Brave Review

So I have finally caved into peer pressure and watched Disney Pixar’s CGI rose-tinted glasses wearing ‘historic’ Scotland movie, Brave. 

Before we begin, I better explain something. The reason why I did not see this film when it first came out was because it looked corny. I live in Scotland and if it’s one thing I cannot stand is movies and TV shows that pander to tourist stereo types. I know that sounds snobbish but I really don’t have a problem with it if it’s actually funny. But a lot of films that try to do it that just aren’t. I saw the trailer for this film and I got that impression.

However, I have now seen it and I’ll admit it was better than I thought it would be. That said though, it wasn’t anything special. The animation was really good and so was a lot of the comedy. 

But besides that it was pretty boring. First of all there was almost zero plot. It’s about a queen who holds an archery contest to decide who gets to wed her daughter, Merida. Being against the whole thing Merida finds a witch and asks her to cast a spell to change her mum. Her mum is transformed into a bear and Merida has to find away to undo it. 

And that’s it…there’s no plot twists and nothing else happens. Also, going back to the jokes; a lot of them are funny but most of them are the same one about Merida trying to sneak a bear into the castle.

Then there are the plot holes. Merida is told by the witch that her mum will be stuck as a bear forever if the spell is not undone in two days. She and her mum spend an entire day in the woods and when they return to the castle, no-one seems to have noticed. 

A princess and a queen go missing and no-one notices…right. Also, Merida’s three little brothers also transform into bears later on. No-one seems to notice that they have gone missing either and when it comes to trying to break the spell, Merida and no-one else seems to care about them, yet they do care about breaking the spell when it comes to the queen. 

Also I think Merida is a witch herself. My reasoning for this; she is indestructible. Case study one: She’s flung from a horse and not injured. Case study two:  Falls through a rotten floorboard, through a good ten foot of air and hits a stone floor; not injured. Case study three: swiped by a bear; not injured. Yeah, if all three of those things happened to you in one day, you’d be dead. 

Brave isn’t a terrible film, it’s just bland. That’s what they should have called it: Bland. And while it does not overly pander to Scottish stereo-types, save the ginger hair and Merida’s head being shaped like a turnip, it was just boring. 

Brave gets 5/10.