Brave Review

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…It’s an ARCHERY movie, are you really surprised I saw it? Yes, sadly, I am that predictable. I went in to this a little confused about what the movie was about, since the trailers didn’t explain the plot line very clearly, aside from Merida having rebellious princess syndrome. It all looked very cute, but I really wanted to know what this new Disney princess was going to get into, especially since I knew critics had griped about a lack of love story.

I loved the set-up, let’s start there. I loved how we saw the beginnings of this family, of how their relationship used to be. It was the perfect set up and kept the audience hooked. There was a bit of an info dump, but it was an AMUSING info dump, so I forgive it. I wanted to strangle Elanor at times, but that’s because I was reminded a little too much of my own mom, which told me things would get better. By the time we’d gotten to the archery contest, though, we’d seen almost everything that was in the trailers. And I still had no idea what the main plot of this movie was.

The main plot is a cop out. It’s relying on the standard idea of magic-having-consequences shtick to get through it, and honestly it really offered nothing to me.

Overall, the characters, scenery, and music made this movie. I could have walked out at any point because I knew exactly how it was going to end the minute the witch entered the scene and not been even a little confused when I came back. But I didn’t. And not just because Merida was both a girl and a warrior and awesome because of it (mostly because she was an archer, and I am obviously attached). But because the relationship between her mother and her was so fierce, it just got going in the wrong direction, and I was emotionally invested on seeing it play out and fix itself.

Disney proved once again that they can NOT do a realistic horse, but Angus is a heck of a lot closer than Maximus. He has his super-intelligent moments, but only for about five minutes in the movie. I don’t approve of him and the other “warrior” horses being of Shire breed, since they really weren’t riding horses, but considering the framing of the movie, it makes sense that those were the only real options for them, and at least no one was armored and trying to climb on them. (I would have thrown things in disgust.) I loved the interpretations of wisps…though last I checked will o’ the wisps led you to your death. Maybe fate is a different set of myths or a, “Meh, we’ll do it a new way,” thing that Disney is so fond of.

Forget the love story, or at least the traditional one. This one focused on what was really important, and for that, Disney gets my complete approval on this one.