Brave (2012)


With the latest Pixar film opening this Friday, today kicks off a week of Pixar.  And since yesterday's movie featured Disney's feisty redheaded princess, today's movie, Brave, features Pixar's feisty redheaded princess.

The Movie:

 Brave is the 13th Pixar animated film, the first Pixar film with a female protagonist, and the first to have a female director.  (That director was Brenda Chapman, who was somewhat controversially replaced during the making of the film, although she was still credited as a director as well as given the story credit.)  For the most part the movie was well-received critically, though Pixar fans tend to rank it among the lesser of the Pixar films.  Brave did receive the Oscar for Best Animated Film in what many believed to be an upset over Wreck-It Ralph.

The protagonist of Brave is the Merida, a Scottish princess of the highland clan Dunbroch.  Merida is very free-spirited and would rather be exploring and practicing archery than listening to her mother's lessons on how to be a proper princess.  When her parents host a festival with the other clans of the kingdom to find a suitor to marry her, Merida takes action to try to "change her fate."

I personally enjoy Brave a lot, probably a lot more than many Disney/Pixar fans.  In fact, I have enjoyed the movie more each time I watch it.  The biggest weakness of the film is that the tone is a times pretty uneven, especially when it focuses on the more comedic elements, and perhaps that unevenness is a result of having a director change.  But overall I find the story to be well done.  The animation is some of the best ever done on computer, not only for Pixar, but for anyone.  The amazingness that is Merida's hair deserves its own special mention.  Perhaps the movie resonates with me a bit more being someone who both is descended from Scottish ancestors and has crazy curly hair.

The score to Brave is appropriately very Scottish, filled with plenty of traditional Scottish instruments like bagpipes and penny whistle.  It was composed by Scottish film composer Patrick Doyle, who is best known for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire along with working on many of Kenneth Branagh's movies (including the Marvel film Thor and Disney's live-action Cinderella.)  Of the original songs in the movie, the stand out one is "Touch the Sky," which plays with Merida's horseback archery and climbing scene.  (Apparently this song became popular enough in Scotland that it wound up on the music rotation of a tour bus driver of a highlands tour I took a couple of years back.)

Presence in the Parks:

Being named an official Disney Princess, Merida naturally is a meetable character at the Magic Kingdom.  Her meeting area is located on the edge of Fantasyland near the junction with Tomorrowland, around the corner from the Tea Cups.  This spot is by the end of one of my favorite Magic Kingdom shortcuts, the small path that takes you up to the back side of the castle from the edge of Tomorrowland.

Merida and other characters from Brave have a float in the current Magic Kingdom parade, Festival of Fantasy.

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