It's been quite a ride for me watching "Brave" in a movie theatre yesterday. I took my whole family to watch it, and the tearful ride began for us with the trailers before the movie. First, my three year old daughter started crying watching "Amazing Spiderman" trailer... Which I actually like and our 14 y.o. son was quite excited to watch. And then all of a sudden some smartass included "Abraham Lincolc: Vampire Hunter" trailer right before the show! My three year old was thrilled beyond tears, that my wife had to leave the roomm for some time... :) So it all began, now every thunder, or night scenes in the forest were scareful for her. Half the movie she was hiding... Well, what am I talking about... Isn't that the movie review?
I better start with what's good, because it's a great cartoon for the kids actually. Our 14 y.o. son was quite impressed with it, and the plot, and liked every bit of it. A cynical side of me was dissapointed, and that's actually just becuase I had high expectations. (by the way, in such cases I always try to cool myself down, but that doesn't happen as often, I have that strange ability to get excited before, and leave dissapointed. Still not that dissapointed as from Prometheus!).
So, as usual Pixar makes great computer visuals. The whole thing was just beautiful! The forest, the castles, characters were so distinct, and as I like to say a feast for the eyes. As far as I remember usually in Pixar's movies there were very few human characters. I understand that human's are easy to draw, but is far harder to make them well, "human." Motion, actions, movements, facial expressions are quite hard to make true, so that they don't look like robots. A case in point is that motion-capture that Robert Zemeckis uses, and that were brilliantly shown in his "Christmas Carol" (2009). Although commercially not very successful (I blame their stupid marketing campaign!) with the budget of 200 mln and worldwide boxoffice of 325 mln this was a true masterpiece! "Christmas Carol" is a true classic story that Mr. Zemeckis was able to make a living picture. Their stupid marketing campaign made me and others believe that it's a funny ride (of course it's Jim Carrey) for the Christmas and New Year's spirit. While in fact it was a serious story, with some really scary moments. Anyway, about Brave - the whole things with the scots, the characters were so ALIVE! Their mimics, their movements, and everything about characters was so fascinating! Didn't you love the whole sceme when they were fighting each other? Great animation!
Then you see all those forests, and mountains, and dark forests, and the witch, and the bears (that stuff really scared my little one). And again, that stuff scared my daughter, perhaps that stuff is too much for the little ones, but was perfect for the 14 y.o. Perhaps it's a teen movie, cartoon, and not for the very small ones. I didn't expect that. And then again, it's only my daughter, perhaps others were not scared at all. In general: the whole magic of Pixar about that was great. It was really impressive to see all that hard work they made and brought you in this world of old history to you.
The whole story with the clash of generations, a case in point mother and daughter, and the moral of the story about it was good enough for our son. Yet wasn't very satisfying for me and my wife. It's quite simple, "heard-and-seen-that-before" style. Of course after watching other Pixar works, and Madagaskar 3, I was confident that it'll be fun enough for kids, and fun enough for us. That didn't happen. That's exactly I felt dissapointed. Or perhaps their intent was for the teens, and I just didn't get it. And perhaps those marketing guys didn't get it, and tried to appeal to a wider audience in their trailers and campaigns.
I wrote a short note right after watching "Brave," and today right as I'm writing this review, I've read what other critics say, and what do they say?
IMDB: 7.6 out of 10 from 1,394 users.
Metascore: 68 out of 100.
Rotten Tomatoes: 6.8 out of 10 based on 140 reviews.
Roger Ebert: 3 out of 4 stars.
Rotten Tomatoes consensus: "It may not live up to the lofty standards of the Pixar brand, but Brave offers young audiences and fairy tale fans a rousing, funny fantasy adventure with a distaff twist — and surprising depth."
I better start with what's good, because it's a great cartoon for the kids actually. Our 14 y.o. son was quite impressed with it, and the plot, and liked every bit of it. A cynical side of me was dissapointed, and that's actually just becuase I had high expectations. (by the way, in such cases I always try to cool myself down, but that doesn't happen as often, I have that strange ability to get excited before, and leave dissapointed. Still not that dissapointed as from Prometheus!).
