Brave
Brave (2012)
I am Merida, and I'll be shooting for my own hand.
”Our fate lives in us. You only have to be brave enough to see it.” - Merida
Brave is a story of a young Scottish princess, Merida, who seeks to become her own person while still remaining true to her family. Merida has a hard time following the rules set by her parents and is constantly challenging them in an effort to establish her own identity. As a lot of teenagers do, Merida has one parent with whom she struggles with in getting along with. For Merida it is her mother, Queen Elinor, and while she and her father, King Fergus, have a good relationship, she and her mother are always butting heads.
At the beginning of the movie, we see a young Merida chase after a stray arrow into the woods and she meets a magical being - a will-o’ the wisp. But she also meets a big black bear named Mor’du who chases her back to her family and her father defeats Mor’du but loses his leg in the attack.
The story then jumps ahead ten years later. and Merida’s parents are going to find her a suitor to be married. Merida does not like this idea and fights her parents every step of the way. She goes out of her way to embarrass the suitors and offends her father’s allies to the point that they start arguing and could go to war.
Merida and her mother argue and say and do things they regret, but in the heat of the moment they don’t hold back. Merida runs off into the woods and again meets up with the will-o’ the wisps which lead her to an old cottage in the woods.
It’s magic!
In the cottage lives an old woman who gives Merida a magical solution for her problems - a cake. In the cottage we see magic at work, we see animals and inmate objects that are alive due to the magic from the witch in the cottage which is also related to the will-o’ the wisps.
The Pixar Theory is that this magic, from the will-o’ the wisps, is at the center of how the animals in the Pixar universe as well as the inanimate objects become intelligent and act like humans. The witch in the cottage uses magic as well, and she also uses doors to appear and disappear in different places. In the cottage we see a drawing of a familiar monster, Sully, from the Monsters Inc. movies, as well as a wooden carving of a Pizza Planet delivery truck! Now, how would a witch from the Dark Ages in Scotland know about Sully and a Pizza Planet delivery truck? This witch also uses doors to travel through time and space. Sound familiar? The keystone of the Pixar Theory resides in this movie. The witch is the young girl Boo from Monsters Inc. who uses the doors from Monsters Inc. to travel through time and she has ended up in this time period of Brave and has also mastered the use of magic. Boo is searching for Sully. Has she found him yet? That remains to be seen.
Sully? Is that you?
I’ll take a large pepperoni please.
Merida returns home with her magical cake and her mother accidentally eats a piece, as well as her young triplet brothers, which turns them into a bear. Queen Elinor is mistaken for the bear, Mor’du and the King seeks to get his revenge from the earlier attack. The King and his soldiers begin to chase the Queen in her bear form to kill her. While the triplets appear as only bear cubs and aren’t perceived as a threat, they get into various humorous situations throughout the movie.
Merida helps her mother escape and they head into the woods and eventually end up at Mor’du’s castle. Mor’du was once a Prince himself before being transformed into a bear many years ago, but was unable to reverse the spell and remained a bear since and has lived a long life. The King and his soldiers all meet up together with Elinor and capture her to kill her still in her bear form, but Mor’du shows up. Queen Elinor is released to fight Mor’du and Mor’du is eventually killed, freeing the Prince’s spirit.
Merida apologizes to her mother for being so stubborn and saying and doing things she regrets and the spell is broken on her mother and her three brothers and they transform back to human form.
Brave is an Oscar winning film, Best Animated Film in 2013, and is easily one of the better Pixar films. Brave is the first Pixar film featuring a “Disney Princess” and the first Pixar film featuring a female protagonist. In addition to all of this, Brave is a great coming of age story that reminds us of how important family is and that family can help us become an even better version of ourselves as we grow up. It reminds us parents to treat our children as individuals and help them become who they need to be. It reminds children that their parents do have their best interests at heart, even if they don’t understand the big picture yet. Brave reminds us that both parents and children need to work together and be willing to give a little as the family grows and matures.
The re-watchability factor of Brave is average, meaning I could watch this show once every 3 or 4 years and still enjoy it. On a Pixar scale of 1-5, The Credible Nerds give the film a 4.