Moview Review: Brave.
Jul. 24th, 2012 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_doyleSo I watched this movie a month ago, and I haven't delayed reviewing it because I have all kinds of deep critical thoughts. More the reverse, really. Like most Pixar fare, it hit me on an emotional level, bypassing my critical faculties entirely.
This movie didn't make me cry, but it did make me tear up -- and at the weirdest thing. The way Merida's hair is animated. Her curls appear the same texture as Megan's hair does, almost exactly, and they react and move just like it. It sounds ridiculous, but when it started raining, my eyes welled up at the way her hair reacted to the dampness.
Okay, general review, with some specific spoilers:
I loved the family dynamic. I loved the themes. I loved the people, although the little brothers are more of a gestalt entity than a single character, but they;re clearly archetypal: Troublesome Little Sibling. The mix of exasperation and sympathy, the way they pulled together to help Merida, beautiful.
I liked the mother-daughter narrative. I liked both the characters. I felt that Merida's feeling blindsided by an arranged marriage was anachronistic and unlikely -- rsentful, sure, but surprised? No. Other than that I found the plotline delightful.
The father was, I think, the weakest and sketchiest character -- just explain it to him already! Again, a bit contrived, but I liked the results.
Between bear and witch there's not really a coherent antagonist unless it's Merida herself, but I'm okay with a movie focusing on inner conflict like that. It did feel like it left some threads hanging, and I have to wonder what happened with the script in revisions -- it feels like something that went through a lot of editing, but not necessarily a lot of intensive writing post-edits, if that makes any sense? Write a good script, find the holes, patch them, done.
So, about Merida being a strong female character (or not). Isn't it our hope that we can have women of varying types and areas of strength with different flaws, depicted again and again in different ways, so that "strong" becomes a general adjective rather than a specific descriptor? Because I felt the movie gave us two of those in Merida and her mum. I wouldn't mistake either of them for any other Disney heroine, and neither is perfect, and both struggle, but they're both ladies of strong will and determined character making important choices about how to navigate their lives and their position in the world (and one another's lives, too -- through the transformation, they get to control one another's lives, to examine how their choices affect one another).
So there's my review. It's kind of all over the place and superficial, I think. I dunno. I think I'd be much more successful discussing this movie in dialogue than monologue. Tell me what you through in the comment threads, and I will respond at length.
This movie didn't make me cry, but it did make me tear up -- and at the weirdest thing. The way Merida's hair is animated. Her curls appear the same texture as Megan's hair does, almost exactly, and they react and move just like it. It sounds ridiculous, but when it started raining, my eyes welled up at the way her hair reacted to the dampness.
Okay, general review, with some specific spoilers:
I loved the family dynamic. I loved the themes. I loved the people, although the little brothers are more of a gestalt entity than a single character, but they;re clearly archetypal: Troublesome Little Sibling. The mix of exasperation and sympathy, the way they pulled together to help Merida, beautiful.
I liked the mother-daughter narrative. I liked both the characters. I felt that Merida's feeling blindsided by an arranged marriage was anachronistic and unlikely -- rsentful, sure, but surprised? No. Other than that I found the plotline delightful.
The father was, I think, the weakest and sketchiest character -- just explain it to him already! Again, a bit contrived, but I liked the results.
Between bear and witch there's not really a coherent antagonist unless it's Merida herself, but I'm okay with a movie focusing on inner conflict like that. It did feel like it left some threads hanging, and I have to wonder what happened with the script in revisions -- it feels like something that went through a lot of editing, but not necessarily a lot of intensive writing post-edits, if that makes any sense? Write a good script, find the holes, patch them, done.
So, about Merida being a strong female character (or not). Isn't it our hope that we can have women of varying types and areas of strength with different flaws, depicted again and again in different ways, so that "strong" becomes a general adjective rather than a specific descriptor? Because I felt the movie gave us two of those in Merida and her mum. I wouldn't mistake either of them for any other Disney heroine, and neither is perfect, and both struggle, but they're both ladies of strong will and determined character making important choices about how to navigate their lives and their position in the world (and one another's lives, too -- through the transformation, they get to control one another's lives, to examine how their choices affect one another).
So there's my review. It's kind of all over the place and superficial, I think. I dunno. I think I'd be much more successful discussing this movie in dialogue than monologue. Tell me what you through in the comment threads, and I will respond at length.
