Charming but not all it could be

Rating: 6/10 (21 November 2012)

To start this review I'm going to say watch "Tangled" if you haven't already done so. That's what this film should have been.
I am a little biased as I lived in Scotland for a number of years and still can't understand how the Scots can embrace historically inaccurate "Braveheart" with the Scottish hero played by an Americanised Australian. That being said I'm sure that they'll embrace "Brave". This film hits nearly every Scottish stereotype... well the ones that are reasonably family friendly. The film does have a good dose of Scottish voice talent, even if many of them haven't been home in a while.
I'm happy to see The Big Yin (Billy Connolly) as part of the cast, but bitterly disappointed that they seem to have failed to adapt the character to Billy at all. The result being a somewhat lacklustre character that misses the mark.
The female heroine is a firm cliché now but this is still a heart warming film. Unfortunately the two really funny characters (the Raven and the Witch's Broom) have very short scenes. The triplets are also devilishly amusing but again don't have enough screen time. The soundtrack is very typical airy/new age/folk music and is very well performed, but to me it sounds more Irish than Scottish. I think the soundtrack could definitely have used some more modern punch to it (Britney or Christina style). And the soundtrack seems contradictory to the film's main themes of being a ground breaking heroine and teenage rebellion.
I watched the trailers in 3D but missed seeing the film in 3D. The 3D looked good, but I don't think that they made much effort to do a proper 2D version. It would appear that they've simply taken one field of the 3D rather than re-rendering it for 2D.
Overall it's good family fun, but I don't see anyone compulsively rewatching this film.