Brave
Year: 2012
Rating: PG
Length: 93 minutes / 1.55 hours
2012 was a weird year for Disney and Pixar films. Disney released Wreck-it Ralph (2012), which felt like a classic Pixar movie, but Pixar released Brave (2012), which felt like a classic Disney movie. And while the visuals in Brave are as amazing as ever thanks to the quality Pixar had been known for, the plot felt a bit lacking compared to some classics that have come out of that production company. For once, the movie Pixar released felt just average, which was more disappointing because audiences had already seen Pixar make much greater movies before.
Perhaps this was the start of the trend in Pixar movies to deal with generational trauma in creative ways, but it never felt that the “mother turning into a bear” plot-line was as strong as the “I want to be an independent woman” one. Sure, they’re both connected, but all the advertising somewhat overshadowed one by focusing on the other. The problem is, neither plot seems that original. Heck, Tangled (2010) already dealt with the “daughter wanting to just live her life” concept much like Brother Bear (2003) handled the “transformation into a bear” struggle.
In the grand scheme of what Pixar had done, Brave felt like a safe movie to make. Disney princesses over the years made the medieval setting the de facto timeframe to set these kinds of movies. That Brave felt like it was trying to be an adaptation of a fairy tale speaks more to how little risk the company wanted to take with an original idea after a few years of putting out sequels like Toy Story 3 (2010) and Cars 2 (2011). In the end, Brave isn’t a terrible movie; it’s just not that memorable.
An average movie from Pixar instead of an average Pixar movie, I give Brave 3.0 stars out of 5.
