Hmmmm….Brave. A fitting title for the film that followed Pixar’s greatest (and perhaps only) failure, Cars 2. I still remember watching that phoned-in marketing ploy a year ago and thinking, wow, has Pixar really gone the way of Disney? Have they stooped from their greatness and joined their conglomerate overlord in a quest for the holy dollar? How sad. My one consolation in that moment of tragedy was that perhaps…just perhaps, the Mater-fest wasn’t the beginning of the end. Perhaps the tow-truck who went from mildly amusing to downright obnoxious was a fluke, a blip, a small stumble on the path of greatness. Only their next film would provide the answer…as you can see, I had high hopes for Brave.
And to be fair, those hopes were perhaps a mite too high. Before Cars 2, Pixar had come off a three-year run of what are perhaps their greatest films: Wall-E, Up, and Toy Story 3. Pixar may be awesome, but it may have been unfair for me to expect Brave to par with those three. Still, almost a week after seeing Merida in all her ginger glory seek to change her fate, I’ve come to agree with one critic’s conclusion: Brave is a good film, but in equivalence to a straight A student bringing home a B+. While it’s not a D (thank you, Mater), a few elements of the film kept it, for me, from being another jewel in the Pixar crown. Please note that this post will talk about the film in depth – spoilers abound.
Because most people I know loved this film and can’t understand the less-than-enthusiastic critical response, I’ll delay my judgement to talk about what greatness Brave had, because it was there. First the animation was undoubtedly some of the best I have ever seen. The crystal clear images, the vibrant colors, the use of light and shadow – I’m no art expert but I do know an aesthetically pleasing image when I see one. Brave was never boring to look at and that alone may earn it oodles of Best Animated Film trophies come awards season.
Another plus was the redefining of the princess story. I’m not sure when this happened, but somewhere along the line people started wanting the image of the animated princess to change. And why not? Little girls adore, worship, and idolize these characters – shouldn’t we want them to be more than a girl who trades her soul for a pair of legs or who waits for a prince to bring her a slipper? Unfortunately, from Shrek to Tangled, all of these recreations of the princess usually fell into the same trap as all of their predecessors – every single one ended with the female in question’s final accomplishment being to get married and live happily ever after. Brave succeeds in finally divorcing a princess from the end goal of marriage, suggesting for once that marriage does not necessarily equate to a happy ending. Moreover, the film challenged the usual archaic gender roles of most fairy tales. The two main women of Brave are strong, independent, confident, and…well…brave. Had this idea been followed through a little better, the film could have gone from good to great quite easily (more on this later).
My first issue with Brave is the issue that I’ve had since I saw the trailer: The film seemed derivative, the first low-blow by Pixar in the great animation war Dreamworks waged against all things Disney. Rather than explain this war for those of you who aren’t aware, I refer you to the Nostalgia Chick and her two webisodes on the subject (go on, they’re only about twelve minutes a piece…though they were made in 2010, so they’re not quite current. And while they do get a little silly at points, the Chick makes some rather intelligent points. oh, and there’s the f-bomb, so beware).
With Kung Fu Panda, Dreamworks started making films that weren’t so Disney derivative; sure, they may have been taken from other source material, but at least that source material was not their direct competitor. This change of tactics lead them to substantial box office success and better critical reception. The culmination of this, for me, was How to Train Your Dragon, which I hold as the best Dreamworks animation film. The only thing that sucked for this film is that it was eventually eclipsed by the mammoth Toy Story 3, with which no other animated film could possibly compete. So imagine my curiosity when Pixar, the studio known for their imagination and creativity, releases a trailer for a fantasy film that features characters with Scottish accents. But I quelled my fears of derivation, convinced Pixar would never try to imitate the success of another film…then I saw it. Let me spell this out: How to Train Your Dragon is a fantasy film set in medieval times about a misfit boy who overcomes his dysfunctional relationship with his father through his interactions with a mythical creature. Brave is a fantasy film set in medieval times about a misfit girl who overcomes her dysfunctional relationship with her mother through her interactions with a mythical creature. I dare you to tell me I’m wrong.
On that same note, in Brave, Pixar seemed to stoop to a new low in it’s humor. As far as I can remember (and I could be wrong) Pixar films tend to avoid even a trace of crudeness, a gap Dreamworks has always been ready to fill. In Brave, however, Pixar strayed into the territory of humorous nudity. Now, I’m not attempting to be a moral watchdog or anything, but here’s the problem: such humor, especially when it does nothing to serve anything in the story, cheapens the intelligence of the film. Such humor relies on the inherent awkwardness of things we aren’t supposed to see/talk about. The idea is something like this: “there’s a naked butt…it’s funny…laugh…because naked people is funny.” It’s weak, it’s unintelligent, and it only reminds me of the “leaking” in Cars 2.
My final issue is the thematic elements in the story. As I said before, Brave did manage to shake up concepts of gender roles, and it even threw in a nod to the gay marriage debate (let’s honor tradition but allow our children to decide who/when they will marry), but the dominating idea of the movie seemed weak in comparison to other Pixar films…to illustrate:
Finding Nemo: The line between keeping your children safe and not letting them grow is quite fuzzy.
The Incredibles: There is no arrogance or shame in being more talented than others, as long as you use it to benefit others.
Wall-E: We are slowly killing the planet and ourselves.
Up: While what you had may have been amazing, focusing on it can rob you of living your life.
Toy Story 3: Growing up and letting go sucks, and there’s no pain-free way around it.
These are all rather high-minded and challenging concepts, thought-provoking and intriguing. What’s the central idea of Brave? Parental reconciliation. There’s not anything wrong with parental reconciliation, but it’s such a tired concept that exists in so much already. What’s more frustrating is that other thematic elements were present, like what the true meaning of bravery is, the cost of being a unique individual, and that sometimes following tradition is as courageous as breaking away from it. Yet none of these were the central focus of the story, all taking a backseat to an idea that’s been around since Pinocchio.
So again, Brave is a good film, but it’s not great. Unfortunately for Pixar, most of us have come to expect greatness. Pixar is the company that’s never been afraid to take risks. This company made a family film in which the main character is an elderly man, another that features no humans and no intelligible speech until the second act, and another about how screams and laughs power a city. In comparison, Brave just wasn’t brave enough.
-Blake L.
[Awkward Pause] 