Here’s the good news and the bad news. The good news is, the characters are as cute as ever as we can expect of Pixar; the bad news is, that is the one high point and adult audiences or all-time Pixar fans ought not keep their hopes up. Cute as it is, Brave is almost ultimately for kids.

 

Why that is so? Brave is Pixar’s first fairy tale attempt, what is considered perhaps a new risk and challenge for today’s leading animation studio to accept. Challenge was accepted––yet, was said challenge worth it?

 

Brave narrates the tale of a tomboyish and rather rambunctious teenage daughter, also a princess, named Merida. Her father is the king of Scotland from Clan DunBroch, in charge of keeping the other three clans in peace.

 

A curious thing to note here is that the lord of one of the clans’ name is Lord Macintosh; a sweet tribute to Steve Jobs, perhaps. For those who do not know, Steve Jobs was the one man who ever believed in Pixar, helping them first arise off their feet.

 

The essence of Brave’s plot is that our heroine Merida is constantly at war with her authoritative mother, Queen Elinor, on incommunicative terms with one another; Merida is pressured to act like a lady, talk like a lady, and basically be as a lady. A bordering-on destructive mother-and-daughter relationship is at play.

 

As an act first proposed by her mother herself, the first-born sons of the other three clans are presented to Merida to compete for her hand in marriage, something that Merida is understandably against. She is a wild and freespirited adventurer at heart, who admittedly looks the part all the same. As a girl who takes audacious horse rides into the wild and practices archery as a hobby, Merida does not see eye-to-eye with the traditionalist and lady-like authoritarian figure that is her mother. She runs off from this suffocating scenario of an arranged marriage, as a sure act of defiance and protest against her mother.

 

A spell is cast on Merida’s world, as mythological apparition and urban legend interweave with reality. She is swept into an unexpected adventure with an unexpected partner, her mother, as they find themselves on an entwined journey to “mend the bond torn by pride.” Brave certainly brings out all the stuff that fairy tales are made of, and are expected of, but with a much too obvious and cliched take.

 

It is a classic tale of a classic heroine, quite similar to most other fairy tales that it comes off as stunningly dull and predictable at times. The young daughter will defy tradition and marry for love; one’s future or fate is up to the beholder, not others; the protagonist is a princess. Considering the last point, why is it that Pixar’s first female protagonist has to be of royal blood? Is there no other role that a girl may perform in an animated feature? Disney has plenty nursed this princess act, so it is unfathomable as to why Pixar felt they had to take over these particular reins.

 

Brave is indeed Pixar, but it is honestly no Pixar classic. Take it from an overly - zeal ous Pixar fanatic––an otaku, if you will. Where hath all the imagination gone that I have known and admired of Pixar since Toy Story? Regrettably to say, what Brave conceives does not strike the same chord as what the dramatic and inspiring telling of a broken relationship rekindled between father and son of Finding Nemo embodied; it is no The Incredibles in its heart-rousing tale of one self-absorbed family man finding himself through his family. Pixar has time and again been big on “family first” themes, but perchance this time it was one too many. Do not get me wrong, I am all for building healthy mother-and-daughter relationships––just, Brave did not cut it with its unexpectedly cliched approach to it this time around. Or possibly the bar was set up too high, considering Pixar’s past blockbuster landslide victories.

 

Still, the biggest disappointment of all is in Brave’s undeniably blatant similarities to other movies, both also of Walt Disney Studios. Presenting Brother Bear, and in a minor way Freaky Friday, it seems Pixar there has been a tremendous oversight throughout the entire planning stage of Brave. It is as if Pixar had a huge blind spot against their own partner company that is Walt Disney Studios; intentional or not, they failed. These two classic movies entail a “transformation” of some sort, appropriately crucial to each movie’s key message; physical transformation exchanged for an inner transformation in being. Those who have indeed watched either or both of these movies should watch out and prepare for a letdown, or save themselves the pain and wait for the DVD to come out. Perhaps in the essence of Brave being the studio’s first-ever fairy tale creation, all this can be forgivable. It however does embrace the classic Pixar touch fans are so familiar with, vis-á-vis its characters and their relatable and loveable personas, as well as the visually intense and intrinsically detailed CG landscape designs that is Scotland.

 

Our heroine Merida also has three younger brothers, secondary characters to the story, who nonetheless play as suitable comic relief throughout the movie’s progression. Them being identical triplets at a mischievous age, the brothers’ sly but cute many antics around the castle, in tricking the maids and smuggling snacks, are hilarious and diverting in a good way.

 

Pixar does not disappoint when it comes down to character and landscape design, but that was far from enough to cover for the flagrant unoriginality of Brave’s every other aspect. Cute, yes. Worth going to theaters for? Not necessarily… 

Release Date September 27

Directed by Mark Andrews

Starring Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson

Rated PG

93 minutes