Disney’s Brave

Brave is a fairy tale that may not cover shocking new ground, but has enough charm and visual splendor to still be a great animated film.
The film is set in the Scottish Highlands during the time of castles, magic, and swords. Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald) is none too pleased about her mother Elinor’s (Emma Thompson) attempts to make her a prime and proper lady ready to be married off to one of three suitors from the neighboring clans.
After upstaging the three at an archery contest, Merida ends up running off into the woods where she meets a witch (Julie Walters) who agrees to cast a spell for Merida after the princess decides to buy all the wood carvings made by the witch. Unfortunately for our heroine the witch apparently graduated from the same magic school as the Wishmaster, so hijinks and encounters with the giant, demonic, bear that got her father Fergus’ (Billy Connolly) leg ensue while Merida and her mother try to break the spell.
The first act of the film falls flat, as it feels like typical Disney Princess fair. While there are some laughs early on, it all just feels generic. However, after the spell begins wreaking havoc, we not only get an entertaining escape sequence but also Merida and Elinor learning to communicate due to the spell. This unique take on the communication between mother and daughter mixed with a little fish out of water humor help the film be more than the aforementioned Princess fluff.
Visually the film is a beauty, all the lush forests in the film can make you feel a little disappointed upon exiting the theater to nothing but concrete. And that big demonic bear is actually pretty scary for a PG movie, much scarier than any MegaGigantoSuperCrocSharktopus Syfy has churned up.
There are a lot of the usual girl power tropes, but I’ll take the “Girl likes archery” thing over the “Girl whines about two guys pining after her” thing any day of the week. With some laugh-worthy moments along with the visual flair and surprising action sequences the film saves itself from the vanilla of its first half hour.
3D Note: I did not see this movie in 3D so if your planning on paying the extra money, all I can do is say that I hope that it feels like stuff is flying right at you.
3 stars out of 4