Brave

Dying. Just Dying over that hair! ONE DAY!

You know those "Coming soon to Blue Ray" or DVD commercials that command our screens every now and again? I generally ignore those. By the time I was old enough to form valid opinions about the types of movies I wanted to own for myself and to finance those desires, there were very few films that fit the bill. On top of that I could always just watch them "On Demand" on my telly if I felt really pressed. It was from this assertion that I made an interesting discovery. As soon as movies are released to DVD or Blueray, they are also available "On-demand" from Optimum. Imagine that. This new found knowledge coincided with the commercial of a certain film that I had agonized over missing in theaters; Brave. The heroine was a fellow curly with the long red tresses I secretly wished I had (Henna is the closest I can come to dying my hair red without damaging it)and spunky to boot! Add to the mix that I didn't actually know what the main plot of the film was--aside from our fair princess somehow challenging what was expected of her, and a rather large bear being somewhat of an issue. I was just dying to know what Meridah's story would be. Lo and behold a commercial hearkening  Brave's arrival into the echelons of personal entertainment graced my screen and I saved the date, planning to exploit this film as a well deserved study break (LSATs. whoo.) Well that day came and passed and I watched Brave, practically bouncing on my seat in excitement. Was Brave everything I expected? Yes and No, but was it everything I hoped it would be? Certainly all that and more.

Brave's story is fundamentally about the relationship between a mother and her daughter, and it is here that Brave completely shocked me. I had not been expecting Meridah's mother to play a large role, namely because she never appeared in any of the advertisements. I expected the tale to be an epic bildungsroman that ended in her saving the land. And while all these things and more did happen, their impact was not as dramatic. For all intents and purposes, Meridah's relationship with her mother took center stage, driving the rest of the details along.

The music was the easy breezy stuff of modern celts--accessible and exquisite. Imagine with me, if you will, that one scene from the revamped The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, wherein the Pevensie's are travelling by train. "One day..." You know the one. Now spread that out over the course of an entire film and you basically have Brave's soundtrack. I think the choice of real Celtic music fell right in line with Pixar's attempt to be authentic--an attempt which I appreciated immensely. The choice to go modern on the other hand was just smart. Remember after all that for all my excitement over the film I am by no means a member of the target demographic--namely young girls. The modern edge to the music took what is usually hauntingly beautiful and turned it something a bit fun and upbeat.

As can be expected of Pixar, Brave was simply a beautiful film to look at. The scenery, which viewers will get a healthy dollop of during our heroine's many romps through the forest, was of the breathtaking stuff that pulls people out to the Scottish moors. This was still a children's film so obligatory pop culture references to Scottish culture made an appearance; the Callanish standing stones more reminiscent of Stonehenge (a la the great wall of China in Disney's Mulan) than anything else are a prime example of this. The exquisite detail in the castles and forests (and people!) more than made up for any shortcuts taken by the Pixar team.

Here comes the smolder

I should mention that Brave is a hilarious film; be prepared to laugh. The triplets and even Meridah's contingent of suitors were carefully wrought gifts of dialogue (Think Tangled and "Here comes the smolder." Those kinds of presents). Besides being hilarious and keeping things light, I appreciated the triplets because they rendered Meridah's family a shockingly real one. Yes the pain and conflict that often comes with family is evident in Meridah's relationships with her father (to a certain extent) and her mother (especially). But the frustrations and messiness and hilarity that ensues as it only can in the presence of kin? That is the dimension the triplets introduce, so at the end of the day, Brave is a story about a family--a real family--with all the good and bad that entails.

Meridah's tendency to challenge authority and the chauvinistic practices of her time were a huge rallying point for me (and others I'm sure) as well. It was one of the reasons I was so excited to watch the film. But Pixar took the story further than a semi empowering illustration of a young princess. As the story progresses, the sense that Meridah, as much as we love her and understand her plight, is in the wrong for some of the pivotal decisions she makes lent Brave a surprising slant of maturity. I am not accustomed to loving and wincing at the main characters in Disney or Pixar films; for the most part they are perfectly justified and only suffer from inane character flaws--if at all. But Meridah was not merely, "rather spunky," she was downright mulish (which I loved) and that brings her into real and serious conflict with others (read: everyone).

There is so much I could say about Brave, but for now let me just say that it was wonderful and you should definitely watch if just for the novelty of witnessing a mother daughter relationship on the Dixar (see what I did there?) screen.

She gets a B+/A- from me!