Brave misses Pixar magic

Brave
DIRECTED BY: Mark
Andrews, Brenda
Chapman
VOICES: Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane
CERT: PG

Brave is the latest feature from the animation geniuses at Pixar, not that you’d know it right away. It’s a nice little movie, a fine piece of entertainment, but it isn’t really in the same league as Toy Story, Monsters Inc or Finding Nemo.
It bears more of a resemblance to the kind of animated story produced down the years by Disney, Pixar’s corporate partners, if not their masters. Which might be a worrying development and, by all accounts, the production had its problems with original storywriter and director Brenda Chapman, being replaced by Mark Andrews over that handy old standby, creative differences. So there may be trouble in cartoon paradise.
There’s certainly trouble in the highlands. Flame-haired Scottish princess Merida (Macdonald) is not one for pomp and tradition. She’s a tomboy who’d rather be off gallivanting. She was given a bow and arrows as a child and now she’s the finest archer in the kingdom. Which makes her daddy, King Fergus (Connolly), very proud, but doesn’t go down so well with her mother, Queen Elinor (Thompson), who’d rather her royal offspring would indulge in more delicate pursuits.
Now that she’s all grown up the Queen thinks it’s time Merida started acting like a real princess and settled down with a dashing prince. So the queen arranges for the clans to present three fine boys to compete for the lady’s hand in marriage. Only these poor lads are not so fine or dashing and couldn’t hit a cow’s rear with a banjo, never mind an arrow.
Unimpressed with the whole affair, Merida takes off for the forest on her trusty steed, Angus. With a little magical guidance, she ends up at a witch’s cottage, pleading with the old hag (Julie Walters) to help her sort out this unfortunate predicament.
The witch obliges and casts a spell on the queen, but complicates things with a little touch of the wild, as witches are fond of doing.
This leaves her majesty in a bad spot, in danger of a serious case of mistaken identity when her mad husband goes seeking revenge for a legendary wound. It leaves the kingdom itself in terrible peril, too. Of course, there’s a way to fix this, but Merida has only two days to reverse the spell and make things right.
Which is classic Disney territory, if maybe a touch darker – the magical fairytale of royal courts, a feisty damsel, witches and spells and a couple of clowns for comic relief. In more recent memory, Dreamworks covered this well-worn ground in the Shrek trilogy, which makes it even stranger that Pixar would go down this road, as if there’s nothing more original for them to be doing, breaking new ground like they’ve always done.
In fairness, this is their first feature with a female lead and it is a pleasure to know that there are filmmakers out there who are prepared to make a movie where the hero doesn’t have a love interest – better still, a cartoon where the princess manages just fine without a handsome saviour.
It’s only a pity the same princess is still stuck inside a formula that was old before Pixar was born – a formula that requires that a lesson not only be taught, but spelled out clearly, many times. That’s not how Pixar do things, another reason to wonder what’s going on behind the scenes.
Still and all, there’s plenty to enjoy here. Parents will miss the sharp edge and comic spark of the studio’s former hits, but kids will enjoy the adventure and the broad laughs supplied mostly by Merida’s little brothers. There’s some touching little moments too, between mother and daughter, an ending that’s not entirely predictable, sweet without overdoing the sugar.
If for no other reason, I’d recommend Brave simply because I could listen to Kelly Macdonald and Billy Connolly talk all day.
But the film has one more great thing going for it – its wonderful visuals. I’ve been told the 3D version is almost unwatchable in parts (no surprise there) but the regular version looks absolutely gorgeous. The scenery is beautifully detailed and makes you wish you could go for a wander through the highlands.
It brought to mind the words of a very fine song called Wild Mountainside by John Douglas, one of Scotland’s great songwriters. It was recorded by his band, the Trashcan Sinatras and his lady friend Eddi Reader sang a lovely version of it on her 2003 album, the Songs of Robert Burns.
It’s not on the soundtrack here, but Scotland’s Patrick Boyle provides an excellent score and a couple of songs, while elsewhere there are tunes performed by Birdy and Billy Conolly. Sadly, Billy’s old welly song is not one of them.