Movie Review: Brave

Although Brave fell slightly short to the ridiculously high standards of the Pixar brand, this was still a stunningly animated delight on its own.

Let me start with the obvious: Brave looked spellbidingly gorgeous. Without one iota of exaggeration, I found the film to be visually stunning. The animation looked vibrant, the backdrops were exquisitely rendered and the characters had excellent detail especially the fiery red hair of the lead character, Merida.

The voice acting was also pretty superb as plenty of emotion was delivered by Kelly McDonald, Billy Connoly and Emma Thompson. I admit, I couldn't really understand some of the words mostly due to an accent I'm that too familiar with, but that somehow added to the charm of the film. Oh, and the soundtrack was absolutely beautiful

Now, as for the story, I thought it was good even though it became decidedly predictable towards the end. I appreciated the fact that the story was supported by a strong central character and a mother-daughter relationship that resonated well with the movie's central value of family. It did lack the trademark Pixar wit though and some of the humor felt a little forced than usual - though the triplets were seriously adorable. Ha!

Ultimately, Brave was no Finding Nemo. Neither was it even close to Up, The Incredibles or any Toy Story film. I think the problem was when Pixar built such a fantastic repertoire for animated films as expectations went incredibly high for the next. But of course, that's not saying that this was anywhere near bad because, to be fair, Brave was still an excellent effort from Pixar with a fantastic and fully realized characters coupled with a strong emotional core and great performances overall. A movie that's hard not to like. Just saying.

RATING: 

8/10