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Brave – Signaturely Pixar   Leave a comment

Brave, is 13th full feature-length motion picture of Pixar studios, its first fairy tale film, its first film featuring a female lead, and its first film co-directed by a woman. “This is our first period piece. This is our first female main character. This is Brave.” says John Lasseter. Brave is directed by Mark Andrews (Pixar short: One Man Band) and Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt).

La Luna which was the only pixar’s nomination for 2011-12 Oscars, precedes the full length feature. Written and directed by Enrico Casarosa, it tells a story of a young boy Bambino, who is caught in the middle of two personalities (grandfather, father). Their family job is to sweep stars on the moon and on a fine evening both of them introduces Bambino to their line of work. Both the grandfather and father exert control over him and want him to try to be like their own. Amidst conflicting opinions, Bambino somehow manages to finds his own voice which is also the central theme of Brave.

Merida (Kelly Macdonald) is the young princess of a Scottish kingdom- DunBroch that is ruled by King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), just like Princess Zelda she is a skilled archer and with her pet friend Angus the Horse, she fearlessly wanders in the forests that hide dark secrets. Free-spirited, Impulsive, Rebellious, tangle-haired Merdia is a tomboy. Always up for an adventure, she wants to live her life, but her mother relentlessly attempts to turn her into a perfect princess.

Elinor summons for the clans and wants Merida to get married into one of three Lords families. Lord Macintosh, Lord MacGuffin, Lord Dingwall each of the lords are determined to have his own son win princess Merida’s hand, but Merida intensely desires for freedom and King Fergus in a candid conversation with her queen pretty much sums up her daughters yearning “I only want to stay single and let my hair flow in the wind as I ride through the glen firing arrows into the sunset”.

Merida humiliates the three clans and escapes into the deep forests where she follows a trail of wisps that lead her to the home of a witch. She asks witch to help her to change her mother. The witch puts a terrible curse and literally changes her mother into a bear. Merida feels regret over taking the unconventional path and has to set things right before the curse remains as permanent.

The film successfully throws light on the sensitive topic i.e relationship between parents and their children, the effects of a strict parenting, the conflicting emotions that arise due to difference in interests and perceptions. Despite the fact that Merida and Elinor, are proud, independent and headstrong, they have their own different views but they never converge to a point and interact with their respective discrepancies. It is only when Elinor turns into a bear, that specific event triggers both of them to grow closer.

Although Brave is very different,plainly whimsical, not so imaginative, ingenious than its other predecessors, the core-essential elements remain very Pixarish. The Characters, landscape is just incredibly detailed esp the Physics on Merida’s hair, it is so fascinating and magical in the way it moves. It has more than 1500 individually sculpted, curly red strands that generate about 111,700 total hairs. The only complaint : Wish I had watched this movie in 2D  because all too often, most of the 3D frames looked too dark, murky and lifeless. The whole point of watching a movie in 3D is to experience the depth of an image that is realistic, larger than life. However, the 3D images  completely removed the great exuberant aesthetic details for which Pixar is normally famous for.


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