Brave

Disney’s newest princess movie features Merida, a skilled Scottish archer with fiery red hair. This movie focuses on the relationship between her and her mother, the Queen of one of the four clans. Her mother has expectations for her to become a proper princess for marriage, yet Merida, being the teenage and rebellious daughter, must refuse to do absolutely everything. Instead, she wants to follow the footsteps of her father and be the wild, adventurous, woods roaming huntsman, as her hair suggests.

This movie is everything you’d expect from Disney/Pixar. All the characters are funny, cute, and well voiced. There’s something about the Scottish accent that gives so much charm. But it feels short. The background story is explained briefly and doesn’t carry as much power as I’d liked. Particularly, the witch involved in the story is pretty much the foundation for the entire plot, yet appears only in one scene near the beginning. The main antagonist is a very angry, ancient bear. Otherwise, there is absolutely nothing bad to say about the movie. The three brothers have some sort of magical power that makes my girlfriend laugh. All they need to do is show up on the screen and she’s giggling up a tornado. My favorite character is Maudie, the bumbling and stuttering chubby maid. The Will-o’-the-wisps remind me of video game scenes where indicators are shown to guide you to where your next objective is; in this movie they are good entities that “lead you to your fate” instead of the annoying creatures like in Oblivion and the myths.

This is an excellent movie. Never having felt the pressures of a princess, I could not relate to the main theme of mother-daughter relationships, but the story does play out nicely. For kids, this is another great must-watch movie, but for older folks expecting that Disney/Pixar perfection might be a little disappointed in how short it is.

Rating: 5/5