literature

Unlimited Reviews: Brave

Deviation Actions

NoLimit5's avatar
By
Published:
783 Views

Literature Text

"I want my freedom!"
"But are you willing to pay the price your freedom will cost?"

Merdia is the princess of a Scottish clan that is to be have her hand in marriage won by the three firstborn sons of other clans. However, she is a free spirit and wants to do things her own way and is a skilled archer and blah-blah-blah other Disney Princess wants and needs.

I'm sorry. I can't properly summarize this movie. I honestly have a hard time discussing it without feeling an extreme amount of disappointment. Basically, Merdia has a bad relationship with her mom that wants her to follow tradition and she accidentally curses her family when she comes across a witch, asking to change her destiny. Now she has to fix things before it's too late.

I kind of hate this movie. I'm sorry if you liked this movie, but I don't. I suppose I should establish a little background. Brave is Pixar's 13th movie, and is its first fantasy. I am a huge Pixar fan. I love…most of their movies. I think they're one of the few animation companies today that don't treat kids like ADHD patients that only laugh at toilet humor and can still create art for family features. Whenever I sat down to watch a Pixar movie, it always brought me back to my youth when I would watch an animated Disney flick during their Renaissance. Ironically enough, Brave is probably the closest to that style.

You know, I didn't see Brave right away. I had a lot of homework and tests to take care of during the time of release, but I was really excited for it. Then I read some peoples' reactions to it. They talked extensively about how boring and unoriginal it was. I was shocked and annoyed with them. How dare they talk that way about a movie by one of my favorite studios! I specifically went into the movie with a mind set that I will give the movie the benefit of the doubt and enjoy the hell out of it.

It failed to live up.

Let's just get the technical out of the way so I can properly express my disappointment with this movie. It looks great. The Scottish Highlands are beautifully shown and rendered, and the best character in this movie is Merdia's frizzy red hair. Everyone was portrayed well and I think Merdia's dad is awesome.

Sorry if I'm rushing through this and it comes off more as a rant than a review, but I really don't like talking about this movie. Every moment I think about it the more I feel frustrated with Pixar. The problem I have with this movie is that it's so damn bland and unoriginal. Something that I really respect about Pixar is their ability to take ideas that have been done before and give them new life and twists that manage to turn it into something amazing and beautiful, but they really were slacking with this one. You and I have seen this kind of movie before: A young princess that rebels against her mother because she craves her freedom and shirks her royal responsibilities, which results in trouble for her family and she learns a lesson along with her mother about how they must choose their battles and care for one another. We have seen this shit so many other times. Oh, sure, they toss in a twist to it that I can't say because SPOILERS, but that twist was actually done in another Disney movie too! I honestly couldn't believe how shameless Pixar was with this. I expected better from you!

I honestly don't have anything else to say about this movie. It disappointed the hell out of me because of how by-the-books it was. You know, it might not even be that. I might be this annoyed because of how much potential the movie had. The backstory for the movie is actually pretty damn interesting: Merdia is rescued from an extremely dangerous bear by her father, but resulted in the loss of his leg. They could still have done a parent-daughter relationship movie, but with her father instead. It could have been about Merdia becoming the great archer that she's portrayed as in the marketing because she feels like she has to get revenge on the bear for what it did to her father, but her father doesn't care about that and would happily give up his other leg just to keep her safe and the two fight over that. That would be different while still retaining the theme of the same relationship! But no! We get a daughter that enjoys bitching about how her mom sucks and should let her do whatever she wants even if it results in her clan going to war with the three other clans!

Yeah, how did no one notice that? Merdia's rebellious nature would have caused the four clans going to war with one another! People could have DIED because she wants to ride around on her horse and shoot things with her bow and arrow. Great heroine here, guys!

People often like to say how great and strong Merdia is as a female character. I don't think the movie even showed that aspect of her that much. She honestly came off more as a teenaged brat that caused a giant problem and tried to discreetly fix it without the rest of her family finding out about it. I can only think of one instance when her being an archer actually factored into the plot in a way beyond just being a hobby she has and it had her running away and needing to be saved. I'm sorry, but Merdia is not a strong female character in my eyes.

Ultimately, this movie is simply average. There are no significant flaws or problems. It's just painfully average. It's a painfully average story with painfully average characters and a painfully average message. It looks pretty and that's about the only thing it has going for it. It's wasted potential and it makes me sad it was Pixar that made this.

I give a:

3 out of 5

Positives:
– Scotland is beautiful and Merdia's hair is pretty

Negatives:
– Extremely typical mother-daughter relationship story
– Weak characters
– Ridiculously forgettable
– Backstory a complete waste of potential

Recommendation: Skip It!

Brave isn't even a bad movie. It's an average movie. It's a forgettable movie. And that's the worst thing you can say about a creation to a creator. Some creations reveal in its badness or how offensive it is. This movie is bland and I wish I can forget about it. But I can't, because it was made by one of my favorite movie studios. Cars wasn't as bad as people said it was, and I forgave them for Cars 2. This movie made me sad.


Brave was produced by Pixar and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.
“I want my freedom!”
“But are you willing to pay the price your freedom will cost?”
© 2012 - 2024 NoLimit5
Comments6
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Disneyfreak007's avatar
Ironically, this is kinda why I prefer the video game adaptation's storyline of Brave rather than the movie itself... it seemed a whole lot better in my opinion.