Post by Crom-Cruach on Jun 25, 2012 11:15:36 GMT -5
WARNING MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD, ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!
So I caught the early show yesterday of the new Pixar animation, Brave. Since I've not posted reviews in a long time I thought I would share my thoughts on the movie.
The story is about a young scottish princess who follows the typical Disney model of "I want to make my own way in life, screw tradition and all that" who is being arranged to be married by her mother the queen to one of the sons of the clan chiefs. Now if you know anything about Scottish history, that's serious business. Typically she refuses, argument and rebellion ensues. She runs away, stumbles upon a cooky witch obsessed with bears, gets a pastry that she feeds to her mother. She turns her into a bear, hijinks ensue. Where, no surprise there, her and her mother reconcile and the mother accepts her daughter's wish to not be arranged married and everyone lives happily ever after, the end.
Oh and we have a sub-plot that's kind of important where a previous clan lord who wanted to rule the land went on a rampage and caused the destruction of his kingdom. Turns out that man was also turned into a bear by the witch and he's now the demon bear everyone in the land is scarred off. But that's o.k he dies crushed under a menhir and is thus liberated from his curse, so it's all cool.
Now I can hear the rants and groans of all you friendly readers saying "But Crom-Cruach, you hipster cynical bitter old bat, it's a kids movie by Disney. That makes all this plot O.K and good to watch. Why are you never happy?". Ah, but my friends. I am happy. The animation was glorious, the bear fight specifically was very impressive. There were many funny moments and overall I had fun watching the movie. But this is a critique and I'm not one to sugar coat anything. Fact is, none of the important characters had anything unique really about them. That was sad. And there were so many missed opportunities to tell a better story. That legend about the kingdom being destroyed because of the selfishness of one could have made for so much more potential to teach a great lessons to kids. And what is the lesson they could have taught?
Why: life is unfair and sometimes what you want is not important. Sometimes you do have to accept and do things unpleasant for the needs of the many. Life isn't fair and truly good people don't always get what they want for the ending that will help the most to happen.
Anyone who knows Scottish history knows clan honor and alliance were serious business. Clans have butchered each other for centuries over a feud. Alliances were made and broken over things like marriages and renagating on what was seen as sacred right. Of course everyone will say that this is a Disney movie and forced marriages are wrong and all. But this was how things worked in medieval times. People didn't think like we did now and too often it was a necessity.
Now think about what king of movie we could've had if the story actually led to her actually marrying one of the clan sons as an only solution to stop an impending threat. She grows up into a great and responsible queen and makes the land strong from her choice of sacrificing a little of herself. That would have made a greater story. The worse part is we had the villain to write that story: the eldest son who destroyed his kingdom. Maybe he returns to claim the land. Make him some scary undead barrow wight. That would have been awesome.
Also two side characters should have received more screen time: The witch and that giant muscle dude that we see three seconds, we think is the son of the chief and every time he's there does something epic (except at the end when he kisses the hysterical maid).
So to conclude, this is a good kids movie. Great animation, entertaining and enjoyable. But it's also a mess of cliches and missed opportunities. If some of you have kids, take them to see it. If you don't wait for the DVD and save your theater money for Rise of the Guardians
I give it 6/10 overall
So I caught the early show yesterday of the new Pixar animation, Brave. Since I've not posted reviews in a long time I thought I would share my thoughts on the movie.
The story is about a young scottish princess who follows the typical Disney model of "I want to make my own way in life, screw tradition and all that" who is being arranged to be married by her mother the queen to one of the sons of the clan chiefs. Now if you know anything about Scottish history, that's serious business. Typically she refuses, argument and rebellion ensues. She runs away, stumbles upon a cooky witch obsessed with bears, gets a pastry that she feeds to her mother. She turns her into a bear, hijinks ensue. Where, no surprise there, her and her mother reconcile and the mother accepts her daughter's wish to not be arranged married and everyone lives happily ever after, the end.
Oh and we have a sub-plot that's kind of important where a previous clan lord who wanted to rule the land went on a rampage and caused the destruction of his kingdom. Turns out that man was also turned into a bear by the witch and he's now the demon bear everyone in the land is scarred off. But that's o.k he dies crushed under a menhir and is thus liberated from his curse, so it's all cool.
Now I can hear the rants and groans of all you friendly readers saying "But Crom-Cruach, you hipster cynical bitter old bat, it's a kids movie by Disney. That makes all this plot O.K and good to watch. Why are you never happy?". Ah, but my friends. I am happy. The animation was glorious, the bear fight specifically was very impressive. There were many funny moments and overall I had fun watching the movie. But this is a critique and I'm not one to sugar coat anything. Fact is, none of the important characters had anything unique really about them. That was sad. And there were so many missed opportunities to tell a better story. That legend about the kingdom being destroyed because of the selfishness of one could have made for so much more potential to teach a great lessons to kids. And what is the lesson they could have taught?
Why: life is unfair and sometimes what you want is not important. Sometimes you do have to accept and do things unpleasant for the needs of the many. Life isn't fair and truly good people don't always get what they want for the ending that will help the most to happen.
Anyone who knows Scottish history knows clan honor and alliance were serious business. Clans have butchered each other for centuries over a feud. Alliances were made and broken over things like marriages and renagating on what was seen as sacred right. Of course everyone will say that this is a Disney movie and forced marriages are wrong and all. But this was how things worked in medieval times. People didn't think like we did now and too often it was a necessity.
Now think about what king of movie we could've had if the story actually led to her actually marrying one of the clan sons as an only solution to stop an impending threat. She grows up into a great and responsible queen and makes the land strong from her choice of sacrificing a little of herself. That would have made a greater story. The worse part is we had the villain to write that story: the eldest son who destroyed his kingdom. Maybe he returns to claim the land. Make him some scary undead barrow wight. That would have been awesome.
Also two side characters should have received more screen time: The witch and that giant muscle dude that we see three seconds, we think is the son of the chief and every time he's there does something epic (except at the end when he kisses the hysterical maid).
So to conclude, this is a good kids movie. Great animation, entertaining and enjoyable. But it's also a mess of cliches and missed opportunities. If some of you have kids, take them to see it. If you don't wait for the DVD and save your theater money for Rise of the Guardians
I give it 6/10 overall
