Disney has had their hand in some of the reasons why my generation of kids are romantically frustrated to be certain, But with the movie Brave, I found the characters, although somewhat cartoony, to be more grounded in reality.
Brave tells the tale of a young Scot Princess who simply isn't ready for an arranged marriage. She is told that this marriage is her fate and she demands freedom (whats with scots and freedom?). She gets into a huge fight with her mother and runs away and finds some will-o-wisps (an under used fantasy creature in my opinion) and finds a witch. Oh no...its a witch. The witch isn't an evil character and I liked that a lot. In fact, she's quite funny. But anyway, the Princess makes a wish and bad things happen, of course, cause who in their adolescence was at all smart?
Well the main point of the movie is how Pride can ruin so much love and if there is anything in abundance in this movie, its love. And not like a fake fantasy love that'd you find in, say The Little Mermaid, but like, love you see in your family. Now, I'm an adult and I'm gonna talk a little about the parents and how they show affection for one another and how much I love it! In the opening scene, the princess runs off screen. The king then comes up behind his wife and see her go "oo!" cause he pinched her rear end. Then she smiles at him! Cause she enjoyed it!!! That made me so happy. I love it when I see married couples with kids expressing the same loving passion they had for each other when they first got married. It is just such a great thing to see cause it solidifies that Love can keep getting better. There is another scene similar to this near the end of the movie, but, I don't want to spoil it. Here is a link that I think is (slightly in-)appropriate for the films attitude towards Married Love (Only for those who dare) The Father in the movie is probably my more favorite character. He's funny and he also presents the dangers of the princess's choices.
The real crux of the movie comes with the relationship between the princess and the queen. I've spent my fair share of time around women and I know how back-biting they can be to each other compared to guys (and something similar to this happens in the movie too). They have some scenes together where they learn to really love each other for who they are, differences and all. I'm lucky in that I'm a man we solve things a different Way, so I don't fully understand what is going inside the princess's head, but that didn't diminish my desire for her to succeed.
The roll of the dice give Brave 8/10. The tots won't enjoy it too much, but your teens and older will.
My kids liked it well enough. I thought the relationship between the mother and daughter was very realistic. I've heard some complaining from critics about how selfish and whiny the protagonist is, but I thought it was pretty accurate. Teenagers aren't exactly known for being considerate. I do, however, have a huge problem with Pixar because of this movie. Their first female protagonist, and it's a princess? Again? Really??!!! Males get to be: Toys (cowboys and spacemen), monsters, cars, robots, superheroes, scouts, etc. and girls are...princesses, princesses who do or do not get married. Pixar has done a great job with female supporting characters, so I was kind of hoping for more from a main character.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your response. I suppose it didn't really occur to me to wonder that this was Pixar's first female protagonist and that she also was a princess. In their defense I understand that Disney is exerting more influence over what they make now, hence both a princess and a witch (very classic Disney). But still, I agree with you. I'd like to see less damsels in distress and more characters like Sarah Conner from Terminator 2.
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