Bravehair

Rating: 7/10 (25 June 2012)

This film is recommended.
The title for the new Pixar / Disney collaboration, Brave, seems a bit of a contradiction of terms. Unlike other ground-breaking animated features like Ratatouille, Up, Wall-e, Finding Nemo, or its Toy Story trilogy, where artistry and story perfectly mesh, this offering plays it all too safe in its narrative while still awing the movie-going audience with breathtaking CGI effects. ( This film is more of a minor achievement, in line with Monsters, Inc. and Cars. ) Perhaps, the once edgy and creative Pixar is becoming more conventional and too much concerned with the Disney marketing machine. Hopefully that is not the case.
The story is rather predictable and its message too preachy. An independently-minded princess ( sure to be in toy stores from the holidays ) named Merida wants nothing to do with marriage or hand-picked suitors to wed. Merida would rather climb mountains, ride horseback and shot arrows. It's girl power all the way! Her mother, Queen Elinor, would rather that her daughter be more ladylike and refined and follow the traditions of the past. This leads the princess to take matters into her own hands.
The film's strengths are in the visual detailing. Pixar is known for its glorious textures and stunning settings, and in Brave, that continues to be its forte. ( The renderings of animal fur done in a photo-realistic style, the transparent liquidity of water and rain, the panoramic vistas of forests, fields, and streams, all these elements help to enhance this tale. Particularly impressive is the facile expressions and movement of the bears in this film and the stylish exaggeration of the film's secondary characters. ( Not so impressive: A major misstep are the characters of the Queen which lack any real dimension and our heroine, Merida, who becomes a living Kewpie doll creation, far too cute and rather bland in the mix. ) Voiceovers by Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, and Julie Walters truly capture the Scottish lilt and add the right tone and rhythms to the dialog.
However, the slim story never takes hold. It downplays the more serious dramatic issues and emphasizes the comedy. There is no good vs. evil side, no real villain to hiss at. ( One is introduced midway, but its seems an afterthought and doesn't build any tension at all. ) Everyone around the two strong-willed but essentially dull central characters of mother and daughter is portrayed as a clownish buffoon or an oafish lout. In fact, all of the male species in Brave serve as comic fodder while the women are seen to be far superior in intellect and manner. At times, I personally found this conflict to be chauvinistic to the male gender as the film exults the female liberation aspects in such a heavy-handed and biased way.
Yet there are certain scenes in the film that are such wonderful examples of state-of-the- art animation and this artistry elevates the film to a higher level of worth. ( The archery contest, the fishing scene, and the climactic hunt come to mind. ) But the sum of the film's individual parts outweigh the overall effect. Brave might have been given the royal treatment by all of the artisans involved with this venture, but its pure-bred pedigree falls short of its Pixar predecessors. Let's hope their next project will center on a more demanding and compelling script and return this studio to its glory days of Ole. GRADE: B
Visit my blog at: www.dearmoviegoer.com
ANY COMMENTS: Please contact me at: jadepietro@rcn.com to add comments.