Brave

After disappointing critics and audiences with last year's sequel Cars 2 (which holds the dubious distinction of being the only Pixar movie snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences when they nominated films for Best Animated Feature earlier this year), Pixar Studios has bounced back nicely with the fairy tale Brave.

Set in medieval Scotland, Brave is the story of Princess Merida (Kelly MacDonald) a free-spirited princess who is doted on by her father King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and kept on a very short leash by her mother Queen Elinore(Emma Thompson). It is Merida's relationship with the latter that primarily drives the story.

The story begins during Merida's childhood, when the King, the Queen, and their very young princess are on a picnic, during which the young Merida encounters a will o' the wisp, and during which a monstrous bear attacks them, leaving King Fergus without one of his legs.

As she grows older, Merida finds herself annoyed by her mother's constant attention to her, which consists mostly of lessons on what a princess should be or do. Considering that pretty much all she wants to do is ride around the countryside and shoot her bow, which she has had since childhood and with which she is quite handy, she is basically in complete opposition to what her mother wants for her. When Queen Elinore arranges for Merida's betrothal to any of the princes of the neighboring Scottish clans, this proves to be the last straw for Merida, and after outshining her various suitors in the archery competition in which they were supposed to win her hand in marriage (by virtue of which she wins "her own hand") she engages in extensive verbal sparring with her mother and runs off into the forest, where she meets a witch who, she comes to believe, holds the answer to her problems.

She then asks the witch to concoct a potion that will change her mother, and what she gets is something completely unlike anything she expected.

Like Merida, I found myself watching something I had not expected.

My curiosity was not particularly piqued by the trailers; the "independent girl" theme they seemed to suggest seemed a little quaint by Pixar standards, especially considering the recent film by rival Dreamworks, How to Train Your Dragon, featured highly empowered female characters. I was willing to forego that, but when the early reviews seemed unusually negative for a Pixar film I feared that they still had not snapped out of the funk they had fallen into with the disastrous Cars 2.

Upon watching the movie, though, I confess I found myself disagreeing with the haters. Apart from a little crude humor involving male nudity that looked more like it belonged in a movie by one of Pixar's rivals than one of theirs, it displayed a good deal of Pixar's signature charm, and the heart that has distinguished Pixar as the gold standard in animated filmmaking today.

Plucky Merida, for example, is as memorable as any of the characters that have trotted out of the studio that John Lasseter and Steve Jobs founded, and it's easy to relate to her, especially when the film turns out to be about how parent-child relationships can often be. Apart from Queen Elinore, though, the supporting characters, while not nearly as engaging as Pixar's cast of characters usually are, such as the fish in the dentist's fish tank in Finding Nemo, or The Incredibles' Edna Mode, were good for a lot of laughs, especially Merida's three younger brothers who might as well have been named Huey, Dewey and Louie.

The visuals, as can be expected from Pixar, are breathtaking, especially with the Scottish Highlands are the film's backdrop. I skipped the 3-D presentation, having been badly burned on my first and only 3-D experience from Pixar (Toy Story 3), but I'm glad to have enjoyed such vibrant colors on the screen. There were also a few missed opportunities, in my opinion, as the magical aspect of the storytelling was limited to the will o' the wisps, and a little witchcraft, though the latter proved to be transformative in more ways than one. Still, the story proceeded at just the right pace.

Though Brave does not rate among my favorite Pixar films, it's memorable in its own right and is a worthy addition to their library. It may have played a little more like a Dreamworks movie than Pixar's usual fare, but it was still something I think I managed to enjoy as much as my kids did, and something I will happily recommend, though by now people will have to wait to catch it on DVD.

4/5