Brave - (June 22nd,
2012): PG
Distributor: Walt
Disney Pictures
Opening Weekend Box Office:
#1with $66,323,594
Domestic Box Office
Gross to-date: $131,685,000
Gross Revenue: $158,485,000
Production Budget:
$185 million
Directors: Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
First announced in April 2008 as “The
Bear and the Bow,” Brave actually
represented a number of firsts for Pixar Animation, in that it would be the
studio’s first attempt at a fairy tale and represent the first time that a
female would act as the main protagonist.
Enter Princess Merida, a far cry from the traditional damsel-in-distress
who would function as a strong and independent role model for young girls,
thereby clearing the way for endless merchandising opportunities, whether that
involved the dolls with the character’s likeness or the red hair wigs that
saturated the aisles of Target. Yet,
even though awareness was high, I did spot a few hiccups in the marketing campaign,
but the ludicrous lawsuit by the Atlanta Braves baseball team related to
copyright infringement doesn’t really count; instead, I was more concerned
about the positioning for the film that was delivered in the trailers. Aside from the fact that I felt that the main
trailer was too long, it was almost like Disney/Pixar couldn’t decide which
audience to target, as certain versions of the trailer played up the princess
angle and the pedigree of the parent studio, while others used energetic music
from the punk-rock band Dropkick Murphys to showcase a funny and irreverent adventure
that would appeal to the male demographic…talk about messages that are more
than slightly mixed. Still, in light of
all the trailers, very few concrete details concerning Brave’s narrative were actually released, making a tagline like “Change
Your Fate” especially tantalizing; so, between Disney/Pixar’s reputation and
the high levels of curiosity concerning the plot, this animated film was going
to hit theaters like a veritable juggernaut.
Set in the highlands of 10th
century Scotland, Brave follows the
tale of the independent and free-spirited Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald),
who is currently quarreling with her parents, King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and
Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), over her impending arranged marriage. When the lords of the allied clans, Dingwall
(Robbie Coltrane), Macintosh (Craig Ferguson), and MacGuffin (Kevin McKidd), arrive
and present their first-born sons to compete for the princess’ hand in the
Highland Games, Merida embarrasses the kingdom and insults the lords by defiantly
entering the competition herself. After
a vicious argument with her mother,
Merida retreats into the forest, where the mystical Will O’ The Wisps lead her
to an elderly witch (Julie Walters) who offers to cast a spell that will allow
the young princess to change her mother, and by extension, her fate. Though initially hoping that her mother will
simply change her mind and call-off the arranged marriage, Merida is horrified
to discover that Queen Elinor has instead been transformed into a giant bear. Returning to the witch, Merida discovers that
the spell must be undone by the second sunrise or the effects will become
permanent, and that the only hope of reversal lies in a cryptic riddle. Add to that the rising tensions between the
Royal Family and the Scottish Lords, and Merida is tasked with both restoring
her mother and repairing the damage she has caused the kingdom, otherwise she
risks losing both forever.
I have complimented the visual
clarity and extraordinary detail of animated films so regularly that the accolade
has lost a majority of its weight, so even though Brave does deliver in this department, the strongest aspect of this
film is instead the character interactions.
In terms of laugh-out-loud humor, King Fergus, the young triplet princes,
and the Scottish Lords offer that metric in spades, especially in relation to
Celtic culture, but the real brilliance lies in Queen Elinor after she
transforms into a bear. Robbed of speech
and therefore forced to mime in order to communicate, the resulting interaction
between Queen Elinor and her defiant daughter as they learn more about each
other is both clever and hysterical, and I could have easily watched just that
dynamic for hours. Fear not though,
because there is plenty of emotional impact as well, because Merida’s
independence and the strengthened mother-daughter bond featured both deliver a
strong message for young audiences; and, despite my best efforts, the tears did
begin to flow during the narrative’s climactic and heartfelt reconciliation. In light of these strong aspects though, Brave isn’t exactly a groundbreaker, and
that is largely due to both the aggressive marketing campaign and the
limitations of the traditional fairytale formula.
In the “Short and Sweet” review, I
mentioned that the trailers for Brave
reveal an enormous portion of the beginning, but even though that misstep is
big, it can’t hide the fact that Disney-Pixar failed to truly stretch the
traditional fairy tale. Most of you know
that I take pride to seek-out every promotional element possible for a film
prior to its release, thereby sacrificing a good amount of surprise, but I
guarantee that if you have gone to a family film or turned on the television in
the past few weeks, then you have already seen the first half hour of Brave.
Granted, I didn’t see the “transformed-into-a-bear” hook coming at all
and that did represent a welcome surprise, but that doesn’t change the fact
that I was disappointed that so much of the film’s beginning had been
prematurely revealed. And, even though Disney-Pixar
usually goes out of its way to offer an unconventional tale for audiences,
there are simply too many familiar fairy tale elements present; anyone who has
seen a Disney fairy tale before can decipher the witch’s “mysterious” riddle
instantaneously. In the end, though it
is by no means a weak film and does outdo several of its predecessors, it does
seem like Brave failed to take the
necessary risks that would have put it on par with some of Disney/Pixar’s
classics.
Cementing the strength of the Pixar
brand, Brave opened in over 4,000
locations and pulled in $66 million in its opening weekend, representing the 13th-straight
first place opening for the studio. Even
though the film did perform at the upper end of pre-release forecasts,
absolutely no one was surprised by the opening ranking, considering the fact
that Madagascar 3 has been out for
weeks and the only real competition at the theater was Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
And even though the international presence isn’t as strong as I would
have expected, the fact remains away that revenues are quickly closing in on
the substantial production budget, so there is little to worry about; at least
until Ice Age: Continental Drift
opens in a few weeks and splits the animated audience even further. At the very least, I would love to see more in
the future from the characters that were introduced, but as I have mentioned in
the past, my strongest lobbying for a Pixar sequel will be The Incredibles 2. So even
though I doubt that a majority of my readers are on the fence concerning Brave, I can quell concerns and assure
you that this newest animated film is well-worth seeing.
Overall Recommendation: High
