Movie Review: Brave

Obviously, movies like Brave with a reputable production company behind it will tend to be well enough in all directions to be considered a good enough movie. At the very least, I expected Brave to be an enjoyable little Disney/Pixar flick. Did it disappoint? The most appropriate term would be “somewhat”.

From the first few scenes, one will be able to tell that this movie is well-directed. The best scenes are really the views of the landscape you see in the opening moments that set up the whimsical tone that the film carries pretty well. But, besides those scenes, it never broke from the average animated film fare’s direction style of focusing on big, wide scenes but accentuating little hilarious background details.

You’d think there’d be little problems with a Disney film’s plot, since if you’re outside of the demographic, you know there’s going to be a generic happy ending. But, the problem lies in the premise of the film itself: The mother of the main character is magically transformed into a bear for a majority of the movie. (The retreading of Disney’s other film, Brother Bear is not appreciated). As the dignified mother fumbles about in a bear’s body she comes to understand the bland moral of the movie, which is some uninteresting idea about being yourself and not pretending to be something you aren’t, or whatever Disney is consistently forcing down their demographics’ throats.

Think about it. The mom is a bear. Of course, she can’t pretend to be a queen; in the film she is turning into a monstrous bear. But our heroine? Not a bear. The film seems to be comparing her free spiritedness to being a monstrous bear. Those things simply aren’t very comparable at all. This makes our heroine seem like she believes she’s entitled to be able to do whatever she wants rather than simply being indignant due to a forced betrothal.

How are viewers supposed to like the movie and learn a lesson when the movie’s premise itself is confused? This may appear to be a small detail at first, but if you pull this one string, the 6 dollar Wal-Mart shirt that is Brave begins to fall apart at the seams.