Review: Brave

Brave staring the voices of

Kelly MacDonald as princess Merida, 

Emma Thompson as Queen Elinor

Billy Connolly as King Fergus,

Julie Walters as The Witch,

Robbie Coltrane as Lord Dingwall

Kevin McKidd as Lord MacGuffin and Young MacGuffin

Craig Ferguson as Lord Macintosh

Sally Kinghorn and Eilidh Fraser as Maudie, the castle maid.

Peigi Barker as Young Merida

Steven Cree as Young Macintosh

Steve Purcell as The Crow

Callum O'Neill as Wee Dingwall

Patrick Doyle as Martin, the guard

John Ratzenberger as Gordon, the guard

Brave at it's heart is a morality play.  A teenager has been groomed all her life for the purpose of in this case marriage. But it could be anything.  As it is in most of these type of stories, she doesn't want to get married and certainly not to a boy of her parent's choosing.   She excels in archery and winds up besting all, which was hardly her parents intent. 

In defying her parents and running away, Merida consults a wise woman (witch) who winds up cursing her family and rushes to reverse the curse before her parents and brothers are lost forever.

Plotwise there is nothing new here.  Typical Disneyesque plot at heart.  But the real chances being taken here was Pixar with new 3d modeling and the ability to handle complex structure movement even better than say "Tangled.  Hair and fur are even more natural than before, and structures under the fur are moved in a totally life like manner.  There is no question Pixar's 3d engine is one of the best going.  

So for a review, the story is pretty much off the shelf, some minor tweaking here and there but for the most part, nothing new here, graphics and rendering, well both are top notch.  Well researched landscapes gives us   believable environments and with the excellent modeling done, the film is a treat just for the combined animation.  Over all I would give it a 7 or 8, depending on how much you like the story.