The good and the not so good of Brave.

Rating: 8/10 (28 June 2012)

Without one iota of exaggeration, this new Pixar production, Disney release, is visually stunning. It has artful, clearly defined characters that loom off the screen, literally and especially so, in 3D. Some of the scenic movement is reminiscent of the great Ratatouille of a few years ago. That is saying a lot.
To its credit, Brave depicts a young woman who fights for the right to live out her own life. However, that did not quite snatch the gold ring for me. It was just not enough substance. The production budget on this animated film was $185 million. In decades past, the shallow, somewhat sluggish script, seen here, would never have obtained a green light. It was difficult to watch all of the superb, brilliant artistry (actor voices included) and production values, design elements, wasted on that flat, empty script.
Real literature, with its varied levels of meaning, and the old, sage, scenarist's secret, best embodied by the works of Frank Capra, Gene Roddenberry and Rod Serling, the "Spiritual Payoff" is now absent from the big screen. Take note how their works have survived through the decades.
Most of today's studio suits do not appear to be aware that films structured at that level have the best word of mouth and the best legs. Today, they aim only at the child mentality where Walt Disney aimed at the widest audiences. His Pinocchio, for example, is still vital today. Indeed, some of its music has become the signature Walt Disney logo theme. That said, one blessing in current animated feature films, they no longer break continuity for Broadway type song and dance numbers, tedious nonsense that clung on to animated features like a giant fungus, for decades.
Is it very difficult to come up with a soul for these scripts? I think not. In Pinocchio, for example, the log line is simple: A wooden puppet earns the right to his most ardent wish, to become a real boy.