Brave

Brave

Pixar Animation Studios

Film released 2012

Directors: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell

Writer: Brenda Chapman, Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Irene Mecchi

Starring: Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson

Rated: PG

Grade: 3/5

I was in Scotland all last week so it felt appropriate to take a look at Pixar’s BRAVE!

 

SO MANY SHEEP

Guys, this came out in 2012. How crazy is that?!? Pixar’s first and only (up until this summer’s release of Inside Out) female-led film. I love you Pixar, but you really need to get better with the whole representation thing…

Anyway, so this movie…I’m curious what other people have to say about this one. I wish it was my favourite Pixar movie, truly I do. But, it’s just not. That’s not to say that it’s a bad movie. By all standards, it’s a good movie. The animation is gorgeous (as always) 

Now how do I get back down....

and Merida is such a rebellious bad-ass. But it’s not great. And I don’t expect anything less than greatness (in terms of storytelling) from Pixar. It’s good, but it’s not as good as you want it to be. I’ve been trying to pin point why I feel this way, and I’ve maybe found an answer. Let’s start at the beginning.

I love the first part of this movie. It’s super feminist and interesting and queer and breaks all kinds of stereotypes. You’ve got this mother/daughter thing, dealing with the old versus the new. Merida is this adventurous, tomboy teen (although I wish she didn’t always have to wear dresses, that would have bothered me as a kid) who goes around shooting stuff with her bow and arrow, climbing mountains on her horse, drinking from the waterfall of fire, and generally kicking major ass. 

I'm ginger and I know it

Her mother, on the other hand, is steeped in the tradition of her people, although she definitely has her own moments of queerness. Here’s where they differ: Merida is all about freedom and adventure and expressing herself with her curly ginger locks blowing in the gales, while her mother channels those same impulses through the strictures of her tradition. She adheres to the normative code of what princesses and queens should and should not do and tries to confine Merida to those rules. Momma queen is able to take those rules in stride and totally dominate within that world. The mother/daughter feud that springs from their old versus new ways is the common struggle of the generations, particularly between generations of activists. Think Act Up Fight AIDS and their aggressive campaigns versus today’s Marriage Equality movement which wages its battle through politics and policy pushing. It’s not a perfect parallel, but I think you get the idea.

Merida, the patriarchy is everywhere, there is no escape

THEN we get to the whole heteronormative marriage tournament thing. I really love the visual metaphor here of her hair getting covered up by that weird hood thing she has to wear with her confining fancy dress, and she keeps pulling one tiny ringlet of ginger curl out from under it even though her mother keeps tucking it back. Brava, Pixar. 

BO-RINGLET

Strong metaphor for Merida’s personal expression and individuality. The tournament itself is your typical patriarchal BS, but then Merida wins her own hand through a sneaky loophole and some insane archery skills. WHICH IS SO AWESOME AND FEMINIST AND I WISH THIS MOVIE CAME OUT WHEN I WAS A KID!

And then the movie gets eh…

The bear doesn't like its own plot twist #meta

Merida gets mad at her mom and tries to find the Will of the Whisps (magic stuff) to get her to understand where she is coming from. And then she accidentally turns her mom into a bear…While she does visit a witch-ish character, that just doesn’t really make up for how much I dislike this plot “twist.”

From a storytelling perspective, I just don’t think they introduced the magical aspects of the world very well. And they completely drop the really interesting feminist/queer stuff in lieu of this bear-transforming thing that happens. The plot had so much potential! And they just drop it all because they want to do this weird mother/daughter oops I turned you into a bear and now we need to undo the thing that I did so you can be human again plot. Ugh, boring. Do any Pixar movies even explore father/son relationships? No, I don’t think so. (Well, they kind of do in Finding Nemo but that still manages to be an awesome adventure story and Nemo and Marlin are barely on screen together.)

If Pixar had chosen to do a different Viking film with a male protagonist, he would have been going on adventures and doing cool Viking stuff, not turning his mom into a bear and then trying to undo that mistake. That’s probably why How To Train Your Dragon is the better Viking movie.

Here’s my alternative version of the movie: Merida runs away from home after the tournament to fight dragons (or bears, whatever) and and see the world and do everything a boy can – skipping all the bear-transforming nonsense and actually meeting people on her travels and finding out what it is like to be an independent woman in this world and making some self-discoveries along the way - and then when she gets herself in too much of a pickle, her mom would show up to save the day and reveal herself as the bad ass she truly is and female empowerment and bridging the generations and YAY. It would end the same way, with the marriage thing chucked out the window and Merida would let her hair fly free as she rides with her newly liberated momma by her side. That would have been an epic movie.

And they all lived happily ever after

Got a better alternative version?

Also, did I mention that Merida is totally a lesbian?

MVQ: Her dad! He’s awesome. And his impression of Merida is spot on.

OTP: Merida and her badass self.

Favorite Moment: The split screen talk between Momma Queen and Poppa Viking and Merida and her horse. Brilliant.