There's a point in Disney/Pixar's
Brave
– the latest animated effort to be ushered in under the watermark
of Luxo Jr. and (more imposingly) Cinderella's castle – when an
impatient character declares, “We've all heard this story before!”
The teller of said story defends by emphasizing that stories and
legends ring with truths, however familiar they be. The same point
can be made of
Brave itself, a decidedly predictable fairytale
more aligned with the traditional morality tales of the Brothers
Grimm than with the wild inventiveness upon which Pixar's brand was
built, but that doesn't make the story any less beautiful or
touching.
At the centre of this earnestly
conceived fable is Merida (Kelly Macdonald), princess of the clan
Dingwall who reign in the Scottish highlands, gorgeously rendered
here by some of Pixar's most stunning animation to date, courtesy of
their newly programmed Presto animation system. Merida is in the
illustrious but unenviable position of being able to sire peace
between hers and three rival clans if she would only willingly marry
one of their first born sons, as prescribed by tradition. No
pressure, kid. It would certainly please her mother, Queen Elinor
(Emma Thompson), who spends no small amount of effort primping her
daughter to be a perfect lady. But Merida is a tomboy of fiery,
untamable disposition – with fiery, untamable hair to match – who
would much rather spend her days riding out with her trusty bow and a
quiver of arrows than resign herself to a lifetime of wifehood. After
one particularly heated confrontation with mom, she takes off into
the woods, where the mystical will o' the wisps, lighting up the
forest floor like floating pilot lights, lead her to a witch's hut.
She bargains with the batty old woman (Julie Walters) for a spell
that will change her mother's mind about the whole marriage thing,
but failing to be specific, gets a spell with more ursine
consequences than she expected.
