Pixar has done it again, Brave is a beautifully animated fairytale set in Scotland. The princess in this story, Merida, is a fiery red head with a mind of her own. No damsel in distress waiting for Prince Charming, Merida is determined to choose her destiny instead of allowing tradition to chose it for her. Merida wants to ride her horse and shoot arrows. There is nothing prissy about this princess, she is as rough and tumble as any boy.
For the first time we see a strong bond between mother and daughter in a fairytale. Somehow, along the way, princesses became helpless little things raised by their father or wicked step mothers. Queen Elinor is very much in attendance and a strong character in the movie. All Queen Elinor wants is for Merida to act like a princess, which is the last thing Merida wants. As a result Queen Elinor can be a little overbearing and demanding, but she has the best intention.
Merida, in typical teenage fashion, decides that she will not marry the son from the rival clan that wins the right to her hand. Instead, she sets into the woods. As she travels into the woods she meets some magical creatures including a witch who grants her wish to change her mother, and Merida hopes, allow her to change her fate.
When Merida comes home the results of her wish are not exactly what she had anticipated and she spends the movie trying to undo her mistake.
One of the best things about this movie is the interaction between mother and daughter, neither one of them is going to take having their wishes denied sitting down, and this is what leads to the story.
The animation for this is incredible and worth seeing simply for that . Merida’s hair has 1,500 individual curls and worked for months to get them to move realistically in each scene. Animation has certainly come a long way since those old Saturday morning cartoons we grew up with.