#Mother and merida brave movie

The deal, struck by Merida’s dad King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and the leaders of the kingdom’s three other tribes, is that each generation re-confirms their unsteady peace by bringing two tribes together. “Marriage isn’t the end of the world!” So declares Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), when her flamboyantly redheaded daughter Merida (Kelly Macdonald) insists she won’t marry a man she doesn’t know. But this doesn't make it a bad movie, and it can still be enjoyed.Editor’s note: This review contains plot spoilers. And so 'Brave' ends up in a half-realized zone - respectable, yet somehow off, even slightly at war with itself. It's against fairy-tale rules to make the heroine anything other than a teenage girl. Alas, 'Brave,' lopsided in its focus and confused in its impulses, won't, or can't, acknowledge that. She is the least simple of the characters and the one that best exemplifies the film's title.

#Mother and merida brave movie

But in the case of 'Brave,' it's not, because the movie is structurally locked into promoting a conclusion that the filmmakers don't completely believe, one that might even be at war with their own unconscious impulses: Merida is the heroine. It's pretty twisted, and twisted can be good. We won't say here what happens, but it's nothing that has been revealed in trailers. To be sure, this approach makes the mother-daughter interaction more realistic, but it also invites the viewer to see the characters in realistic terms, and to judge their actions accordingly.Īnd Merida's actions involve a wood-carving old witch and a magic spell that turns out to bring more changes than she expected. Indeed, the movie may tilt the balance too far in Mom's direction, so that the film's ostensible heroine ceases to seem adorably spunky and becomes more like an awful brat.

Merida may have problems with Mom, but the audience sees Mom's point of view as well. Instead of presenting its characters as archetypes of either good or evil, 'Brave' offers something different. The crisis between mother and daughter comes to a head when Merida, in her early teens, is told that she must choose a husband. The Queen, her mother (Emma Thompson), tries to raise her to be perfect and proper, but Merida is more like her father the King (Billy Connolly), a hunter and a jolly slob. On the surface, we get the story of Merida (the voice of Kelly Macdonald), a princess who is born into a destiny she would prefer to escape. Here, there is a sort of subterranean unacknowledged rage. In the best fairy tales, there is a subconscious truth. The miracle that was 'Wall-E,' 'Up' and 'Toy Story 3' - with their ability to be simple yet profound, universal in their perception while bypassing audience defenses - is not repeated here. But in terms of story and emotional power, 'Brave' comes up short. The curly red hair of the heroine is rendered with unusual specificity and naturalness, and the animators convey character through posture and gesture with the insight of the great silent filmmakers. Technically and visually, 'Brave' is up to Pixar's exalted standards. 1 of2 Pixar delivers gorgeous computer-animated detail with Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), above, and the triplets Harris, Hubert and Hamish in 'Brave.' Pixar Show More Show Less 2 of2 Pixar delivers gorgeous computer-animated detail with Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), above, and the triplets Harris, Hubert and Hamish in 'Brave.' Pixar Show More Show Lessīy now, Pixar, in a class by itself, must compete with itself, and this isn't a good thing for 'Brave,' a pleasing-enough but unremarkable little story about an unconventional fairy-tale princess having mother issues in medieval Scotland.