Brave

Surprisingly, this is a movie that people really wanted me to see and really wanted to hear my opinion on. And it wasn't like Drive where they said I would really like it, they just wanted to hear what I had to say about it. I saw the movie a little over a week ago and haven't really had a chance to give a review on it. Having said that, I'm sorry. With all that out of the way, let's get onto the review. Being that this is a Disney movie and a Pixar one at that, it's a pretty safe bet that this is at least going to be good. The real question is "Will this movie be great?" Well, for me, honestly, I'm going to lean more to the "Negatory" side of that argument. Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie and had a lot of fun watching it, but it just wasn't on the caliber of some of the other Disney/Pixar movies that we have seen. For me, I would say that the three best movies to come from Pixar are Toy Story, Toy Story 3 and The Incredibles. All of them, I thought had the perfect amount of humor and heart which has made Pixar so legendary. Actually, I take that back. Incredibles had a lot more humor than heart, but that was definitely the Pixar movie that I had the most fun watching. That's the one that had me laughing the hardest. On the other end of the spectrum of Pixar movies would be Cars and Ratatouille. Cars was pretty 'meh' in my opinion and Ratatouille was all around pretty forgettable. Cars 2 is not even going on the list because that was just awful.

So, where does Brave sit? Actually, it probably sits right smack dab in the middle. It's good, but it had the potential to be great. It starts out nice enough, you really relate to the main character and what she wants to accomplish, but you also get where her parents are coming from and why they think she should act a certain way. The story is actually pretty mature while also being kid friendly, once again reminding us what makes Pixar so great. And then there is a certain point in the movie where it just kind of drops off and stops pursuing this really mature, almost adult storyline and just plays it safe. Like I said, that doesn't make the movie bad, but I would have really liked it if they kept pursuing that maturity rather than just playing it safe. There are parts that I like, I caught a few references to the movie Braveheart at certain points (though I'm not sure if this was paying homage or subtly ripping off), and the voice acting is pretty top notch. The two best ones being Billy Connolly as the main character's father (who I could sit and just listen to read the phone book all day) and Craig Ferguson, who just always brings a grin to my face. Again, while this movie isn't bad, I think this will be one of the more forgettable entries in the years to come. This will be the one that, when we talk about Pixar, we'll say "Hey, what about Brave? That was a good movie" To which we will have to remind ourselves that this was a good movie.

Final Grade: B