Bearly Brave

Rating: 5/10 (25 December 2012)

Perhaps one of the shallowest, barley forgiving, selfish and hardly living up to the title character: Merida proves that Pixar was too desperate to finally introduce a female lead to its lineup. They should've waited until the right story came along.
Brave, thankfully, has a much stronger second half, because the first part's old school Little Mermaid'ish plot was really annoying and thoroughly un-clever. And I'll give it kudos for introducing, or transforming, one character half way through that brightened the story and humor.
Part-time archer, and I say part-time because they just had to throw in a completely incidental talent in the mix because, I dunno, bows and arrows are the hot thing these days, Princess Merida refuses to marry because she, sigh, wants to be a free spirit and sling arrows. Occasionally, that is.
When given the opportunity, she makes a deal with a witch and inadvertently turns her mom into a bear. Desperately, she attempts to turn momma bear back into human form, and sadly, continues to blame the witch for another 45 minutes or so.
(SPOILER ALERT – just this paragraph: When she finally, FINALLY, realizes it was her doing, the "I'm sorry" speech is so lame and without heart, I still hated her just as much as before her insincere apology.)
I will give grand points to the movie for the absolute beautiful landscaping and design. The movie looked gorgeous, from frame one to the close, it sparkled and amazed me. In addition, the score and songs were decent. Also, some scenes did make me laugh out loud, such as the three little rascal brothers of the Princess helping her escape – having to be bribed, no less, since this movie has little morals – by mimicking a shadow of a bear in the castle's light. Further, the momma bear did provide some comic relief, though she was terribly unoriginal.
But, the blah, dated and predictable (even to kids) story really will keep me from ever watching this again. Sad. I wanted to give Pixar another chance after the abysmal Cars 2. And with the upcoming and dreaded Monsters Inc. prequel, I think I'll just patiently wait for the third Kung Fu Panda movie to renew my faith in computer animated films.
Side Note: Nudity? Really? I understand these films are also engineered to appease adults as well as kids, but nudity, even the cartoon kind, has no business in these films. Shame.