The much anticipated Disney Pixar film, Brave was released this past weekend and moviegoers watched as the Scottish princess Merida lit up the screen with her long main curly red hair. This movie follows the trend of films using a strong female lead in a girl-power type role and the red-headed archery prodigy is as fierce as any man trying to win her hand in marriage (literally. She beat all of them in a contest).
However, while critics say that this film is good (Pixar’s films are always good) they wonder if it really stands up to par with previous Pixar classics like Toy Story 3 or Wall-E. Some critics complained that while it was visually beautiful and very good for an animated film, Pixar may have done themselves into the ground by producing a film that does not exceed its own standards. Merida is thought to be just like other kickass Disney princesses (Mulan, Ariel from The Little Mermaid) and the entire story seems pretty conventional.
One explanation is that the team that wrote and directed this film didn’t include any of the core team members that really brought all of the other Pixar films to the next level. As a result, Brave might be the most un-Pixar-y film yet. Is this a step in the right direction? Maybe when audiences and critics get used to the shift in the direction we will have a new wave of great films that are different from all the rest.
