"Breaking the traditions requires bravery"

Title: Brave

Year: 2012

Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure, Comedy

Director: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell (co-director)

Writer: Brenda Chapman (story), Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman and Irene Mecchi (screenplay)

Runtime: 100min

Cast: Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin Mckidd, Craig Ferguson, Steven Cree

Produc.: Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios

Budget: $185 millions approx.

In Brave, Merida is a Scottish princess of the DunBroch clan, who refuses to strictly comply with her role in the family tradition. Once she decides to change her situation, will be when things turn to her upside down.

This new adventure, born of a collaboration between Disney and Pixar, comes at a time when, I think, it was essential, given the overabundance of sequels. But, do not get me wrong. Except rare cases, I would say that there has, almost never happen, that a major studio animation were to disappoint.

Today it is the case of Brave, which, for the first time has a female protagonist as a lead character, also taking place in the early Middle Ages.

Merida (Kelly Macdonald) is a teenage girl, daughter of Fergus (Billy Connolly), warrior father, and Elinor (Emma Thompson), mother of elegant manners. From his father she inherited the spirit for action, and from her mother... it remains to be seen.

Right at this moment, Elinor is nervous, as the heads of three neighboring clans are coming to her kingdom with their sons, the princes, so that they compete for Merida´s hand. What Elinor wants is for her daughter to behave, act politely and accept her fate, already established.

To Merida, to obey to her mother sounds very dificult, as this is a tradition that she does not share. Elinor has always seen herself as a lady, educated and refined. Unable to eat, using her hands, sit hunched or stain her clothing. Quite the opposite to her daughter´s way of life. The relationship between the one and the other is of cats and dogs. A tie with which many will, for sure, feel identified.

In an act of rebellion, and after the princes faced each other in archery, Merida shows up to compete for her own hand. Under the rules, the suitors must be firstborns and she is too. It is to be understood that this does not applies, but to Merida, little it matters. Furious, and driven by a nagging mother, she aims to the three targets and hits the three in the middle.

At this point, for Merida her mother has become an ogre, and she, a misunderstood. In an early climax, where the two discuss, Merida breaks a tapestry, woven by her mother, in which she and her parents appeared together, after which she flees on horseback into the forest. Soon, Merida reaches the cabin of an old woman (Julie Walters), part witch and part saleswoman, and manages to get a promising spell. With this, she will be able to change her mother, her way of thinking, just by giving her to try a little cake. What the old woman, however, forgets to mention, is that this will also change her body image. Not aware of this, Merida turns her mother into a bear, animal to which her father had sworn revenge.

Spells and the struggles to finish them are something we have already seen. Take, for example, the case of Beauty and the Beast (1991). The difference here lies, in that this type of conflict between mother and daughter, is for many, much more closer and real.

Elinor and Merida do not want to listen to each other. Elinor believes that she is the one uncomprehended, and does not understand what did she do wrong, when in fact it is her daughter the aggrevied. The sad thing is that they had to reach to the point, where the mother had to leave her human condition and her dialogue capacity, for both, to finally agree.

Daughter and mother (now bear) leave the castle to put Elinor safe from a husband, who does not know about the spell. It is from there, in the middle of the woods, that both give themselves the chance to make a radical change in their relationship, even if forced by extreme circumstances. Merida is now the only one that can express herself. Her mother can only hear or roar. Here it becomes very funny, to see how an Elinor that, hairy, about six feet tall and with paws instead of legs, still maintains the same impeccable behavior of a perfect lady, besides still carrying her crown.

Throughout the film, the humor, the entanglements and some important information about the past of the clan itself, are always accompanied by this good lesson of coexistence, which dictates that there is a reason, why we have two ears and only one mouth.

Nevertheless, nor is that, necessary, one had to go to the movies to understood about certain truisms. The film only reinforces concepts that we all already knew. Because it is unfortunate, but true, that many parents, unwittingly make the mistake of wanting to always decide for their children. Not allowing them to live their lives in their own way.

My rating: 6/10

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