Not among Pixar's best

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2016)

Oh, Brave. One of my least favourite Pixar films. Not that is terrible, it is pretty decent, but I'm just not into it. It copies Disney's unoriginal "plucky princess doesn't want to do what she is told" and honestly I expected better from Pixar.
I've got to say, the animation is superb. I could marvel at Brave gifs for hours without ever getting bored. Also, Merida's design is a breath of fresh air. She's not very beautiful, she has impractical curly hair, and she's not skinny on physically impossible level. That's pretty original. What't not original about her, is her stubbornness ad willfulness, which is not bad, just overused. I am not fan of getting married to someone I don't know either, but Merida's characterisation... makes her come off as a spoiled, teenage brat instead of the brave heroine we're meant to root for. Especially since it's implied she's the heiress to her father's kingdom, which means she couldn't care less about the good of her people, and that's being presented as OK because... reasons. And then there's the whole turning-the-mother-into-a-bear issue. As I said, I totally understand Merida's objection to marrying someone she doesn't know. But that doesn't give her the right to change people. When she went to that witch, her intention was to change her mother - that is, bind the mother's will to hers. Um, nope. Elinor is a free person, with her own free will and Merida has no right to deprive her of that. I'm all in for taking one's fate into one's hand, but not to the expense of others', thank you very much.
So, in the end, Merida is a spoiled, self-entitled brat who considers her problems as greater than everybody else's, and puts her well- being above the good of the many. She endangers her mother's life, and in the end, she still gets what she wants. She makes up for her own mistakes (that no-one else had the obligation to clean up) and is applauded for that, as if it was a selfless action on her behalf, whereas it truly wasn't. And in the last scene, we see Elinor with her hair loose, obviously changed, as if the problem lied with her, when Merida wasn't in the right the whole time, but is treated like she was. In the end, everyone must learn a lesson and change slightly their view of the world... except for Merida, who is rewarded for putting the queen in danger. Even the parallelism with the other dude, Mor'du, draws Elinor as the problem. The carved stone was broken, separating him from his family, and then Merida tears her mother's tapestry, it is Elinor who gets separated from her husband, daughter and sons, as if she's the one causing the chaos, when in fact it's Merida.
Brave has some breath-taking animation, goo voice-acting and score, but in terms of story-line, it's not that original, it doesn't bring anything new to the table, and can it's heroine may be one of the most irritating characters the Disney pantheon has to offer. Not that it isn't suitable for a movie night with your friends and pop- corn.