Critique: Brave (Film) 2/2

*****SPOILERS*****

 

 

Visuals

 

The animation team did a superb job.

The hair in the film was epic. The animation for Merida’s hair, in particular, was great. Her hair is multiple strands of ginger, and these base colours are affected by the shade and sunshine. The other hair of note was Queen Elinor’s braids (they were just a really pretty design).

There’s a horn in the shape of a bear. When it’s blown, the bear’s tongue moves. This was a nice detail.

When Merida shoots in the archery competition, she hits the bull’s eye on every target. Her arrows even goes through the centre of the Dingwall suitor’s arrow which was already in the middle of the bull’s eye. This was visually pleasing. In fact, seeing the arrow animated in slow motion was also satisfying because it bended and wobbled just like a real arrow when it’s shot.

The Queen transforming into a bear under the bed sheet is clever for two reasons: how it was animated and how it was not animated. What was animated was that, as the Queen got bigger and bigger, the sheet could cover less and less of her until it falls off. But also, being under a cover meant the transformation itself didn’t have to be animated, saving much time.

 

 

Humour

 

Despite the serious tone of the film, there was humour.

 

Merida’s triplet younger brothers are much fun.

When the triplets are dismissed, they run away. One trips and lands, spilling buns everywhere.

When the Queen as a bear walks into a room, the mouths of the triplets fall open. This would only be a minor amusement to some, but they’re playing with a stuffed deer head and its mouth falls open, too, elevating the level of amusement.

As the visiting clans wave goodbye from their ships, the triplets are on the mast waving to the king on the shore. Always causing trouble.

 

For the amount of screen time the whittler-witch has, the amount of humour she has is out of proportion. She was enjoyable.

Her entire shop is full of bear carvings, including a bear version of the famous painting where Jesus and God reach a finger out to each other.

The whittler, with all her sharp objects floating, advance on Merida to make her exit the shop. When the princess says she’ll buy everything, all the sharp turn on the witch.

Everyone has to leave to whittler’s hut then enter again so in witchy place. The whittler says, “Never conjure where you carve.” This brings to mind the phrase, ‘Never shit where you eat.’

 

King Fergus, Merida’s dad, is funny (no surprise there considering who his voice actor is).

He gave toddler Merida a bow. She struggled to hold it, which is no wonder when seeing it was five times her size. This was both funny and cute.

Merida says to crack open the king’s caskets so the king in a panicked voice begs a servant to ‘bring the tiny glasses’.

The king says to Mor’du, “I’ll take you with my bare hands.” He’s dealing with the bear with his bare hands. Nice use of a homonym.

 

Queen Elinor’s humour doesn’t come from her personality. Rather, it comes when behaviour goes against what is proper for a lady.

The Queen criticises everything Merida does in order to make Merida ladylike. So seeing Merida stroll like a guy, i.e. carefree with big movements and heavy stomps, was funny. Then when the Queen burps in front of all the Clan Chiefs, she’s doing behaviour that she’d punish Merida for.

Merida points at the Queen to shout, “Bear!” The Queen turns around, sees a bear-shaped shadow, then panics. People being scared of their own shadows is a fun trope; it’s almost like seeing a dog bark at its own reflection. Also being calm is an important trait for a lady and this behaviour certainly isn’t calm.

Queen trying to be dainty and queenly whilst she’s a massive bear is pure comedy.

 

The suitors, and their fathers, provide a lot of entertainment.

The other three clans present their suitors. One has an unintelligible voice. Dingwall’s appears stupid and incompetent. The last is a muscular pretty boy yet is easily frightened and angered. The latter also screeches in a high voice and slaps people, going against the traditional image of masculinity. So all of Merida’s suiters are undesirable.

Dingwall’s son does well at the archery. His dad lifts up his kilt and says, “Feast your eyes!” A funny, disturbing and graphic choice of words. A kid crying in the background brings the humour of that moment up a notch.

 

 

Problems

 

Some mistakes were so glaring that someone should have noticed.

Merida goes riding on her horse Angus whilst shooting her bow. At one point, Angus jumps over a log in slow motion, Merida’s hair and arms move in slow motion, and yet during this her arrow shoots at the same speed as all her other arrows. It’s only after this that Angus lands and slow motion is ended. So having that arrow at normal speed is a mistake.

When Merida walks out the hut and she, along with Angus, appear in the centre of the stone circle. Considering Angus refused to enter before, one would expect him to be even more panicky if he just appeared in the middle. It’s possible the whittler calmed him down, but this seems more like an excuse than a reason.

There are two smaller issues. The volume needed constant changing which means the audience can’t just sit back to enjoy the film. Another thing that was disappointing was the sporrans. They look like bumbags! What’s up with that?

 

Whilst Merida and Queen Elinor don’t quite get along, some of their behaviour surrounding the other is not believable.

The Queen never told Merida about the upcoming betrothal, yet is surprised that Merida lashed out? That’s not believable.

Merida complains her clothing is too tight and Queen Elinor says, “It’s perfect.” What, it’s perfect that your daughter is uncomfortable? That’s sadistic.

Merida gives a speech to everyone so that her mother could sneak up the stairs to the tapestry room. But the Queen stays for the entire speech because Merida finally takes some responsibility. Throughout the speech, Merida keeps on looking at her mother rather hard, at times for prolonged periods, yet no-one follows her line of sight to see what Merida was so fascinated with. Her speech wasn’t captivating enough for people not to act naturally.

 

 

 

This film makes for an easy, enjoyable watch. The visual and humour were superb. The fact that the film manages all this whilst having a serious vibe is a job well done.

It provides different things for each age group yet the baseline is relevant for all ages. (Teenagers rejecting things from their younger youth wouldn’t object to this film as being childish.)

The problems were more irritants than plot-destroying features, but they were irritants nonetheless. It’s what’s in my ‘Queries’ section that devalues the film for me.

There’s plenty to think about, to ponder once the film is done. For example, there are four Clans and four princes from Queen Elinor’s story, making one wonder if the Clan Chiefs descend from the princes.

When in a low mood, to keep the mind from wondering a film needs to be easy enough to follow but hard enough to grab your attention. Between this and all the positives already mentioned, this film was my most used DVD over my university period. That’s definitely a noteworthy achievement.