The First Draft of Pixar's Brave

For those of you who appreciate the wondrous adventures that Pixar has taken you on; the widows they have opened, the questions about humanity and self, I say, Do not Go see Brave. This movie which claims to ask you if you are brave enough has its creators whimpering and cowering in the shadow of their Disney master. Merida, the princess of a young kingdom selfishly ignores her mother’s teachings and in the end gets her own way, in every respect. Her Ladylike mother becomes wilder, Merida remains unmarried and without responsibility and the plethora of other useless characters remain a plethora of useless characters. I do not blame the Pixar staff however. For those who know the history of the company they have only ever been truly great when out from under the thumb of Disney. Their recent development of sequels however suggests that Disney's ability to stretch any asset thin has extended to their sturn takeover of Pixar.

Honestly, I was willing this movie to be good.

The director of the film co-wright the recent Hollywood flop John Carter and only picked up the Brave project after the previous director was fired only a year and a half ago. The Pixar team claims that Disney had no influence over helping them decide what their next projects will be. I will believe it when I see Pixar movies coming out of Pixar again.

  "It wasn’t a story; it was an idea about a character." -Mark Andrews Brave Director

The intention of the characters mending the relationship torn by pride is almost resolved even before the conflict begins. The conflict being an unintended mistake that is far too dramatic and gets one whole song dedicated to the only growth that it provides. Fishing. If you want to see a story about bears that goes nowhere, I suggest one of Disney’s previous train wrecks, Brother Bear. But please do not support this under developed piece of pandering.

 I wish that Scotland’s beautiful landscape had been used for more than pie tossing and necked men. Yes I sad necked men. I counted 12 necked bottoms.  I cannot finish without saying that that was the most beautiful and haunting animation I have ever seen. The world around them was all but ignored because the tone of the film was so inhuman, but those forests. The complexity of those landscaped have only ever been attempted by the hands of a creator. The magic of these lands has always been their most thrilling mystery. We are shown some of the ruins that help to mold the history of Scotland. Sadly we spend very little time here and are offered very little explanation. However

 Three of the characters that had the most screen time had no names as far as I could tell and spoke no words. I cannot express how much I wish the writers had had more time to develop the script. Stories that will stand the test of time because of relate-ability and simplicity have all but disappeared. We all had dreams like Remmi the Rat in Ratatouille. Or a desire not to be lonely like in Up. The title of brave made us believe that we would find our Bravery with the strong Merida. She cowered in the site of fear and responsibility and even in public speaking. And never, at any point, did she face real danger. Mummy was always there to save her. In the same way, every time. And what’s worse is that everyone had the same follies, except the mother, who was the one who changed.

"Every three or four months, we’d look at the movie as a whole, put it in storyboard form or whatever shape it’s in, and then we’d get in the room afterward and think, 'Huh. Well, that’s kind of a mess,' and we’d take it apart, and we’d put it back together. We’d do that over and over again for four to six years—" - Katherine Sarafian Braves Former Director

 The Queen had already faced what Merida was afraid of. She admitted to not wanting her suitors and working hard to be as she is. But that Merida’s unwillingness to do so would cause a war among the nations. Which it did. For two seconds. Something that looked like the fighting the men had been doing in three scenes previous. Yay consequences.

As far As Merida goes I do like her. In fact I like all of the characters and the acting their animators helped them with. But that is all the praise I can muster. 

So if you approve of the latest trend in pixar movies of slapstick and half baked ideas then please, shell out your hard earned money to numb your minds and laugh heartily at the artwork of animation before you. You deserve your fate. But are you Brave enough?


Oh, and it had nothing to do with archery.