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2* ActorInspiredElement: The writers originally intended Young [=MacGuffin=]'s lines to be gibberish. However, his voice actor, Creator/KevinMcKidd, suggested that they instead use Doric, a Scots dialect from his hometown of Elgin. He then spoke in the dialect, confusing the writers. This trait was then implemented into the film.
3* ActingForTwo: Creator/KevinMcKidd voices both Lord [=MacGuffin=] and Young [=MacGuffin=]. The brogue he uses for them is a riff on his native Doric accent.
4* BillingDisplacement: In an interesting example that's both intuitive and counterintuitive, Fergus is second billed and Elinor third, despite Elinor being the film's secondary protagonist. [[spoiler:However, since Elinor spends much of the film as a bear, it's probably fair to say that Emma Thompson has less of a speaking part than Billy Connolly.]] In a straighter example, the Witch is billed fourth despite having only two scenes, beating out the three lords.
5* CelebrityVoiceActor:
6** In the Japanese dub, Merida is voiced by Yuko Oshima from Music/AKB48.
7** In the French dub, Merida is voiced by actress Creator/BereniceBejo.
8* CompletelyDifferentTitle:
9** In some of the foreign versions, they used Merida's name as the title, while in some, it was "Merida the Brave".
10** In French, it was ''Rebelle'' ("Rebellious" -- feminine form of the word.)
11** In German, it was "Merida - Legende der Highlands" (Legend of the Highlands).
12** In Japanese, it was "メリダとおそろしの森" (Merida and the Terrifying Forest).
13* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: Meta. Several fans are convinced that "Merida" is a variant of "Meredith", but this cannot be true unless Pixar were uncharacteristically sloppy in their research. ''Brave'' takes place in Scotland, sometime in the Middle Ages; "Meredith" is a Welsh name, and until the late 20th century was exclusively male. The name is likely intended to be a variant of Mairead, the Scottish form of Margaret, or on one of the several Scottish forms of Mary (e.g. Mhairi).
14* CreatorsOddball: ''Brave'' is a fairy tale fantasy film that stars a princess, which is the kind of movie you would expect from Creator/{{Disney}} rather than from Creator/{{Pixar}} of all studios, who are typically more known for having more grounded and contemporary stories. (This was also released the same year as ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'', whose plot line would not be too dissimilar from a Pixar film.) Because it is such a departure from the norm, it is not uncommon for people to mistakenly claim ''Brave'' to be a [[AllAnimationIsDisney Disney movie]] as opposed to a Pixar movie, which is not helped by Merida's later induction into the Franchise/DisneyPrincess line.
15* {{Defictionalization}}: The [=DunBroch=] tartan is registered as a [[http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails.aspx?ref=10641 real tartan in the Scottish Register of Tartans.]] But you can't use it without Disney/Pixar's permission. Admittedly, this is also somewhat played with in terms of authenticity as the [=DunBroch=] tartan literally can't be made in the traditional methods. This is not the first time Disney registered a tartan, having previously registered the one for [[https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails?ref=2412 Clan McDuck]] in 1942 for ''ComicBook/UncleScrooge''.
16* DescendedCreator:
17** As the film's co-director and one of the four scriptwriters, Steve Purcell voices the Witch's pet crow.
18** Patrick Doyle, the composer, also voices one of the guards.
19* ExecutiveMeddling: The original director Brenda Chapman was replaced for having ideas that the suits didn't agree with, which many have assumed had something to do with the film's feminist message. She notably thought the final product was faithful to her vision.
20* FakeScot:
21** [[Creator/PixarRegulars John Ratzenberger]] (who's an American) voices Gordon, one of the guards at Castle [=DunBroch=].
22** Creator/JulieWalters (an English actress of Irish descent) voices the Witch and faked a Scottish accent for the movie. Amusingly enough, the next time she did this would [[Film/Paddington2014 also involve a bear]].
23** Elinor's voice actress Creator/EmmaThompson has Scottish ancestry through her mother's side of the family and spent part of her life living in Scotland. But she's technically a citizen of England and naturally speaks with an English accent, so she ultimately had to fake a Scottish accent for the movie.
24* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: Not much Scots dialect was actually in the script, but the Scottish actors were encouraged to add as much as they could think of.
25* HeAlsoDid: One of the co-directors is Steve Purcell, who is best known for ''Franchise/SamAndMax'', a BlackComedy multimedia franchise centering around a HeroicComedicSociopath duo.
26* InMemoriam: The film is dedicated to UsefulNotes/SteveJobs, the iconic Creator/{{Apple}} founder who also played a major role in getting Pixar to where they are today. The clan [[Platform/AppleMacintosh Macintosh]] is also named in his honor.
27* OrphanedReference: Merida was originally supposed to end up with Young [=MacGuffin=], hence his name being a reference to the plot device. In the final film, his name no longer has any meaning.
28* TheOtherDarrin:
29** Susanne Blakeslee voiced the Witch in the video game adaptation.
30** For her appearance in ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'', Merida was voiced by Ruth Connell instead of Kelly Macdonald.
31* TheOtherMarty: Creator/ReeseWitherspoon was originally cast in the lead but was replaced during recording with Creator/KellyMacdonald.
32* RealitySubtext: Brenda Chapman based the story on her relationship with her daughter.
33* ReferencedBy: In ''Literature/BothCanBeTrue'', ''Brave'' is Daniel's mom's comfort movie. She watches it a lot after her husband leaves.
34* RoleReprise: Creator/KellyMacdonald returns to voice Merida for the tie-in game and for ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet''.
35* ScullyBox: When [[spoiler:Bear!Elinor]] is standing, she is more than twice Merida's height. To fit both characters into the same shot, the animators sometimes sunk [[spoiler:Bear!Elinor]] into the floor a bit.
36* SpoiledByTheMerchandise: Dolls and plush toys for the film blatantly revealed the identity of [[spoiler:some of the bears seen in the trailer as Merida's mother and brothers.]]
37* TroubledProduction: The film had title changes, the dismissal of director/co-writer Brenda Chapman, and many scenes being rewritten and/or dropped during production.
38* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
39** Much of the film was originally to be set during the winter, with snow being the big technical challenge for the film but when Brenda Chapman left the project, so did the weather. What's more, according to the DVD Commentary, they were going to turn the setting into an EndlessWinter as an addition to [[spoiler:Merida and Mor'du's bear curse]], but in the end chose not to. This may have been done to avoid being too similar to ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', which also featured an endless winter curse and was released the following year.
40** The first summary released online stated the three Lords actually ''aided Merida'' in breaking the spell! That did not happen, to say the least.
41** Another summary implied that the three Lords were direct antagonists to Merida.
42** Mor'du's backstory was supposed to be more prominent in the earlier draft, thereby making the film much darker than it already is. Inevitably, executives made Pixar tone it down.
43** The movie's official artbook confirms that originally, [[spoiler: Young [=MacGuffin=] is the one Merida ends up with.]] This was probably cut out of the final product since the filmmakers wanted to focus more on the mother/daughter relationship. It's also not particularly surprising that this was the original plan, since [[spoiler:he's the only one of the three suitors that Merida, at ''any'' point, expresses even just the '''tiniest''' interest in, and the only one to actually take her feelings into account.]]
44** The film in general gets this; as revealed in a number of the home release featurettes, although every film Pixar (and any studio for that matter) makes always has sequences that get dropped, ''Brave'' specifically has an immense amount of scrapped and altered scenes that just didn't make the final cut, made harsher in that a lot of the sequences were nearly finished.
45** Creator/SeanConnery was offered the role of King Fergus at one point, before it ultimately went to Billy Connolly.
46* WorkingTitle: ''[[TheNounAndTheNoun The Bear and the Bow]]''. This was actually used as the title of a Merida-centric episode of ''Series/OnceUponATime'', in a pretty neat MythologyGag.
47* WriteWhatYouKnow: Brenda Chapman drew inspiration from her relationship with her daughter.

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