Movie Review: A Thrilling Children's Story, Brave Doesn't Reach ...

Location

Wide Release

Dates

Opens June 22

The latest Disney-Pixar summer movie, Brave, almost feels like a throwback to the pre-digital Disney days, when the studio was reborn under titles of films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King. Unlike other Pixar films, from the Toy Stories, to The Incredibles, to Up, the film unfolds in a more traditional fairy tale world, medieval Scotland, full of kings and queens, witches and magic. Like Finding Nemo, Brave is a story about parents and children discovering each other through adventure. And like all of the Disney-Pixar products, it bristles with action, comedy, and brisk storytelling.

Merida (Kelly Macdonald) is the star, a spirited teenage tom boy princess, who discovers that coming of age in her world requires her betrothal to one of the other Scottish kings? hapless sons. In Brave?s Scotland, the country was torn apart by war until the clans decided on this tradition of intermarriage to appease their restless, warmongering inclinations. But Merida will have none of it. When an archery contest is staged to determine which of the sons is worthy of Merida?s hand, the young firecracker slips out of the royal tent and grabs her own bow and arrow, showing up the boys. It is one of Brave?s most electric scenes, and even though I had seen in the trailer a handful of times, the pace and the drama of the scene is still thrilling.

Merida?s skill with the bow is not enough to shirk tradition, however, and there seems to be nothing left to do but to follow in Nemo?s fin-steps and run away. Racing through the dark and mysterious Scottish countryside on her trusty horse, the young girl comes upon a woodcarver?s hut that soon reveals itself to be the lair of a tricky, if appealing jocular, witch (Julie Walters). Some good-hearted high jinks ensue, leaving Merida with a magic muffin that promises to ?change her fate? if she feeds it to her overbearing mother, Elinor (Emma Thompson). But the change the witch has conjured, and what Merida expects, couldn?t be more different.

Disney and Pixar have built a reputation in recent years of producing not only some of the best children?s movies released every year, but some of the best movies period. Adults who can read the multiple layers of irony and wit, metaphor and allegory contained in such cautionary modern tales as The Incredibles, WALL-E, Toy Story 3, and Up, often enjoy the movies more than their children. But Brave sees a return to an earlier era of Disney, one that roots its thematic concerns wholeheartedly in the experience of childhood (sorry parents).

Merida?s father, Fergus (Billy Connolly) is a formidable force of paternal love, concerned more with food, sport, and fun than with the affairs of the kingdom. He has allowed his daughter to taste the freedom of an unrestricted childhood ? perhaps too much, as the obligations that come with age prove too forceful a tug. His wife, Elinor, on the other hand, keeps the kingdom and family stitched together (a difficult task considering Merida?s three ravel rousing brothers, who inject Brave with a fair amount of effective slapstick), but responsibility has hardened her. Brave?s adventure story has the dual effect of teachingMerida responsibility while warming Elinor to her daughter?s thirst for a more visceral existence.

All three family members prove to be well-hewn archetypes, which allows for Brave?s message-y thematic scope to play underneath what is first and foremost a captivating thriller. At times dark and suspenseful, it proved intermittently scary for my four-year-old, who accompanied me to the screening. But it?s the undeniable warmth of the story that lingers longest, its jolly sense of humor and strong moral core. Cynics may want to draw parallels with some of Brave?s thematic content ? the shirking of tradition for individual desires in the face of marital customs ? with some of the day?s raging political debates. But Brave?s intent is both simpler and more timeless than such a reading. It is a story about how growing up forces you to discover new love and esteem for the very people who have been there all along.

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