Brave

I finally got round to using my free cinema tickets (well, free with about £200 of ESSO petrol – but I would have bought that anyway). I decided to take Raymond along to see Brave – Pixar’s latest CGI masterpiece. I have come to the conclusion that Pixar work on a “one for them, one for us” basis with Disney. They will do a lunchbox friendly Disney type film like Finding Nemo or Cars and then do something a little more esoteric for themselves like WALL-E or Ratatouille. I have loved pretty much everything they have done since the ground-breaking Toy Story but I tend to like the latter type of film – the ones where they push the boundaries a little. I expected Brave to fall into this latter camp, and it largely does, although I feel it has been reigned in at times from something much darker. However, whilst it still gets a PG rating I wouldn’t advise taking very young children to see it – at least not at the cinema.

The story is a faery-tale set in the Scottish Highlands at some undetermined but distinctly Middle Earth type era. It surrounds the misadventures of Merida, a flame haired tom-boy, who is the daughter of King Fergus and destined to be married off to one of the eldest sons of the neighbouring clan chiefs. Of course, Merida has different ideas and runs off into the forest with somewhat disastrous results. It is the episodes in the forest which leads to some of the films darker segments with a very much Grimm feel to it – in spite of the obvious humour. I did wonder whether this would lead to a more Disney take on the film but it felt much more in line with the impish visions that Tim Burton would produce. Overall I think this worked but Raymond commented that he didn’t think it would be that suitable for his younger siblings (which I think translates as him finding it a bit creepy himself.)

The one great thing with this production is the use of an almost entirely Scottish cast (I think Emma Thompson counts here – and she did have the sense to go with a well spoken Bearsden-type accent). Apparently they originally asked Reece Witherspoon to voice Merida but when scheduling didn’t allow for that they went with Kelly Macdonald which I think was a very smart move. Other notable voices include Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin McKidd and Craig Ferguson. Having avoided forced Scottish accents they also avoided the Caledonian mawkishness of Brigadoon or the wanton Tartanry of Braveheart – at least when they did hint at such stereotypes it was to mock them rather than reinforce them. This came through in the language as well with Scots words thrown in and knowing references to the likes of The Broons. Whether those references will transfer to a wider audience is unclear but I think Pixar films have always operated on several levels anyway.

The other interesting thing with this film is that it has a female lead and explores the relationship between mother and daughter. It may have been quite easy to turn this into some sort of bratty teen picture but the relationship that unfolds is more subtle and complicated than that. In fact it is this something that really sets it aside from other mainstream animation – at least those produced in America. Although the animation is obviously Pixar there are many elements of the  film that would not look out of place in Japanese animations such as the Studio Ghibli films (Spirited Away springs to mind – in fact there are a surprising number of similarities in the themes given that they are quite different films)

So overall I think this was one of Pixar’s successes. It may not have been the game changer that Toy Story was or as original as WALL-E but at least it does leave me wanting to see it again (which is more than I could say for the Cars films). I was also rather taken with Merida who is the split of one of Raymond’s schoolmates. Next up for Pixar is a sequel to Monsters Inc. One for Disney, then?