Plot: In Medieval Scotland, a princess named Merida is determined to become a ruler of her kingdom without having to marry a man, much to the dismay of her mother, Queen Elinor. Mother and daughter continue to bicker about Merida's role in her kingdom until Merida ultimately ends a tournament for her hand in marriage by defeating all of the participants in an archery contest. Merida leaves in frustration, encountering a mystic in the woods who agrees to help Merida change her life. The change transforms her mother into a bear and she is warned that unless she can mend the bridge between her and her mother, the change will become permanent. Mother and daughter then must mend the broken bridges as the clans are on the brink of war and save their kingdom before the king kills the wild bear and Elinor loses her humanity.
What's Bad?: Unlike the vast majority of Pixar films, this film lacks originality. It seems very much like a Disney film trying to disguise itself as a Pixar film. It has the magic transformations, the headstrong teenaged female lead, adorable little kid sidekicks, dopey dads, and a medieval tone that seemed to try to fit alongside films like Aladdin and Cinderella before sitting next to Toy Story and Up. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem, but I hold Pixar up to a significantly higher standard than I do it's main peers. This was the studio that produced the films that were good despite not having much of the formulamatic structure that animated kids films had in the 90's (teenage/ young adult romance, big dramatic villains, comic relief, musical numbers, and overall likable quality). Pixar created movies that stood against those animated stereotypes and instead of relying on the typical Disney tropes, it gave us movies that included:
A Buddy Comedy about Toys
An Epic Journey of a Father searching for his Son
A Love story between robots
A Superhero movie about an older Superhero who tries to come out of retirement
The journey of an old man to keep his promise with his love
What's Good?: The only thing about this film that stands out is the animation, which is once more brilliant. That's really the only major compliment you can give the mediocre to bad Pixar films. But this film in particular has some significant animation. The film really gives us the illusion of being in Scotland, in the same sense as how films like Bambi and The Lion King gave us the illusion of being in the woods and Africa. The mysticism and majesty of the world is on full display in this film.
Overall: Brave was not the only major film of 2012 to be an enormous disappointment, but it was definitely one of the most infamous. It was the film that was supposed to change the animation landscape forever, but it fell apart almost as quickly as it took it's place. There was a game changing animated film coming, but Pixar would not be the one to make it. Pixar is in dire need of a shakeup and perhaps they shouldn't look to their roots to reboot their legacy. Perhaps they need to look inside themselves and understand just what they were about for their great 15 year run. Because the next film is definitely not an improvement...
Final Grade: 76 or C
Next Review: Monsters University
Then: An In Depth Look at Phase III of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Later: Antz
Finally: The Prince of Egypt
No comments:
Post a Comment