Brave

Brave, origionally titled The Bear and the Bow, is an animated Disney Pixar film released in 2012.

The film is about a young girl called Merida who is brought up in a Scotish clan with the expectation that she will one day be a queen like her mother. Merida does not wish to obey her mother's strict concil and so sets about doing all she can in order to avoid becoming the sweet, married princess that her mother wants her to be. With the help of an old witch living in the forest Merida's world is turned upside down and we are swept into a life threatening and heartwarming battle of emotion the like of which Disney is so consistently good at delivering.

On leaving the cinema my first thoughts were how wonderful the sound track to this film was. Music, although an essential part of almost any film, is never usually the first thing I think about when considering a movie's main qualities. In the case of Brave I felt that the Celtic sounding folk songs composed by Patrick Doyal complimented  the beautiful scenery incredibly well and created an atmospere that conjured up a feeling of ancient legends long past.

This film ultimately focuses on the mother/daughter relationship and both Kelly McDonald and Emma Thompson gave a convincing voiceover performance that adiquately convayed the emotions shown in the faces of the CGI characters. As always there is a fair amount of family comedy and an important moral message, there are however a few things that seem to be a little different that some of Disney's earlier fairytales.

Merida and her Mother.

Unlike a typical Disney fairytale, Brave is alot more like a traditional fairytale in that it's darker. The monsterous black bear is indeed scary and Merida's foolishness puts her mother in life threatening danger. It's for this reason that the film is rated PG as appose to a U certificate. It's also what helps make the film a deeper and more meaningful one because it deals with the usual themes of freedom, coming of age, love and regret in a far more direct style. This film is also a rarity for Pixar in that the main protagonist is female and they've managed to get away with this by making Merida a tough 'tom boy' character.

The main critisism I'd have to make for this film is that it's predictable and, despite being enjoyable, is actually very standard and not particularly memorable. It follows the same pattern as many other films of the same ilk and so is unlikely to stand the test of time as a Disney classic.