Brave -- Pixar's 2012 release

This is hilarious. Clueless American railing against the oppression and stereotyping of the Scots in Brave.

― I found him in a Bon Ton ad (Nicole), Tuesday, June 26, 2012

oh dear. i just. sigh.

her undergrad humanities faculty really owes us all an apology. if not ritual suicide.

In other news, talking bears don't exist in the modern world.

so what is the big dumb twist that everyone is hating?

SPOILERS if you don't want to know the twist:

merida's mom, the queen, is transformed into a bear by a spell merida buys from a witch. a lot of the humor comes from her continuing to have very proper mannerisms, only she's a giant hulking bear.

On the Merida hairpiece sold to children:

I can't help but notice the wig is labeled "Merida's Wig," as if she too can just take off her hair when she's done playing "other."

Dear Disney: that's not "Merida's Wig." It's Merida's hair.

weird how this good-not-great movie is being interpreted as the possible herald of pixar's decline, considering how poorly cars and cars 2 were received. so they're allowed to be middling, but not actively bad?

i thought this was really good, if not thrilling. i have no desire to see it again anytime soon, which, with the exception of cars (i never saw cars 2), might be the first time i've ever said that after seeing a pixar movie for the first time.

weird how this good-not-great movie is being interpreted as the possible herald of pixar's decline, considering how poorly cars and cars 2 were received.

Might have something to do with it being the first film with a principal protagonist that's female.

Scottish people of color

Maybe she's thinking of the Black Irish?

A lot of the reviews of Cars 2 seemed to be of the "actively bad" variety, but maybe it is more the case that Cars 2 hit what it was aiming for, and this misses?

Maybe she's thinking of the Black Irish?

i think that's the case. the rest of it is bs but (i'm assuming everyone in this movie is white) the all-fantasy-characters-must-always-be-white thing is a legit/common issue anyway.

"so they're allowed to be middling, but not actively bad?"

whoa i meant to say this the other way around.

http://www.fxguide.com/featured/brave-new-hair/

Reticulating splines

Wow, what a tonally muddled misfire that was. Even my kids were kind of meh.

"Enchanted" >>>>>>>>>>>>"Brave"

Two more things, while this is still fresh. Didn't the movie go through a couple of directors, the first female, the second male? Might that have had something to do with its off vibe, let another its thematic ambivalence? People I respect cite the film's strong message, or feminist underpinning or whatever, but I don't really see it. It's all a jumble of themes, none brought to satisfying fruition.

Also, I got a lot of "How to Train Your Dragon" vibes, too, and like "Enchanted," "How to Train Your Dragon" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>"Brave."

(Another aside: how do you focus group/test screen CGI films when it's almost impossible to change them once the story is locked? It's not as simple as reshoots.

So they're allowed to be middling, but not actively bad?

Cars II never seemed like it was supposed to be part of Pixar canon. It was like just a direct to Dvd movie, a greatest hits album to keep the label happy while you take your time in the studio creating a Sgt. Pepper. To have their next "real" movie be a disappointment is discouraging.

Haven't seen the movie yet btw, just piling on.

Brave was in production a very long time before HTTYD came out, just for the record.

(it is good though, especially for a Dreamworks film)

Brave was in production a very long time before HTTYD came out, just for the record.

The "Dragon" book was 2003; does the production of "Brave" precede that? Even so, it's irrelevant, really, since "Dragon" (the film) handles some similar themes with gusto but much greater coherence, and some similar visuals with surprising adeptness, considering it came out so many years before this one, with its fancy new visual system or whatever.

"Brave" really is a mess, and so full of potential.

Dragon book bears almost no relation to the movie iirc and the movie went through a LOT of changes only really getting near to what it turned out like quite late on.

Not fully seen Brave yet due to moving but will be v soon

So was "Brave" really in production before "Dragon," which came out in ... 2010? Which means it had to have been in production for a while, too? All the more reason "Brave" should have tried to distinguish itself more, especially since they had the luxury of an original story (as such).

