BRAVE

US, 2012, 100 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Kevin McKidd?, Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters, John Ratzenberger, Craig Ferguson.
Directed by Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman.


Brave is the Pixar Studio’s annual animated movie. In the last ten years, they have won many Oscars for Best Animated Film (Finding Nemo, Ratatouile, Up, Wall-E, Toy Story 3) and have delighted audiences all around the world. This one starts very well, plateaus out, but offers an entertaining story of family troubles and warrior activity.

And, the central character is female, Merida, the daughter of the King and Queen of the united kingdom of Scottish clans. She is a redhead and has a certain fiery and tomboyish disposition which manifests itself in rebelling against her genteel mother’s attempts to teach her manners and regal graciousness, as well as riding vigorously around the countryside and showing Olympic-standard skills in archery.

The film opens in taking us way back into old Scot history and burly and rugged Fergus assuming command of the kingdoms (even as a malevolent bear chomps off one of his legs). As Merida grows up, the question of suitors for her hand arises. She wants none of it, chooses archery for the contest and decides to enter (and conquer) so that she can win her own hand.

But, her rebellious nature wreaks havoc when she follows blue willow-the-wisps to a witch’s cottage and causes the casting of a spell which turns her mother, Elinor, into a bear. Action follows with Fergus eager to pursue any bear. Mother and daughter have to survive in the woods and mother learns more about her daughter and daughter realises that she has been too selfish.

So, lots of action and quite a deal of comedy – the suitors and their fathers are a comically odd-looking and sounding lot. And, despite Elinor’s control, Fergus is a touch barbarian at heart.

And, the voices… Kelly MacDonald? is assertive as Merida. Emma Thompson is dignified but firm as Elinor and Billy Connolly has a vigorous old time as Fergus.

Enough for parents to enjoy as they watch Brave with their children – especially their daughters who might well latch on to Merida as a role model.

1. The Pixar Studios? Their tradition? Appeal? The animation style: characters, situations, the use of imagination, layouts, the cast, songs, score?

2. The Scottish background, centuries past? The clans, the kingdom, clashes, unity, the legends, the art? The ruins – in the vein of Stonehenge? The bears and their place in the forest, interactions with the humans? The witch, her hovel, her spells? The blue will-o’-the-wisps? Scottish traditions, marriage and suitors, the contests? Audiences identifying with these Scottish stories?

3. The visuals of the Scots, the warriors, large, muscular, scrawny? The queen, Merida? Merida and her red hair? The witch, the crone, her hovel, her carvings?

4. The story of the warrior daughter, the tomboy, getting a royal education in manners and what a lady should do, rebelling, the disastrous consequences of her rebellion? Her learning lessons? Reconciliation with her mother?

5. The king and queen, their redheaded baby? The king and the bear, losing his leg? Their settling in the castle? The years passing? The guards, the life of the castle?

6. Merida and her growing up, her talks with her mother, her education, her mother wanting to domesticate her, what a lady would do, no bows on the table...? Her relationship with her father? The plans for the suitors, her hard reaction? Merida as a rebel? Her going out on her horse, her archery and skills, firing the arrows?

7. The arrival of the suitors, their appearance, the humour in their appearance, the large, the small, the middling? Their hair, facial features? Manner of speaking? Their fathers, their speeches? The fighting in the hall, the control of the fighting? The king joining in?

8. The contests, the archery? The suitors and their skills? Merida and her archery, deciding that she could fight for her own hand?

9. Merida in the forest, seeing will-o’-the-wisps? Going to the hovel, discovering the witch, her woodcarvings? The spells? Taking the cake to the palace?

10. The legends about the bears? The tearing of the tapestry? The queen and the spell, turning into a bear? The odd behaviour, the funny behaviour, the appearance? The fact that the queen was inside the bear? Ways of communicating? Yet savage moments? Going with Merida into the forest? The role of the witch? Survival in the forest, the fish and the food? The bear learning from Merida? The dangers, the bonding?

11. The return, the king and the men still fighting? Merida walking through? The bear and the pose to escape detection? Getting the tapestry?

12. The pursuit, the hostile bear, the king? His thinking the queen was a hostile bear? The fights? Merida confessing the truth? Things returning to normal? The riding on the horse – and sewing the tapestry together?

13. The mother, her reappearance, the tapestry around her? What she had learnt? Merida and her change? Her respect for her mother? The bonding of the two? The future?

14. Old themes about families in an exotic and Scottish context?