TAC Reviews...Brave

Date Posted: 24/12/14

Animated film in which a horrible girl tries anything and everything to get what she wants. Released by Pixar in 2012 the film stars the voices talents of Billy Connolly, Kevin McKidd and Robbie Coltraine.  

Now after reading the review of The Lego Movie you may be wondering how I came to be watching it in the first place. Being constantly on hold does get really dull at time so I will head out to actually see films on the big screen, well, big by human standards. Now admittedly there have been occasions when I have turned up at the cinema to see a film intended for children, a few years ago I quite proudly walked up to the front of the cinema queue with four of my skin sack's friends and asked for a ticket to see Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Now I am aware that traditionally Children's films are for, well, children but that hasn't stopped me from watching them if I feel like it. After all doesn't the U classification mean suitable for all so anyone can watch it?? 

I have to admit that I’ve watched Frozen and Tangled more times than I would care to admit, and to be honest most are quite entertaining, however, sometimes I come across something truly bad, and here enters Brave…sweet mercy, thank you Disney, up until this point I would have said I was a fan of Pixar movies, so thank you for this gift of atrociousness

Right, so here is the set up...ahem...A girl living in Viking times doesn’t want to live the life that her parents have laid out before her, so already she is original, unless you count Jasmine from Aladdin, Areal from Little Mermaid, Bella from Beauty and the Beast and every other Disney princess that has ever been created. Now, her parents are deaf to her arguments. Eventually after having a row with her parents she rides off into the forest where she comes across a witch, now trusting this witch, yes a witch with a wart and everything, she asks for a way of changing her mother’s perspective thus allowing her to do as she pleases. So the witch gives her a potion and instructs her to give it to her mother. So this delightful princess gives the potion given to her by a witch to her mother. Doesn’t she sound like a nice girl? Her mother is royalty and must be the target of unruly subjects that would happily see her dead, so is it unreasonable to think that perhaps the witch is trying to kill the Queen?? Does that thought rattle through the brain of this self-centred Princess who just wants to do what she wants?? Course it doesn’t, so she gives her mother the potion, and something bad happens…her mother is changed into a bear.

So, this Princess has given her mother a potion given to her by a witch and has been transformed into a bear, now, surely at this point anyone who is not completely self-obsessed would be trying to do everything they could to transform her mother back into a human, but NO, Princess let-me-do-what-I-want is still trying to get what she wants.

What kind of selfish Bitch is this??

This Princess is a truly despicable human being, all she is interested in is herself, she doesn’t care that she’s transformed her mother into a bear, she doesn’t care about the fact that a witch gives her a potion which could have contained literally anything. She has no redeeming qualities at all, and whilst the other characters might be entertaining or creative or colourful the forces of her selfishness and the black hole of her self-obsessiveness (yes that is a word) eclipses everything and everyone else in this film.  

As the more astute of you have probably realised that I did not really care for this film. I have some of Pixar’s films in my own DVD collection and most of them are great fun to watch over and over again. Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with strong female characters but the Princess in Brave is just a horrible person, and should have been eaten by her mother after she transformed.

There is a talented voice cast but unfortunately because the main character is just so unlikable there was really nothing that could be done to save this film. I fail to see how and why we should be rooting for someone who is so focussed on getting what they want that they risk giving a potion to their mother than could have been anything. I have liked so many Pixar and Disney films over the years but in the case of Brave there were things that I liked, such as the voice talents of the cast, unfortunately I cannot get past the selfishness of the Princess.

According to Brave, the lesson here boys and girls is if you don’t get what you want, get a potion from a witch, transform your mother into a bear nearly get her killed and she’ll be so traumatised by the event that she let you do whatever you want.

That is a nice life lesson isn’t it??

So despite the nice animation, the main character is just horrible and so I am giving Brave a solids Thumbs Down becuase it is not what I have come to expect from Disney and/or Pixar. Nice animation, and solid work from the voice cast is powerless if the main character is a complete and utter bitch.

3/10 - Pixar you are so much better than this and so are you Disney - shame on both of you for inflicting this crap on your loyal fans.