Be Brave (Spoiler free)

 

So, yep, saw Brave. Or rather, I saw most of it, since I kept getting distracted by the animation of the hair, and hands and clothing.

(MAY I LIVE A THOUSAND YEARS AND NEVER ACHIEVE SUCH A LEVEL OF PERFECTION IN SIMULATED MOVEMENT)

Anywho...

Generally, the movie was amazing. The animation was flawless, the music and scenery gorgeous, the time period well-used, the character's were fun and felt real. The Wisps were some of my glowy favorites. However, the movie did not floor me.

I think the flooring didn't happen because of pacing issues. The plot moved oddly, sometimes sluggishly, other times way too fast, with strange cuts. I'm think this happened because the director changed half-way, changing from a woman wanting to make a story about family to a guy who wanted to make a movie about vikings, or something... I think. The two tones, the masculine and the feminine, are very present, and they clash more then they mesh. Which I guess is interesting, since Merida's brashness does clash with her mom's class, so it works, kinda. But yeah, pacing issues. A lot of storyboards seem to have gotten scrapped in the process of making this movie, you can see several of those scenes in the artbook, which includes a now non-existant in the movie romantic subplot. 

It's amazing, and wonderful, and I want to see it over and over... But I think the whole mother-daughter relationship wasn't explored as well as I wish it would have been. I was expecting something giving me feelings like the Incredibles or Treasure Planet. This movie is closer to Tangled if anything. Good feelings, great movie, but not flooring viewers.  Maybe the Pixar team aren't that good at the ladies yet? The movie had a couple of elements that felt borrowed from Miyazaki movies (aka, the ultimate creator of flawless animated ladies). But it didn't have the full on flair of the Miyazaki ladies. 

Still, 4 freaking stars out of five. Okay, four and a half. Because of Fergus. God bless that man. And his badass peg leg.

I'm a little bothered by a couple of the similarities that Brave seems to have with a comic i'm working on with a friend (set in the same period). But heh... I think it's most likely fine. 

- Isa