So, as usual Pixar makes great computer visuals. The whole thing was just beautiful! The forest, the castles, characters were so distinct, and as I like to say a feast for the eyes. As far as I remember usually in Pixar's movies there were very few human characters. I understand that human's are easy to draw, but is far harder to make them well, "human." Motion, actions, movements, facial expressions are quite hard to make true, so that they don't look like robots. A case in point is that motion-capture that Robert Zemeckis uses, and that were brilliantly shown in his "Christmas Carol" (2009). Although commercially not very successful (I blame their stupid marketing campaign!) with the budget of 200 mln and worldwide boxoffice of 325 mln this was a true masterpiece! "Christmas Carol" is a true classic story that Mr. Zemeckis was able to make a living picture. Their stupid marketing campaign made me and others believe that it's a funny ride (of course it's Jim Carrey) for the Christmas and New Year's spirit. While in fact it was a serious story, with some really scary moments. Anyway, about Brave - the whole things with the scots, the characters were so ALIVE! Their mimics, their movements, and everything about characters was so fascinating! Didn't you love the whole sceme when they were fighting each other? Great animation!
Then you see all those forests, and mountains, and dark forests, and the witch, and the bears (that stuff really scared my little one). And again, that stuff scared my daughter, perhaps that stuff is too much for the little ones, but was perfect for the 14 y.o. Perhaps it's a teen movie, cartoon, and not for the very small ones. I didn't expect that. And then again, it's only my daughter, perhaps others were not scared at all. In general: the whole magic of Pixar about that was great. It was really impressive to see all that hard work they made and brought you in this world of old history to you.
The whole story with the clash of generations, a case in point mother and daughter, and the moral of the story about it was good enough for our son. Yet wasn't very satisfying for me and my wife. It's quite simple, "heard-and-seen-that-before" style. Of course after watching other Pixar works, and Madagaskar 3, I was confident that it'll be fun enough for kids, and fun enough for us. That didn't happen. That's exactly I felt dissapointed. Or perhaps their intent was for the teens, and I just didn't get it. And perhaps those marketing guys didn't get it, and tried to appeal to a wider audience in their trailers and campaigns.
I wrote a short note right after watching "Brave," and today right as I'm writing this review, I've read what other critics say, and what do they say?
IMDB: 7.6 out of 10 from 1,394 users.
Metascore: 68 out of 100.
Rotten Tomatoes: 6.8 out of 10 based on 140 reviews.
Roger Ebert: 3 out of 4 stars.
Rotten Tomatoes consensus: "It may not live up to the lofty standards of the Pixar brand, but Brave offers young audiences and fairy tale fans a rousing, funny fantasy adventure with a distaff twist — and surprising depth."
Roger Ebert: "The good news is that the kids will probably love it, and the bad news is that parents will be disappointed if they're hoping for another Pixar groundbreaker."
Well that's a surprising consensus. I wasn't stealing anobody's ideas or thoughts, but I'm surprised how my humble opinion coincides with these guys... Most of the time, mine is quite different from the others. (I got all this from different sources, the most obvious of course Brave of IMDB.COM, Brave on Wikipedia, Brave on Boxofficemojo.com). "Brave started good enough with 24 mln on Friday. You don't have to be Nostradamus to be sure that it'll have a nice ride at the boxoffice, but it'll have a much better run at the television. Still, it really doesn't feel like one of those Pixar miracles that used to come out. Every animation they had was great! I didn't like cars much, but that's solely my problems (exactly because it was made purely for kids, but it was a great one), and I loved Ratatouille (what a mess, it was more for adults, rather than kids).
Resume: A great one for kids, but not as exciting for adults. Still go ahead there with kids, you don't need to be as cynical as me.
(Perhaps a spoiler. Don't read!)
What was typical about Brave? Three cliche younger brothers. Why did you have to do that? They seemed so obvious, and not really fun (for me, not for kids). The whole story with the mother turning into a bear, so old, so used up, so uninspiring... That spoof witht he witch when she found her for a second time and the bowl answering machine seemed out of place. There were no spoofs before. Why did you add this one? It really seemed out of place. I stop before I add more spoilers and before this review becomes less and less interesting.
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