Brave

I've said beforehand, I'm a fan of the work done by Pixar. Even with some of their weakest entries, like "Cars" and "Cars 2," I still enjoy them. They've shown how great their animation has gotten over the years, from working with toys, to bugs, then monsters and fish, and it all looks excellent. I love how wonderous their animation, pacing, and characters have become, and it's easy to say they earned the title of "Cinematic Guardian."

With their newest film, "Brave," I was looking forward to it, with much anticipation. The animation was great, and I felt like Pixar was going to give us another fantastic action movie. At first, it seemed like a good movie was coming out, however later in the year I was a bit worried about the man directing the movie. Mark Andrews, whose been apart of Pixar for years, was the director and writer for the film, but he was also part of the biggest box office bomb in history, "John Carter," which made me doubt the film a bit. Basically, I thought "Brave" wouldn't be as good as I would be expecting.

However, I was totally wrong. Not only is this a good film, but it's honestly one of the best films that I had the pleasure of sitting through!

The film tells the story of the Scottish princess of the Clan DunBroch, Merida, who is a skilled archer, which doesn't seem to please her mother, Queen Elinor, who wants Merida to be acting like a lady, and follow tradition. On the day she is to be wed to one of the first born princes of the other three clans, Merida sets up an archery competition, in which she is the one who wins her own hand and gets all three bullseyes. However, Elinor becomes enraged by her daughter's act, and throws her bow into the fire, causing Merida to run off crying. Soon, Merida encounters a witch, and asks for a spell to change her mother so her fate can be changed. Unfortunately, it's not what she expected, and now Merida has to figure out how to fix things, as well as change her mother back.

What realy sets this apart from other Pixar films, is simply how you look at it. This film was advertised to be in the same story structures of “The Little Mermaid,” even to where some people could complain this film stole from that film, but it's so much more. Throughout this movie, the film has many interesting characters, fantastic visuals, and becomes a film about a mother-daughter relationship, determination, regret, and by the end: redemtion.

The characters in this were such a joy. King Fergus was a really fun character to watch, being a brute who cares about his family, and also cares about her daughter being who she wants, but is basically stamped on that by his wife. It's obvious that the queen is in charge, due to keeping control of her king. Which brings me to Queen Elinor, played by Emma Thompson. She's basically portrayed as the over-motherly character, but when you get into it, you understand why she does this. She's afraid that if tradition is too broken out, then bad things will happen, like in the legend of the Four Clans. I won't say what it is, because I want you to see the movie, but let me tell you, it's pretty good. Merida herself is very well established, due to having such a colorful personality, and being a fierce archer as well. Now due to this film being compared to “The Little Mermaid” was because of the character and plot-points of Merida and Elinor being similar to Ariel and Triton. Well, while I do agree that they are similiar, I think this film did it better than “The Little Mermaid,” mostly due to this film actually showing more of the relationship between Merida and Elinor, and the fact that Merida actually learns something from what she did. To me, that's what sets this movie apart, with the fact that it actually shows chemistry between these characters. When seeing how strong the bond between a mother and her kin can be, it can make one think about the heartbreak it will be when they're ready to leave. It's a very powerful and believable relationship that isn't very present with most films these days. I also want to say that Merida's triplet brothers were hilarious to watch. Everytime they were onscreen, they got me laughing at whatever they were doing. Plus, how they help Merida in the third act, had the best line in the entire movie. The other clans leaders and their sons were a joy to watch as well, especially when they're arriving at the kingdom at the same time.

The animation and 3D in this film was what held this gem together. It was simply brilliant, and I just kept begging for more of it. It was also told that they had to update with the the technology for this film, to get the animation right on Merida's hair. That shows a lot of hard work for filmmaking in terms of animation. Also, this was probably one of the more adult of the Pixar films. Not in terms of “Toy Story 3,” where it got darker for the audiences growing up. I'm talking about the OTHER kind. Let's just say, I think this the first time Pixar showed this much ass in any of their films...Yeah, THAT kind of adult. But I didn't let that distract me.

Overall,  "Brave" is a film that DEFINES masterpiece, and is by far one of my favorite movies of the year! It shows how much passion Pixar can have for it's films. Its story is told in a very brilliant matter, the character development is astoundingly brilliant, the pacing is just a joy to sit through, the action scenes are done fantastically, and the animation is PHENOMENALLY breathtaking! I loved this movie! I really, REALLY, loved this movie, and it's absolutely impossible to find anything that's not to enjoy about it!  If you have family with nothing to do as of the time, then ask them to see this movie with you. I HIGHLY recommend it with full force.

Rating: 10/10