As the title suggests, I saw Brave today, and I think it's time I type up a sort of informal review. I'm very passionate about animated movies, so we'll see what kinds of things I can spew all over this journal.
Btw, SPOILERS AHEAD, you have been warned...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Still here? Alrighty, here I go...
First off, Brave was absolutely gorgeous. I mean, it was a
pretty movie. Just, gah, the settings and the characters and lighting, just, so good! Merida's hair looked really amazing, especially in the wind. The wisp things were cool looking too, really cute, yet really kinda creepy at the same time. I liked the noises they made-- it's a small but appealing detail. Also, I was enjoying the accents. Merida's voice was really nice, and also she was ADORABLE as a kid! Her dad was really funny too, he had a lot of good moments. There were many parts of the movie that I laughed really hard at alongside my sis
loneyqua, including this one part where a guy's head gets crushed by some sort of hammer but doesn't explode, when, taking physics into account, it should have. Also there were a lot of butt-shots, I'm not quite sure why. I have no comment, just, butts, I guess.... Heh. Anyway, I really enjoyed the first part of the movie, it started off well and was, for the most part, entertaining. And the fight scene at the end with the bears gave me shivers, I'm happy to say. HOWEVER...
(here come the negative comments...)
Past the first part, I wasn't really that into it. First, I feel like it should have been darker. When her mom turned into a bear, I mean, she should have turned completely into a bear, like forgotten who she was, immediately after the transformation. They did get into that later in the film, but it was only for a few seconds at a time. Even towards the end when her bear-mom (heh) was helping her look for some thread, she did kind of lose a sense of who she was, and I felt like since it was towards the end of the movie she wouldve stayed that way until she turned back into a human, but she snapped right out of it. If she had the mindset of a bear from the start and stayed that way till the end, Merida might have been able to go on perhaps a more epic quest to help her. Instead, her mom (as a bear) acted like a human, which came across to me simply as a way to add humor. And it forced Merida to stay close to the castle. I wanted to see more of her world and was disappointed...
Which leads me to the fact that when the movie was over, I didnt feel like very much had happened. Again, I was really into the movie until about when Merida ran away crying on her horse (which was awesome). After that, I feel the plot could have been stronger. The movie didn't feel like a Pixar movie to me, not only because it wasn't as good as the others (subtracting Cars 2, that movie never happened), but also because it wasn't as
original as the others. I also couldn't help comparing it to How to Train Your Dragon, which happens to be one of my favorites. I think the movie was hurt by the fact that HTTYD came out just a couple years ago in 2010 and had the same sort of setting, but with a weaker plot and weaker writing.
While there were a lot of genuinely funny moments, I felt there were much too many parts in the movie that were solely for the youngest of the audience, which is something I feared for when I watched the trailers. I try not to judge a movie (especially an animated one) by its trailer, but unfortunately some of the childish jokes actually existed in the movie and I was sad. Really, Pixar has never needed that kind of humor, and still doesn't, so I don't know why they decided to write them in... I can understand maybe a few from Dreamworks, but Pixar.... come on. But ahh, I can never get enough of How to Train Your Dragon... Though it's not a perfect movie either, I still love it a lot.
But I'm getting sidetracked--
Overall, Brave is entertaining and enjoyable, and while I recommend seeing it at some point, I expected a lot more from Pixar and was a little disappointed. Tell me your thoughts if you want, I'd love to hear them!
(And just a thought-- if Dreamworks messes up the sequel to HTTYD I'm gonna cry)
EDIT:
I just remembered, I feel like Disney/Pixar is using too many "pop" songs in their movies. For example, when Merida is climbing the waterfall, I'd much rather have beautiful score playing in the background than a pop song with lyrics.
EDITEDIT:
Also I remembered that Merida never chose a suitor or fell in love with some other guy, which made me happy because it wouldve been unnecessary and a distraction from the overall story. That is all! : D
