What the heck did I just watch?

Rating: 1/10 (22 June 2012)

That is exactly what I thought when the film was over.
Seriously, that was a Pixar film? You have to be joking.
When you get right down to it, it's yet another misfit princess story. It's about a somewhat unruly princess who wants something different in life than what her parents want for her. Now how many times have we seen this story before? I'm not even going to list off those stories, because most of you know and have seen them by now.
Simply, there is nothing in this movie that was memorable and that we haven't seen before. We get the misfit princess story, and that's exactly what we get. No surprises. It was all very predictable...
...until midway through the movie. (SPOILER ALERT) In case you haven't seen the film, the princess(Merida) is not your typical princess. She's outgoing - she's a fighter. She is particularly good at archery, supposedly better than everyone else. But since she's a princess, OF COURSE she has to marry a prince. Does she want to marry a prince? NO. Are all of her suitors complete idiots who are unworthy of her? ABSOLUTELY. Do her parents understand her? OF COURSE NOT. Does this remind you of any other better movies? So anyway, since her mother in particular doesn't see eye-to-eye with her, Merida pulls a petty trick on her by slipping her a potion that would "change her". Gee, this couldn't turn out to be anything bad, right? Well, it turned out bad alright, and provided the only surprise in the movie: Her mother turns into a BEAR! You've got to be kidding me.
The rest of the film is spend having Merida trying to undo the spell whilst goofing around with her mother bear friend. (END SPOILER ALERT)
If you are curious enough to see where that part of the story goes, you should see it for yourself.
All in all, it's a very forgettable movie. There were some attempted laughs in the film, but none that made me so much as chuckle. It was mostly cookie-cutter children's movie writing; the kind of "funny" things you'd expect the characters to be saying rather than giving them some charming uniqueness.
Am I the only one who despises the three little boys? The whole time I got the feeling that the writers were using them as a device to keep the story interesting for little kids. I had the same complaint about the three gargoyles in The Hunchback of Notre Dame; They were irritating and added nothing to the story. All they added were typical "little boy" mischief that made me yearn for the end of the current scene.
The only amount of heart in this film was after the mother threw Merida's bow in the fire, and then we see her pull it out of the fire regretfully, realizing what she had done. Granted, that's not much, but at least that's SOME glimpse into a character. They could have easily ended the scene right there, and made the mother look like a complete witch, but for a brief moment, we get to see a little bit of how the mother actually feels.
Thanks for wasting my money, Pixar!