Excellent Celtic/Irish/Scottish Modern Fairy Tale

Rating: Null/10 (3 April 2013)

I truly enjoy computer-animated films. From "The Polar Express" to "Hotel Transylvania," these films really up the ante on what can be done with the technology, which keeps getting stronger and stronger. What I like most are the character reactions, expressions and mannerisms that can be done with the technology with the cartoon caricatures. It really is like seeing animation come to life, and "Brave" is among the best I've seen in a long time. Heightened by a strong modern Irish-Celtic fairy tale, several impeccable voice actors and an army of masterful computer animators, the film makes you forget the story is a Disney cartoon and keeps you on this journey of love, honor and destiny. The only drawback is the lack of any grounding to place just when or where the story takes place. The cultural references are both Scottish and Irish (from haggis to cabers), and the locations as stunning as they are seem to hearken to both those countries as well. The story involves a wild-haired red-haired free spirit named Meridel who often escapes the rigid life of a princess to go riding and hunting, so when she decides to declare her independence at her betrothal ceremony, she incites a disturbance in her homeland and a rift with her mother. (Both her hair and spirit remind me of the singer/actress Robey from the Eighties.) To sway her mother's plans for her future, she finagles a spell from a witch who has given up witchcraft for woodcarving, and the results are not as planned. It seems the witch has a bear-fetish. Everything she carves is a bear, and her spell on a crumb cake transforms Meridel's mother the Queen into a bear. Off they vanish into the woods to hide the secret, if but to sneak into the castle to set in motion the way to undo the spell. Of course, nothing is every easy. Father thinks his daughter is crazy, tries to kill his wife the bear, Meridel's brothers become bears and on and on Not to mention the mad bear that took the king's leg to begin with. By time the movie ends, I was stuck with Celtic accent I couldn't get rid of. It really is a great movie – especially for someone like me who enjoys cultural folklore. I don't know of kids will like it, but adults will enjoy it just don't miss the tag scene at the end of the credits with the raven making the witch's deliveries