Brave: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman

Pixar's Brave is to mothers and daughters what Finding Nemo (2003) was to fathers and sons. They are touching stories about a child and parent who don't see eye-to-eye who through a series of outrageous events learn to love and cherish each other. Whereas Finding Nemo focused on two clown-fish, Brave follows two women in 10th century Scotland. Merida is a young princess with an attitude as feisty as her striking red hair. She wants to decide her own destiny in her life. This causes her to be at odds with her mother, Elinor, who wants her to follow tradition and get married to the son of one of the three clans with whom they have an alliance. So Merida runs off, makes a pact with a witch that she stumbles upon in the woods, and accidentally turns her mother into a bear. Now, the two have to figure out a way to reverse the curse in two days before it becomes permanent. Honestly, if it wasn't for the impeccable animation, I could have easily believed that this was a film by DreamWorks or any other 3D animation studio. The plot is more akin to the Disney Renaissance. Compare this to the aforementioned Finding Nemo. That film had a somewhat similar plot only with the roles reversed: the father has to rescue the son. But Finding Nemo's story was more similar to the Hero's Journey archetype. In Brave, Merida and Elinor run around the forest surrounding the castle for awhile, go back home, and run away one last time to meet their destiny. The drama is much more internalized this way. We genuinely begin to feel the love and compassion between the two. And, of course, they find a way to make amends. Several other familiar Disney archetypes make an appearance, such as a solution to Merida and Elinor's problem which turns out to be a red herring. But Brave is still a competent enough film. I just expected more from Pixar.

7/10