Brave

Rating: 7/10 (18 December 2012)

This was a different for Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios, because for Pixar it would be the first story to see a more ancient world (and not Americanised), and for Disney it would see the first female lead character to be the heroine, I was looking forward to seeing how it would turn out. Basically, set in Scotland, young princess Merida (Peigi Barker), daughter of King Fergus of Clan Dunbroch (Billy Connolly), is given a bow for her birthday, and while she is practising with it she distracted seeing a wisp that leads her into the woods and a giant demon bear that attacks the family, she and her mother Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) get away unharmed, but Fergus loses his left leg. Years later teenage Merida (Trainspotting's Kelly Macdonald) is a free spirit and has three younger triplet brothers, Hamish, Harris and Hubert, but she is unhappy with the idea that she is to be married to one of the sons of the clans her father is allied with, despite being warned that it could harm the future of the kingdom if she does not marry. The first born sons from the clans of Lord Macintosh (Craig Ferguson), Lord MacGuffin (Kevin McKidd) and Lord Dingwall (Robbie Coltrane) arrive to compete for Merida's hand in the Highland Games, but she declares she can compete as well in the archery, and this causes her and Elinor to have a big argument, to the point when the daughter slashes the family tapestry and her mother burns her daughter's bow. Merida runs away into the forest, and she follows a trail of wisps, they lead her to the elderly Witch (Julie Walters) who poses as a wood carver in her hut, and after some bargaining and payment the old crone agrees to give her a spell to change things, this is in the form of a cake that she will give her mother. Returning to the castle Merida gives Elinor the cake as some kind of apology gift, and rather than changing her mother's opinion of the marriage she has transformed her mother into a large black bear, and obviously Fergus will hunt and kill any bears that may endanger his family. With the help of the triplet brothers Merida and Elinor escape the castle and run to the woods, and they eventually find the deserted Witch's hut in the forest, but all that is there is a cauldron with a potion to give her a riddle as to how to break the spell, "mend the bond torn by pride", and if this is not done by the second sunrise the Elinor will become a bear both physically and in personality forever. Merida thinks that this riddle means that she should repair the tapestry she damaged, so they make plans, and surviving in the forest the two of them start to work out their previously somewhat parted relationship as mother and daughter, but this is difficult as in moments the bear side of Elinor comes out. Seeing some more wisps they are led to the ancient ruins where they discover more about the prince of Elinor's legend, the story was true and Mor'du was really turned into a bear by the same spell of the Witch, and after escaping an attack from him they head for the castle to put their plan into action. The clans are arguing about the princess marriage and who should be the young man to take her hand, and distracting them from seeing her mother as a bear Merida defends herself and gets them to see that children should be allowed to marry whoever they want in their own time, and then Merida goes to get the tapestry and has her mother turn wild for a moment again. Fergus sees the bear and instantly wants to kill it, and Elinor is chased out of the castle by the king and the party, while Merida's brothers, who also ate the cake and have turned into bear cubs, help her to get out of her room when locked in, and she fixes the tapestry and rides out to save her mother. The clan members have caught Elinor, but Merida gets to the spot in time to stop them killing her, and then Mor'du shows up to attack them, but after a fight he is flattened by one of the rocks in a circle, and the prince's spirit is released. When it looks like the queen may be dying and the sun is rising, Merida places the tapestry over and cries as she hugs what may become a real wild bear, but the sunlight hits and Elinor is transformed back into a human, along with the triplets, and all bonds are restored, oh, and (seen after the credits) all the wood carvings the princess bought are delivered to the kingdom. Also starring Sally Kinghorn as Maudie and John Ratzenberger as Gordon. Macdonald gives a feisty voice to the brave alternative princess, Thompson is good at being uppity in her scenes, Connolly is of course the suitable Scottish voice for the king, and Walters in her moments adds some of the humour as the eccentric sorceress. The story is a simple enough tale that sees a family and kingdom dwellers in feuds and trying to find a way to bring them together, the mother and daughter falling out and bonding concept is nice, the spell of a woman turned to a bear and trying to help it is classic, there is a good amount of adventure to overlap the clichés, and the animation is of course on top form, a great fun family animated fairy tale. It is nominated the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film. Very good!