BRAVE: A Tale of a Non-Traditional Princess and her Mom
Brave is Pixar’s first film with a female lead, and it was even more than I could have hoped for. Merida, the spirited young Scottish princess (Kelly MacDonald), is more than a female protagonist slotted into whatever brilliance Pixar dreamed up this time. Brave is a distinctly female-oriented story. It is about the unique bond between mother and daughter, one that can be strained, complicated and often fraught with tension and misunderstanding. It is also about the entire family who loves each other, loving dad, bratty little bothers and full of action, comedy, suspense and BEARS!
Merida is a young, headstrong princess that is perfectly happy going for long rides with her horse Angus in the Scottish hillsides, climbing mountains and shooting arrows with impeccable aim that has come with years of practice. While her loving father Fergus (Billy Connolly) indulges her desires, giving her a bow for her birthday when she was young, her mother Elinor (Emma Thompson) carries the responsibilities of heading a kingdom, that includes attempting to groom Merida for her role as princess and a future Queen.
When Merida discovers that her hand in marriage is to be given away to the sons, she blames her mothers and she rebels. Slyly selecting archery as the challenge for her potential suitors and winning her own hand. When she discovers the chaos between the clans that this seemlingly personal act of rebellion caused, she runs away determined to change her fate. Merida follows wisps into the woods and happens upon a mysterious witch who provides Merida a spell that will change her mother and in turn change her fate. Any one who’s seen this happen once before knows that magic is never straight forward. The spell changes her mother indeed, but not the way Merida had intended, it is the journey that resulted from the spell that changed her mother, and Merida too.
From the trailer I could have guessed that the extent of the film was about a rebel princess throwing aside of what a princess, or a woman should be. Refusing to be married off and determining her own path. This all happens in the first fifteen minutes, the rest of the film is about the consequences of her actions, taking responsibility and growing up.
Brave is far more complex than the story of a rebel princess, it’s about relationships with family, responsibility and growing up all without being patronizing. The audience is taken along an emotional journey that mirrors that of the characters onscreen. At first we identify with Merida, viewing her mother as controlling and old fashioned, but then we realize that Merida is still a child, she is stubborn and strong-willed, she’s idealistic but lacking forethought. We also see that Elinor, while sharing her daughter’s stubborn qualities, both women echo the sentiment that the other wont listen (sound familiar moms/teens?), she bears the enormous responsibility to maintain the tenuous peace between the clans by upholding customs and traditions that are meant to keep stability in the region. Each woman is a full, complex character that has conflicting motivations and reasons for behaving as she does.
The story of Merida and her mother is one that I, and many other girls and women, can relate to in one way or another, even if we aren’t all Scottish Princesses with a penchant for archery. Both women showed bravery while fighting off bears, magic and angry Scottish clansmen, however, this story was primarily about the kind of bravery it takes to put aside your pride and listen, try to understand, and find ways (and the willingness!) to see things from another perspective and mend a broken relationship.
Without spoiling the ending for you, the resolution was absolutely brilliant. It came from Merida learning from her mother but also embracing her own ideas, changing tradition and creating something better.
BRAVE was wonderful, watching Merida bond with her Mother was fantastic, her brothers (those wee devils) were hilarious, her father and the clansman provided plenty of humour and enjoyable entertainment value with banter and physical comedy. Unsurprisingly, the animation was absolutely beautiful and the detail was outstanding! The story outside of Merida and her mother felt a bit thin at times, the film may have benefited from fleshing out the witch, the tale of the ancient Kingdom and perhaps a little more history of the very young Kingdom. Overall, an absolute treat.
Go see BRAVE, bring your mom!
