Disney/Pixar go to the Highlands

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2015)

This Disney/Pixar film is set in the Scottish Highlands where Princess Merida doesn't enjoy princessly things; instead she enjoys riding, archery and climbing the local mountains. After one such outing she returns to discover that the leaders of three local clans are to visit so she can choose which of their sons she will marry she isn't given the option of choosing none. After an argument with her mother she rides off and finds herself at a witch's cottage; she asks the witch to change her mother; hoping to find a way of avoiding marriage the spell works but not how she expected; it turns her mother into a bear! If that wasn't bad enough her father is famed as a bear-killer! She tries to return to the witch but she is out; she has left a cryptic message though; Merida will have to solve it quickly if the spell isn't to become permanent.
This may be a Disney/Pixar film but it feels more Disney than Pixar not that that is a bad thing. This is largely due to having a lead character who is a feisty princess. The story is fun if fairly basic and has the sort of moral one might expect. The action is impressive and at times genuinely scary although not too scary for young viewers. As one would expect from Pixar the film looks great; Merida's curly red hair looks amazing and moves naturally whatever she is doing. The characters are likable; especially Merida and her amusing father. The cast do a fine job; Kelly Macdonald impresses as Merida although Billy Connolly's performance as her father is probably the most memorable thanks to his distinctive voice and amusing character. Overall a solid film which has a good balance of action and humour; it may not be the masterpiece many Pixar films are but I've yet to see a Pixar film that I didn't enjoy.