OK, looks like "Brave" started rolling forward back in 2008. Again, no reason it should be the mess that it is, given that headstart. According to the wiki I found, it looks like the change in director resulted in less magical stuff, though of course, there's still way too much stupid magical stuff in this movie, and magical stuff that literally comes out of nowhere at that.

I don't even know why the stupid movie is called "Brave."

It was originally called "The Bear and the Bow". I just think Disney likes one word titles for animated movies to do with girls. "Tangled" for Rapunzel, and the movie in production now about the Snow Queen is titled "Frozen".

I came to it without any real expectations, but Tangled turned out to be ace. So how does Brave stack up against that?

I repeat, "Tangled" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>"Brave"

"Tangled" is funnier, more heartfelt, more exciting, and pretty much just as great to look at.

Cheers - can feel a cinematic viewing of Brave slipping from my schedule with every passing comment. I thought Tangled looked pretty exquisite tbh (esp. the beautiful character design), was also impressed by how good the songs were for a new cartoon.

tried to watch tangled last week, but just couldn't hack it. dull characters, unfunny jokes, bad songs, exaggerated shrek-style smirking, and schmaltz without emotional resonance. fucking awful.

still wanna see brave

If you didn't like Tangled I don't see you liking Brave.

I like them both, but I think Brave is actually a really good movie. Gonna go out on a limb and place it in front of Incredibles, Cars, Up and Bug's Life.

Brave is very slapsticky, and I like that. My biggest complaint is with the amount of unnecessary verbiage in the last three minutes. And I don't, for the life of me, understand the global objection to the midpoint plot turn.

I liked this movie on paper (riot grrl does not want to end up with a dude and doesn't and has relationship issues with her mom that they fix by lists to each other)
but the execution was kind of bloodless and boring at times

*listening to each other

this movie was v v pretty but I feel like the most detailed animation was homegirl's hair

they fix by lists to each other

Superb typo. Would've added a great passive/aggressive twist to the story.

t minus 10 min from watching this in Diane digital 3d

And I don't, for the life of me, understand the global objection to the midpoint plot turn.

― uncondensed milky way (remy bean), Friday, June 29, 2012

fwiw i thought this was a total mess and the midpoint plot turn was one of the few things i did like.

It's totally bloodless and boring, oddly-so, given all the people walking into things or getting hit in the head with things or hitting each other or doing spit-takes or getting tuned into a half-anthropomorphized bear.

Again, someone help me out here: why is it called "Brave?" Is it because she's brave enough to tell her mom that she loves her? Brave enough to follow her bliss, with her mom's permission? Anyway, just a jumble of a movie. I will give it credit, though, for a whopping 10 minutes or whatever of bear mugging when even my daughter was basically "just mend the fucking tear already!"

Hair was better in "Tangled," too. "Tangles" rules, "Brave" drools.

A friend posted the reaction of the kids she brought to "Brave:"

https://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s720x720/552673_4238628841952_1451714355_n.jpg

roffle

your daughter OTM though WHOA WHOA HUGE SPOILER HERE the edge-of-your-seat horseback needlepoint sequence END HUGE SPOILER was up there with the dramatic photocopying sequence in THE FIRM.

would have been a lot more interesting if her daydreaming during sewing lessons had come back to haunt her in her time of need.

just saw this, thought it was pretty swell

waaaaaaaaaaay better than 'up' which was more like 'down' amirite

I was so glad that this movie was not the movie the trailer set up - that was a stupid fucking trailer

like maybe the worst thing you could say about this film was that it was a scene or two short, and maybe could have used more explication about the other bear. but this was a good movie!

though, I know billions of tearful processor hours were spent rendering her hair, I thought in the end it looked like that springy yarn you can get at A.C. Moore for $1.99

dayo is a crazy person, there is no way this was better than up