Pixar’s track record is safe. Creating an original fairy tale may have been a scary proposition, but the end result is a very winning film. In my opinion, Brave is better than the last two Pixar films (Toy Story 3 and Cars 2) with a strong female lead and a core cast that is well defined. This is what Pixar does best, and when the studio focuses on character development with stories that are “true to themselves” then everything else seems to fall into place.
Merida (Kelly MacDonald) is a strongheaded young girl, and the eldest child of King Fergus and Queen Elinor (Billy Connelly and Emma Thompson, respectively). So yes, technically, she’s a princess.
A bear attack when Merida was young costs King Fergus a leg, but what he lost in limb he gained in storytelling. Flash forward several years, and we meet the teenage Merida, very much her father’s daughter, much to the chagrin of her mother. One day the bomb is dropped on poor Merida’s life – she is to be betrothed to one of the young men from the other three clans of the region. This does not sit well with Merida and conflict ensues.
I did not know the twist to this story when I watched it, so I was a bit surprised. The trailers for the film did a great job of introducing the main character and some of the story elements without giving anything away, so I don’t want to spoil it for you if you don’t already know what it is. Suffice to say that Brave is a fairy tale, a witch is involved, and that bear at the beginning of the film is a bigger story element than a prologue.
And like the best of Pixar films, I teared up a little.
The rest of the voice cast comprises of some Scottish actors and others who may or may not be familiar. Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters, and Craig Ferguson among them. Disappointingly Ewan McGregor, David Tennant, Ashley Jensen, Robert Carlyle, James McAvoy and Sean Connery (to name a few) are some notable Scottish names who do not appear in the credits.
As with any Pixar film, the animation is spectacular. There is an effective use of 3D without it being gimmicky. While the sound during the day with the kids watching was good, try to take the time to watch it without the kids in the evening. The audio has plenty of subtleties that will get overlooked easily.
Brave comes on home video in a number of editions, and I was fortunate enough to have the 5 disc edition with the film on 3D Blu-ray, then the 2D version on Blu-ray with special features, another Blu-ray disc of special features, a DVD copy of the film then a disc that contains a digital copy of the film. Why isn’t the DVD copy containing the digital copy?
Special features are plentiful and for the most part well worth the time and effort to go through them. La Luna is the animated short that preceded Brave in theaters and is presented here as well. It’s a nice short with a bit of warmth – not the best thing Pixar has produced, but enjoyable enough. The new short is The Legend Of Mordu, a short that goes a bit further into exploring the legend of the bear that attacks the family at the beginning of Brave. Don’t watch it before the film though.
The audio commentary has co-director Mark Andrews, editor Nick Smith, Steve Purcell (yes, Sam & Max creator and now Pixar dude) and “story supervisor” Brian Larsen. Missing is co-director Brenda Chapman who came up with the story and, much like Ratatouille, started the film only to have it finished by another director. It’s a decent track, but I was hoping to see a picture in picture with storyboards and concept art running along with it.
An hour of featurettes look at a number of items regarding Brave. There’s a look at how the animators brought the bears to life, Scottish legends, the evolution of different scenes and sequences, the relationship between Merida and her mother, and lots more. It would have been better had it been presented in a more comprehensive overall “making of” feature, but it’s pretty good as it is. A few extended scenes are present as well.
On the additional Blu-ray disc we get more featurettes, totaling about 40 minutes. This again goes into my thought as to the various featurettes should have been put together into an overall item. There’s an alternate opening which would have fit in better with the extended scenes section or in the piece looking at how different scenes evolved. Additional items look at other cut scenes, further aspects of the Scottish heritage, animating the Merida’s horse and more. These are all cut from the same material as the stuff on the other disc. A number of promotional pieces and a massive image gallery round out the offerings.
Brave is a good film, enjoyable by young and old alike. It’s a rare treat to see an animated film that does that. It holds up against repeated viewings by both kids and their parents. The 3D Blu-ray combo pack offers the most complete set of special features, so be sure to pick that one up.