Marval Movie

During the build up for Brave, it came that time of the year, when I would watch a trailer for an upcoming film and I would get excited beyond belief. I love Pixar, they have constantly dished out one amazing animated film after another and there generous adding of a short in-front of all of their movies shows not just talent. But love.

So while I saw this new Pixar movie and what a different direction they were taking with it I was very excited, it looked as if Pixar were going to go dark and they had never really done that before. They had gotten very mature but had not really gotten into dark material. After having viewed the movie I walked away feeling like this 3D film was a little flat.

The story follows a girl named Merida, a plucky princess who is more interested in her bow and arrow rather than preparing to become a bride for one of her possible suitors. She is played by Kelly MacDonald and when I heard that I just threw my hands in the air and shouted "BRILLIANT!" I am a big fan of her work ever since I first saw her brilliant performance on Boardwalk Empire. She is brilliant in this too, she adds a lot of spirit and character to Merida making her a very likable character. Also the inclusion of her absolutely incredible head of red hair, looking at that in fine detail made me sit back in my seat in awe, its so tangled and alive and serves and a good representation of Meridas wild adventurous spirit.

Another breathtaking aspect to Brave is the land of Scotland itself which is glorious, apparently Pixar rewrote their entire software for this movie and it shows because if nothing else it is gorgeous. They pay attention to each moss on a stone or a carving on a pillar or even the withered decay on an old castles stone. There is such a magnificent sense of atmosphere to the film that the landscape of Scotland virtually qualifies as a character in itself.

The persoalan with the movie is that most of it just seems to go through the motions of the traditional movie formula and doesn't even offer us the switch in perspective that Pixar are famous for. This is not one of their breakthrough movies like Finding Nemo, The Incredible's or Up.

The Director is Mark Andrews who handles his responsibilities with ease but lacks the overall driving enthusiasm to make this project come alive as the other great Pixar movies have.  My theory is that Brenda Chapman (Price of Egypt) who was originally set as the director of Brave (as well as developed the concept) was fired due to "creative differences" I feel that if Brenda Chapman (who I consider a very fine Director) would have stayed the project would have probably turned out for the best and not fallen into predictable cliches.

My sister saw this movie before I did and when I asked her what she thought of it her reply was "safe" and that, for a Pixar movie is the biggest let down. This is the company that I've admired so much for taking risks and not relying on conventions or talking down to kids, just on producing truly great quality movies.

What Pixar have produced is a perfectly reasonable, enjoyable children's animated film, I'm sure it will make the young ones laugh and I'm sure the adults who would be dragged into the theater by their children wont regret going, but Pixar excelled in making movies for both children and adults and this is not that, just does exactly what you can expect from any other animated movie that wasn't made by Pixar.

Rating: 3 stars out of 4