I've been trying to think of other
Disney Fairy Stories that center around the relationship between a
daughter and her mother. I have not been successful. Often the
mother-figure is an evil step-mother
ala Cinderella
and Snow White.
Often the primary parental relationship is between daughters and
their fathers like Ariel and Belle. And even when the mother is
present, like The Princess
and the Frog, that took a
back seat to the romance/adventure.
Brave
is different in this regard and for that alone it has a unique place
in the Disney/Pixar pantheon.
Brave
is the story of Merrida, a willfull tomboy of a Scotish lass in a
medeval kingdom. She is the princess to King Fergus, the burly
leader of uneasily allied clans.
Fergus dotes on Merrida and
indulges her interests, much to the dismay of her mother, Queen
Elinor, who tries to teach her daughter the grace and manners of
royalty. Tensions between mother and daughter become worse when it
comes time for a husband to be picked for the princess from one of
the 3 other clans. Merrida can only see the loss of her freedom and
Elinor can only see the necessities of peace and duty. After a
terrible fight, Merrida flees into the woods and meets a witch to
grant her a spell to change her fate. I cannot talk about much more
of the plot without giving away the twists and turns.
The
film is stunningly beautiful, as are all Pixar movies. Merrida's
hair alone has a flow and texture that is almost tangible. I was
also very much pleased with the themes presented. Elinor could have
easily be charicatured as the “overbearing mother” who must learn
to let go. But the queen is presented as very reasonable and loving.
We feel her frustration and sympathize with her strained
relationship with her daughter. And this is not done at the expense
of Merrida either, who is flawed and a bit selfish, but yearns for
the self-determination we all desire. The story is ultimately about
Merrida's journey. By making a deal with the witch, she hurts the
people she loves and must atone for that sin.
In
that sense, the movie has some wonderfully Catholic themes of
reconciliation and forgiveness. In addition, the role of the
motherhood is upheld. While Elinor goes through a transformation of
character, so does Merrida so that they both recognize the value they
have in each other.
There
are 2 issues I have with this movie. The first is that it is too
short. I am not refering to the number of minutes per se. But the
story feels condensed so that there is very little breathing room.
Instead of the standard 3 days to deal with the witch's magic, they
are reduced to a day and a half. Just when I thought some of the
characters could be explored with more depth, we were hurling towards
the conlcusion. Brevity is not a bad thing, but it leads to the
second problem. The supporting characters were very much under
utilized. Other Pixar fare like Toy
Story and A
Bug's Life, gave
excellent breath and depth to the supporting cast. Brave seems to
trade this for quirkiness. I cannot remember the names of Merrida's
three suitors, but I can pick them out as the incoherent one, the
vain one, and the moron. It was as if the writers did not want to
complicate the mother/daughter story by adding any characters to that
journey. I understand wanting to maintain the integrity of that
relationship, but it pushes the other characters to the perifery, so
that we do not get to enjoy them as much.
Having
said that, it was still quite moving. Pixar has an interesting
problem in that the quality of their products have always been
excelent (thought I have not seen Cars
2). Because of this, all
of their movies are held to an incredibly high standard. On that
scale, Brave
is not the best of their films, nor is it their worst. But for my
money, it is better than most movies that have come out this year.
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