have to explain some of the plot points after the movie.