Brave

Despite a bit of marketing, there just hasn’t been the buzz about this latest Pixar offering that usually occurs when the team with the Hawaiian shirts puts pen to paper and finger to mouse button. Having now seen it I can confirm that there isn’t actually all that much to write home about. It’s still a decent enough film, but it just feels a bit run of the mill. Of course, usually even an average offering from Pixar is still better than most other animated offerings out there, but this film lacks the edge that usually comes from said studio and is arguably one of their weakest ever offerings. We’ll have a look at the possible reasons why that is in a moment. First, a quick summation of the storyline. Set in the Scottish Highlands, Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald) defies an age-old custom marriage custom, much to chagrin of her parents (Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson), and inadvertently sets off a chain reaction of events that lead her on a mission to overcome a curse that is placed on her family. Though the film has many good points, it’s all a bit unclear as to what it’s actually meant to be, ranging as it does from family drama to slapstick action fest. The answer to how this problem came about can be found in the history of the production of the film there was a bit of a hoo-ha concerning directors and producers and it appears that this what has to lead to the final cut of the film being a bit of a jack of all trades and master of none. The characters are all one-dimensional and I’m sure native Scots will probably be rolling their eyes at the (albeit good-natured) portrayal of their ancestors as violent drunkards. Merida is the first female lead protagonist in a Pixar film, but apart from her visually capturing your eye there isn’t really all that much memorable about her. Where the film does triumph though is in its portrayal of a relationship between a mother and daughter, as opposed to the usual son / father didactic framework. The actual visuals look great as always, but if it’s true that Pixar rewrote their animation software for the first time in 25 years in order to cope with the complex look of this film, I couldn’t see much improvement (though I appreciate I’m no expert here). Despite the mystical nature of the happenings in the film, this is lacking a magic spark. Is this possibly as a result of other animation studios upping their game in recent years? No one can usually accuse Pixar of being behind the times, but it appears here that complacency may have crept in. To wit, Disney’s Tangled is probably a good comparison in respect of a similar storyline in regard of the family side of things, but Brave lags a long way behind that film when it comes to animation, ideas and memorable characters. Overall, this is definitely one that kids will enjoy, but adults may find the cinema seat chafing a bit sooner than they would have expected when watching a Pixar production, especially as the “curse” that befalls the family, even for an animated fantasy adventure, is pretty silly.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Kids should enjoy the fun goings on, but this is a long long way from classic Pixar: Rating: 6/10.