{"id":3193,"date":"2012-06-22T01:49:32","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T08:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=3193"},"modified":"2012-06-22T01:49:32","modified_gmt":"2012-06-22T08:49:32","slug":"brave-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=3193","title":{"rendered":"Brave is Missing some Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nSomething just isn\u2019t quite right. It has been a couple of years since the mammoth companies have joined forces and have gone from \u201cDisney Presents a PIXAR Film\u201d to \u201cA Disney\/PIXAR Production\u201d. Since the merger there has been some quality bleed through: Disney movies have gotten better (See: \u201cTangled\u201d) as PIXAR movies have taken a step back (Don\u2019t See: \u201cCars 2\u201d). Now with \u201cBrave\u201d we get another PIXAR film that is far from perfect, sprinkled with half-baked ideas and missing some magic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not that Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) isn\u2019t a fine addition to the Princess Collection. Headstrong and independent, the fiery redhead makes for a great heroine and the world around her is lush and beautiful. There is no doubt that \u201cBrave\u201d is an improvement over the 90 toy commercial that was the second install of the \u201cCars\u201d series. The poor lass just isn\u2019t given enough to do and the entire story ends up feeling slight and quaint. The finished result is fine enough but who wants\/expects average from PIXAR? The sad thing here is the potential that was lost.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Parent\u2019s Warning: \u201cBrave\u201d has some very scary images late in the film. Little ones might have some trouble.<\/strong>
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\nThe premise is familiar enough: Three clans have joined at the castle to trot their first-born son before the princess who is to be married to the best of the bunch. Problem is Princess Merida is a modern woman who doesn\u2019t want to do something just because it is expected of her. This infuriates her mother, the Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), who has spent every waking moment making sure that Merida behaves has a young, proper princess should. With no answer to the dilemma in site, Merida runs off to the forest looking for a way to change her destiny.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I will stop the synopsis there, as one of the delights of \u201cBrave\u201d is the unsuspecting twists that come in the second act. I\u2019m sure the reveal will be given away soon enough but I refuse to be the one to ruin it for you. Spoiler Free here at Cinemastance. That\u2019s how I roll.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The major flaw of \u201cBrave\u201d is the lack of any real villain. Sure, conflicts must be overcome but this is a tale of lore and there needs to be a baddie to make things right. Imagine \u201cSleeping Beauty\u201d without Maleficent and merely a dragon to slay at the end. Something is lacking.<\/strong>
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\nThe computer generated plains and castles of Scotland are unbelievable (I remember the only good thing I could say about \u201cCars 2\u201d was that the backgrounds were gorgeous. Not a good sign when that is a film\u2019s best quality) but the brogue spouting characters that inhabit it are too reminiscent of Dreamworks \u201cHow to Train a Dragon\u201d from a few years back. The film also struggles to find its theme, starting things out focusing on independence and being an individual, then casting that aside and becoming a rather cartoony finished product.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I enjoyed \u201cBrave\u201d but 15 years of wonderful from PIXAR has gotten me spoiled. The film is a fine kid\u2019s movie but it could have been fine art. With a \u201cMonsters Inc.\u201d prequel next on the horizon it seems safe to declare the First Golden Age of PIXAR as being over.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something just isn\u2019t quite right. It has been a couple of years since the mammoth companies have joined forces and have gone from \u201cDisney Presents a PIXAR Film\u201d to \u201cA Disney\/PIXAR Production\u201d. Since the merger there has been some quality bleed through: Disney movies have gotten better (See: \u201cTangled\u201d) as PIXAR movies have taken a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1469,3429,5930,11675,16155],"class_list":["post-3193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-animation-movie-reviews","tag-brave-movie-review","tag-disney-movies","tag-kids-movie-reviews","tag-pixar"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}