Brave Review

Mend the bond torn by pride

This movie is about a princess named Merida(Kelly McDonald), a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus(Billy Connelly) and Queen Elinor(Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin, surly Lord Macintosh and cantankerous Lord Dingwall. Merida's actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Witch for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it's too late.

Merida , seen in an action-packed prologue as a flame-haired Scottish tomboy whose life is changed by an early birthday gift of a bow, which quickly inspires her to become the best archer in the kingdom. Then we flash forward to Merida as a young lady of marriageable age, who is startled by request from Queen Elinor to choose among three possible husbands chosen by her clan.

Nothing doing , especially since all three candidates are doofuses. Merida leaps upon her trusty steed and flees into the forest, where her friends the will-o-the-wisps lead her to the cottage of a gnarled old witch(Julie Walters). She begs for a magic spell that will change Queen Elinor's mind, but it changes more than that: It turns Elinor into a bear. Witches never know how to stop when they're ahead.

Luckily, the magic spell comes with an escape clause. Merida has exactly two days to reverse the charm. After she and her mother absorb what has happened, they begin to work together and grow closer than ever, even though the queen cannot speak. There is a tricky complication. King Fergus had his leg bitten off by a bear (in the prologue), and has been indisposed toward them ever since. Unsurprisingly, when he sees his wife as a bear, he fails to recognize her.

"Brave" has an uplifting message about improving communication between mothers and daughters, although transforming your mom into a bear is a rather extreme first step. Elinor is a good sport, under the circumstances. But Merida is far from being a typical fairy-tale princess. Having flatly rejected the three suitors proposed by her family, she is apparently prepared to go through life quite happily without a husband, and we can imagine her in later years, a weathered and indomitable Amazon queen, sort of a Boudica for the Scots. "Brave" seems at a loss to deal with her as a girl and makes her a sort of honorary boy.

After watching this movie, we will give 4 out of 5 stars because the movie is driven by narrative elements of confidence and growth, both in regards to maturity and self-esteem, which speaks volumes in a princess film where the respected and powerful characters are typically male but in this case are female. It’s also a nice touch to create a princess that isn’t yearning for a prince the entire tale. The mother/daughter conflict is wrapped with good intentions but also serves as a model for communication within a family.

This movie we would recommend to children and their parents because it focuses on family bond. Parents should communicate well with their children. The spoiler of this movie is when Queen Elinor turns into a big black bear after eating an enchanted cake given by Merida.