A Bag(pipe) of Contradictions...

Rating: 6/10 (19 April 2017)

One is never too old for Disney or Pixar; their stories can resonate as strongly in a child than an adult's heart, or are supposed to anyway. The fact is that something definitely changed and I think I can finally figure what.
There was a time where Disney movies were addressed to children and to the inner child inside of every adult, now it seems like an opposite trend, the stories are meant to awaken the adult in every child. Children have been gifted the power of imagination, dreams and risk-loving curiosity and these values have always been integral to Disney and Pixar's appeals, but in the 2010's, this (rather sane) philosophy was somewhat turned into an obsession in 'empowering' kids, as potential adults. Especially girls.
It can be a sign of modernity if you accept that the usual stories don't elicit the same response they used to, that girls are not interested in princesses or heroines seeking the great love, and that chivalry is not only dead but also decomposed. I would accept it if I was sure it was true. But Pixar has never been into fairy tales anyway; the previous movies always exhilarated positive values like friendship ("Toy Story"), community ("A Bug's Life"), tolerance ("Monsters, Inc.") etc. But it's like "Brave" came to a point where the 'millennial' generation became the prime target and some executives decided that these kids needed different role models to shape their personalities.
Now, I can see the brainstorming that lead to a film like "Brave", certainly full of great intentions, Pixar's first heroine, let's make her a strong, independent female protagonist (what was the Little Mermaid? A 50's shopping housewife?), let's make her a rebellious teen that wouldn't care about marrying a prince. The problem is that whoever came up with the concept of 'Merida' had just answered half the question, if she didn't care about being a princess, what would she care about? By not picking a specific goal, they just made a 'rebel without a cause'. That doesn't quite work with animation whose stories must rely on a particular goal: being a real boy or finding Nemo.
And I used the term "rebel" because that's the French title that mislead the audience, we all thought it was about a girl who had a personal reason to be a warrior. Actually, Merida just doesn't want to be chaperoned by her mother. The idea is that girls can do whatever they like, they can play boy's games as there are no gender barriers, yet the film can't seem to find the proper conflict to convey that message, something "Mulan" did, so they had to come up with the idea of a spell turning the mother into a bear a disastrous move. Indeed, not only does this completely ruin the premise but also since the spell is caused by Merida's rebellion, it implies that her attitude was faulty.
There were infinite possibilities with such a starting point, the audience could expect something fresh and original from studios with no history of strong heroines. And on that level, the first twenty minutes were breathtaking and excitingly promising, Merida, voiced by Kelly Mac Donald was starting to grow on me, even the tormented relationship with Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) reflected a strong personality in the mother-side and I loved the more comprehensive personality of the father Fergus, (Billy Connolly) and the whole family brawl escalated with fun and energy until the tournament between the clans, to choose the future husband, and the twist involving Merida challenging the boys to have her own hand was the moment I believed "Brave" deserved its title.
And then well, I should have suspected these Will-o'-the-wisp were not put in the opening scene for nothing, but it's like someone else involved in the writing, just tore up the original version and came up with the beastly spell. Did such an exciting coming-of-age story set in the Highlands need to be reliant on magic, à la Disney? Couldn't Merida learn find her own path another way? The film betrays its own message, it's not through archery or bravery that she undoes the spell, it's through sewing and compromising, so much for the feminist message! And the worst thing is that there's a subplot involving another man who turned into a bear because he wanted to follow his path. Speaking of contradictions, "Brave" is some head-scratcher.
And I feel even more angry because I enjoyed the beginning, the wild personality of Merida and her frizzy curls, her goofy father and bossy mother, even the other clansmen were as fun as they were useless to the plot, but I was ready to follow that fiery energy, instead of these blue magic things, but something failed, which made me understand why they just went full frontally feminist in "Frozen" the year after. The film wasn't devoid of contradictions either but that's because movies like "Little Mermaid" or "Beauty and the Beast" or "Mulan" had strong female characters already and were not the result of some marketing so obsessed into making things differently, it makes them awkwardly. Come on, turning the mother into a beast, what were they thinking?
"Brave" was supposed to embrace her heroine's rebellion, yet that's what caused trouble, Merida refused to be forced to marry someone then she conceded she should marry the boy she wants, so it wasn't about marriage anymore. Then she admitted she changed at the end, yet there was nothing that was supposed to change in her attitude, and even if she changed, it was emergency, it's not like she had a choice. Finally, the film was supposed to be groundbreaking yet it relies on so many overused and contrived magical devices it almost reached the "ex machina" level.
"Brave" had a great premise, and a terrific start but just too many contradictions to be fully appreciated, and too needlessly long to be enjoyed.