Brave

Rating: 7/10 (30 August 2012)

Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald) lives in Medieval Scotland with her royal parents (Emma Thompson and Billy Connolly). From an early age she has preferred a bow and arrow to polite manners and proper princess conduct. Her mother, however, has other ideas, and arranges a competition for the other clans first borns to win her hand. Mother and daughter are now set against each other, but when Merida tries to use magic to change her fate, the two of them end up having to work together before everything changes...
The Pixar canon has more times then not produced stunning films; not only are the visuals impressive, the story and the script is on the same level. Unlike their rivals at Dreamworks and Fox, they are also very careful to not sell a film just on the stars that are playing the characters. A classic example: how many more people went to see "Kung Fu Panda" because Jack Black was in it? However, there have been occasions where the films just haven't met the high standards set by their greatest works,examples off which include "Wall-E", "Up", "Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles" and, of course, the "Toy Story Trilogy". The lesser films, though occasional blips, stick out like sore thumbs in the otherwise impressive history.
Sadly, "Brave" is in this category. That's not to say it isn't any good; it's a lot better than a lot of films out at the moment and a lot of animation that has been out over the last year. The concept of having a film set entirely in Medieval Scotland is a risky one for certain, particularly when you consider the international market and the US cinemas.
The visuals are stunning, though - Scotland's wild Highland countryside is perfectly captured by the Pixar geniuses; cloth, water and fur are all wonderfully created to the quality we have come to expect. The almost entirely Scottish cast, ably led by Kelly Macdonald as Princess Merida, are very good, if a little uninspiring, particularly when you have Billy Connolly in the credits.
But the story lets the film down. After an impressive opening, the film becomes a kind of lacklustre cousin to the dire Disney film "Brother Bear", one of the films in the early 2000s that put a death knell on the classic Disney giant status. There is also a significant lack of any proper villain in the film. Julie Walters, as a witch, is potentially wasted as an antagonist, which is left to a demon bear who, while scary enough for little people, just doesn't have the same effect as Lotso Bear or Syndrome.
This however is from a grown man's point of view; having watched it in a cinema full of little people who throughly enjoyed it from the gasps and cheers and laughs, one can definitely say that this is the best Pixar kids film the studio has made for some time. But the joy of Pixar's greatest hits is that you can watch them whatever age and find something in them for you. Although the film's visuals are certainly captivating, there is very little else for grown ups here.
7/10