Brave (Mark Andrews & Brenda Chapman)

[EyesWideOpen]

imdb

[Pop Trash]

Wats?

[Watashi]

What?

[Spinal]

This movie's in Japanese?

[Fezzik]

I liked this, but its definitely a lesser Pixar.

There's nothing inherently wrong with it, but except for the animation, there's nothing really noteworthy either.

There's some good moments, but I think Pixar's creativity might have been a little handcuffed by the fact that this was an adaptation.

It was missing that special something.

Good, not great.

[EyesWideOpen]

This movie's in Japanese?

I liked that poster the best.

[Pop Trash]

What?

I figured you'd have seen this twice already and figured out exactly where it fits in the Pixar pantheon.

[Watashi]

I figured you'd have seen this twice already and figured out exactly where it fits in the Pixar pantheon.

No.... I'm in no rush. I'll get it to sometime next week.

[B-side]

Pretty sad when not even Wats is excited to see this movie.

[Pop Trash]

Pretty sad when not even Wats is excited to see this movie.

Right. I'm thinkin' Beasts of the Southern Wild will be a better Brave than Brave, but we'll see.

[MadMan]

Right. I'm thinkin' Beasts of the Southern Wild will be a better Brave than Brave, but we'll see.

I'm getting that feeling, too. I still want to see both, however.

[Watashi]

Right. I'm thinkin' Beasts of the Southern Wild will be a better Brave than Brave, but we'll see.

I don't see what those two films have in common.

[Russ]

I don't see what those two films have in common.

I read a spoiler for Beasts, I think I can guess.

[EyesWideOpen]

This didn't feel like a Pixar movie. It was missing their high level of storytelling. It felt more like a Dreamworks picture. The animation was fantastic but everything else was just average.

[Thirdmango]

It was decent, fun, I'm glad I saw it when I did. I agree that the story telling wasn't as good but I really liked the individual characters in the family. Each one had a good distinction to them. I think I liked the first half of the movie a bit more then the second half.

The short before hand was fantastic, probably my favorite of the before movie shorts I've seen so far.

[dreamdead]

A very mild nay. This one almost works, but the sense of the film existing from an incomplete, or multi-, vision is apparent. The narrative seems fractured shortly after the mother changes, the conclusion overly obvious and lacking of any real ramification, and though the mother/daughter sentiment is wonderful, narrative beats throughout their arcs seem to happen too quickly, as though the characters are just the sketches of characters and don't exist as anything other than ciphers of difference.

Some fine moments throughout, but it just never ties together. Or, rather, it ties together so much that there's nothing in the way of real humanity here.

[number8]

I rather appreciated the spartan story that doesn't turn it into a save-the-kingdom epic and instead kept the focus on the family drama. A studio other than Pixar might have been tempted to have a big battle scene at the end.

The mother-daughter bonding was handled excellently, and alleviated a concern I had. It was seeming like Merida was going to be made a modern role model simply by being tomboyish and relating more to a father figure, almost derisively treating the traditional "princess" model. But the circumvention of that, with her recognizing her mother's useful feminine qualities, was nice.

The best part is still La Luna, though. What a masterpiece.

[eternity]

I don't understand any of these Dreamworks comparisons...it's certainly darker than any Dreamworks film I've seen.

I thought it was incredible up until the point where [

Show Spoiler

the queen becomes a bear

], then you could really see the wheels turning to get to the right plot points at the right moment by any means possible, even if it clashed with the flow of events. The character's actions and motivations were convenient and unnatural.

I still liked it quite a bit, though.

[EyesWideOpen]

I didn't find it dark in the slightest.

[ledfloyd]

the dreamworks comparisons make sense to me when i think about the reliance on broad humor: the mooning, the pantsless men, the cleavage dive. otherwise, i find this to feel like a disney film, even more so than it does a pixar film. it creates something of an odd disconnect but i still think it's a relatively good film. it's nothing special, but i can't say too much negative about it either.

the friend i saw it with LOVED it. she was really impressed with how well and how subtly they dealt with celtic myth. she picked up on a lot of things that went over my head, that i've since forgotten. apparently the witch's crow and the one clan's blue tattoos both had special significance, among other things.

i unfortunately missed the short, but i'm sure it will turn up online sooner than later.

[Sxottlan]

It was good. First solidly good mainstream film that I've seen since The Avengers. But no, it's not top shelf Pixar. Pacing is a little weird. It felt like there was quite a wait for the plot to get going; for Merida's character growth to happen.

The tone of the witch scene felt like a total miscalculation. It felt like it was from another movie. A zany wacky comedy suddenly breaks out here and it's jarring.

[

Show Spoiler

For example the pizza delivery truck from the Toy Story films makes a cameo in this 13th century setting. And look, potion choices act like a voice mail directory.

]

As Berardinelli pointed out, there's no clear villain. The one bear doesn't really do it for me.

And yet I liked all the characters, [

Show Spoiler

although I don't understand where the mother's change of heart comes from.

] Merida's hair alone has character. It's a triumph of art direction and animation. And the animated landscapes are pretty gorgeous. There's a moment when Merida is laying down and covering her face and I could have sworn I was looking at a real person.

And at least the post-credit scene addresses what I thought had been a big plot hole in the film.

[Fezzik]

And at least the post-credit scene addresses what I thought had been a big plot hole in the film.

Gah. There was a post credit scene? What was it?

[Arthur Seaton]

Pretty sad when not even Wats is excited to see this movie.

I know. Dafuq???

[Bosco B Thug]

I thought this was superb, and completely of Pixar's calibre. I suppose the story isn't groundbreaking, but it's intelligent and it's morals/world-views far above cookie-cutter. Scene construction was completely on par in sophistication with Pixar's other films. I also thought there was very little to complain about concerning gratuitous comedy (and I'm someone who will target Finding Nemo for such things), with the main exception being the "voice mail delivery" gag, which was lame.

Anyway, very-close-to loved it.

Also, this may discredit me considering what I'm reading here, but the short La Luna was not for me. Nay. If anyone wants to explain their love for it, I'm kind of interested.

[Watashi]

So I saw this.

For the first 20-30 or so minutes, I was loving this and in my head I was "what the fuck critics?". Then the scene with the witch came and this film fell apart fast. Hell, the whole witch character was entirely pointless. They could have easily made the curse come from some other supernatural source. The pacing of that scene was terrible. Merida meets the witch and automatically knows what she wants and doesn't think twice about what she's doing.

Hell, the entire second half when it went all Brother Bear troubled me especially the way to "break" the curse. It felt so haphazard.

It's tough, because I love the family dynamics and Merida is such a great character in herself. The scenes with her Mother Bear were often quite touching. Some of the Dreamworksy humor didn't bother me. I actually liked a lot of the gags.

If I was in a fouler mood, I would probably nay this, but... but... it's Pixar.

Also... dat hair.