Pixar's first fairy tale is a winner!

Rating: 9/10 (25 January 2014)

I love Pixar films, especially the Toy Story franchise. Like WALL-E, this is another Pixar film I never got to see at the cinema but saw for the first time upon renting the DVD. I didn't watch this the whole way through first time around due to a faulty disc but when I reported it, LoveFilm sent me a replacement that played with no trouble throughout. The second viewing made this film thoroughly enjoyable.
The concept of this film being set in Scotland is unique for Pixar. The Scottish accents from Emma Thompson and Julie Walters are spot-on and Kelly MacDonald (who I remember vaguely as Evangeline in Nanny McPhee) was perfect as the headstrong Merida - likewise with Billy Connoly as Fergus. I loved the authentic musical score by Patrick Doyle while the songs by Julie Fowlis and Birdy with Mumford and Sons were lovely. The backgrounds were gorgeously and realistically rendered while some of the character designs were reminiscent of those used in The Incredibles (especially Merida and Elinor) but in a good way. Merida is beautiful with distinctive curly red hair and her triplet brothers are cute and comical. The animation is up to Pixar's usual standards - I especially liked Merida's effective archery scene that I remember seeing in an advert for this film.
The story stands out from all the others that Pixar used and it had some clever and amusing parts such as Elinor talking to Fergus when he was pretending to be Merida while Merida was cleaning Angus's stable (that scene's intelligent editing made it look as if Elinor and Merida were actually talking to each other), a male character mooning (albeit his bottom not being Shown on screen) whilst saying, " Feast your eyes!" and the hologram of the witch floating above the cauldron acting as an automated telephone message. There are also some emotionally intense and dark moments in the story such as Merida and Elinor not seeing eye-to-eye with each other and Elinor turning into a bear. My only complaint is that the story was complicated in parts but it still had some standout moments.
Overall, this is a highly entertaining and authentically-produced Pixar film that was more enjoyable the whole way through. 9/10.