And so it seems insufficient merely to say that Brave, Pixar’s latest offering, is a success. We (that is, the royal we) assumed this much going in; therefore, it only remains to be seen how much of a success Brave manages to be.
Pixar dips into the princess business with Brave, a Scottish fairy tale about the tomboyish Merida (voiced by Kelly MacDonald) and her resistance to the idea of an arranged marriage. Rather than obey her mother (Emma Thompson) and father (Billy Connolly), Merida wants to “ride through the glen, firing arrows into the sunset.” But after a witch’s potion doesn’t quite change her fate the way she envisioned, Merida is left with only two days to make things right and mend her relationship with her mother.
The first thing you’ll notice about Brave, even without seeing it in 3D (which I didn’t, since my love affair with the extra dimension is waning), is how incredible the visual effects are. The landscapes look natural, misting water might trick you into believing you’re not watching an animated film, and the abundance of detailed curly red hair can only be described as “Pixar showing off.” With the clan of DunBroch, Pixar takes one more step toward indistinguishable perfection.
The other great Pixar talent on showcase here is their ability to create emotive, expressive nonhuman characters. We know that they’re gifted at human faces (or even semi-human, as in the case of the Toy Story films), but the bear characters in Brave especially manage to communicate human feelings and motivations; better, none of the bears are indistinguishable, as each has a unique body language that allows us to know precisely – even if it’s a detail as fine as eye color – which bear is which.
The best example of nonverbal filmmaking, though, comes from the scene-stealing triplets Hamish, Harris, and Hubert. These three never speak, but through their faces and their body language we know from scene one what these three rascals are like. They’re crowd-pleasers, instant favorites, and a perfect example of what Pixar does better than any other animation studio – tact. If this were a Dreamworks film, for example, we’d see a franchise around these three, running the joke into the ground. (As it is, I’m kept awake at nights by the haunting specter of the “Afro Circus” song.) But directors Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman wisely keep the boys in check (at least, as in check as three little hellions can be kept). But if the film merits a rewatch, it’s at least to keep an eye on these three.
As always, the voice cast matches well, although the small setting doesn’t allow for many trademark Pixar cameos (but John Ratzenberger is in there). MacDonald is spunky and sassy without shortchanging the emotional moments when her character pivots, Thompson is stern but frustrated with her daughter, and Connolly seems to be channeling Brian Cox as the patriarch, reining in his madcap stand-up inflection for a (slightly) more dignified king.
It’s not Toy Story 3 by any stretch of the imagination – I maintain that that is Pixar’s crowning achievement, if only because I still cry just thinking about it – but Brave is another solid entry in the Pixar catalog, fun for the whole family and delightfully entertaining even for those of us who ought to be too old for this sort of thing.
PS – make certain you stick around after the credits. No, Nick Fury doesn’t recruit Merida to join The Avengers (they already have an archer, after all), but the stinger scene does tie up a loose end.
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