By far not Pixar's best, but neither their worst

Rating: 8/10 (5 August 2012)

Pixar movies still are a league of their own, even after their first "bad" movie that was Cars 2, but with Brave, they still have not recovered to their former glory. The movie is solid, and when it comes to the technical part, there are few companies that can even remotely mess with Pixar. Each of their movies shows a remarkable leap in technology, and Brave is no exception. Even though the movie's animation gimmik falls a bit on the sort side (comparing it to say, Finding Nemo's underwater theme and "Up"'s Balloons), it is astonishing non the less: Meredith's hair is incredibly detailed and looks both real and comically overdrawn at the same time. The character's expressions are also a new standard for Pixar movies, and are only topped to this day by Tintin. What made this movie not play in their top tier is the fact that the story and the execution are a little bit on the shallow side. You could say: Disney-esque. The film's mother-daughter conflict (as well as the one tradition vs. freedom) are just a little too blunt and direct, and are without much metaphor or a second level of thought, predictable both in development and execution. The movie loses a lot of momentum after Meridith's mother has turned into a bear, and where the movie fails absolutely and miserably is in the development of the bad guy, because there is really none. In the first quarter, it is established that there used to be one of four brothers who went to be the bad guy, and the moment the queen is turned into a bear, it is clear that the bear we see in the beginning that eats the king's leg is that brother. Almost no development went into that character, his motivations or his interactions and relations with the other characters, other than Meredith's father hating him and being out for revenge. The film would have done better without him, but it seems they felt it was too unconventional to not have an antagonist. And this is the movies main problem: not only for a Pixar movie, but for a movie in general, it is too conventional. This is not really saved by the fact that the protagonist is female, as, sadly, Meredith is a rather replacable character. Other than her wild, curly red hair, she does not bring much into the game of making her stand out of the ocean of all other Disney princesses. As a side-note: Even the witch is extraordinarily clichée - and one of the most clichée characters I have seen in a whole while - with a broomstick, comically disfigured, humpy appearance and even a ravenbird - one that talks, no less - as a pet. All this ranting may make it sound like I did not like the movie. Like I said, I did, and very much so. It was a very good movie. One of the reasons I get so worked up about the issues I mentioned is the fact that that movie had a lot more potential, and it is unusual for Pixar to be so undaring and conventional. Even Cars 2, while being not a good movie, was daring enough in many aspects as to give it a different feel to it than the first Cars. I simply fear that Disney's influence on Pixar might become too firm, and that one day we will just have them bring out direct to video sequels of all their establisehd IP. Alas, this is not the case yet, and this being both their first historical piece as well as the first movie with a female protagonist, I give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they have not figured out the details yet on how to handle this new material. After all, the ending is open enough to allow for a sequel, which we will undoubtedly see some day. When talking in Pixar standards: 6/10 when talking regular standards (which is my rating here on IMDb) 8/10