Brave

: 'Cuz while Fergus himself is a comedic character, the pegleg aspect itself is never really played for laughs. He gets along just fine with only one leg, and while he's the subject of many jokes, the jokes aren't directed at his disability.

/boring serious answer

I'm pretty sure that willow-wisps are fairies, but legends all vary as them being spirits, or fairies, or some magical combination of both. Mordu's ghost only adds to the Epilectic Trees. I thought that they were spirits who were cut and playful, but also malicious at times. It would have been neat if Merida followed them through the fog, but the horse, angus stopped at the last one revealing that it was over a cliff ledge. Cute, alien, and a little threatening.

He makes fun of his loss, and in fact seems proud of it! Of course, that could be a)his way (and his family's) of dealing with it, and b)maybe back then such a warrior's wound was indeed a matter of pride. STILL, by modern standards it is disturbing. (Also, they DID make fun of his pegleg with the tie-it-to-the table gag.)

And speaking of stuff I'm surprised people haven't complained about, with all the bear abuse (from demonizing Mor'du to the curse to Fergus loving killing them) in this story, I was expecting the more fanatical animal lovers to condemn the film. They have complained for less in other cartoons.

edited 25th Jun '12 8:46:48 PM by Sijo

How did that even work? The base is clearly narrower than the rest of it. He should've slipped right out of the knot.

GOD DAMMIT!

Honestly, I'm wouldn't be too surprised if that was revealed to be the case.

Well, I guess it was predicted. I been hearing about this film SINCE 2005, and it went through at least one title change.

Still, I think the knowledge that we could have had something so much better will prevent me from ever being truly satisfied with what we got.

I would have loved it to be a darker story more targeted towards teens. My mother, on the other hand, found it too dark and thought that it ruined the movie. Knowing that it could have been far far darker, I think that the real problem here is in the marketing. They marketed this as a family movie, not an older kids movie.

I think it went way past just the marketing. We saw TONS of comedy in the trailers... BECAUSE that's how much was there. The comedy and bright, tender moments took up more time than the dark moments. I did feel like there were depths hidden beneath the whole project that never got out.

edited 25th Jun '12 9:40:01 PM by Shota

Did anyone else think this wasn't really that dark?

It really wasn't at all. That's what I had a problem with. I wanted a darker, more adventurous Disney princess film. One that we hadn't seen in a while, like Mulan minus Mooshu.

But there's this whole other backlash of parents who took their 5 year olds to see it and are now dealing with small children crying about bears outside their window.

You really can't please anyone anymore.

Jesu Otaku said that she expected this to be Disney's Hunchback without the gargoyles. When I walked in, I did expect something dark. Maybe the trailers only showing comedy, and no real details of the plot available (beyond scottish, rebellious princess, and evil bear), this may have been inevitable (or a marketing ploy).

from the start, i did have such expectations. i just expected to be a cool fantasy, and funny...well pixar. ...yeah, still haven't seen it. just wanted to drop this thought.

Just watched it

Glad I had lower expectations

As most of you have said, it doesn't really stray that much. But it really resonated emotionally. Perhaps it could have been darker(especailly the will o wisp aspect, but I enjoyed how the mother daughter relationship developed. The argument catalyst seemed a bit forced though(throws bow in fire...oh no it's burning!) though I'd chalk it up to not thinking straight. Epic bear fight scene between the queen and Mordu.

So not the best, but still nice.

People are saying it's either ok, lacking, great, or bad...I'm pumped!

Split opinions mean something Sprinkles?

Nope, i'm just intrigeyed. If it can get mixed reactions, i for one can't wait to see what comes out of my ass.

Watched it couple days ago with some friends, and like others here I came in with lower expectations, expecting a bad movie. I was very pleasantly surprised. I will agree that the plot and characters are pretty run-of-the-mill, and the witch was left completely unexplained. However, the execution of the film was what left me stunned. People talk about the Pixar "spark", and I think it made Brave a great movie for me. I'll definitely be rewatching it (unlike Up and Wall-E, which were just too artsy for me). Maybe it's just me - I love Scotland and ancient history in general - but Brave was an excellent watch. I'm a bit disappointed at the lukewarm reviews, since I came away with a very positive outlook of the film, but I do see where you all are coming from.

Also, La Luna was adorable.

@Leg: He talks about losing it and does get tied to the table, but the manner in which it's done is pretty similar to what's been done with shoelaces. Honestly, struck me as more realistic than Gobber's hook hand in HTTYD.

Yeah! Nobody's talking about the short here! We clearly must remedy this. :P It was definitely adorable. It didn't really feel like it was "going" anywhere, so to speak—more like it existed for the sake of those few moments of cuteness—but I have no problem with that. Also, I kinda like how they paired a film about mothers and daughters with a short about dads and sons.

I loved how instead of talking they just grunted. It almost made it seem like they were speaking in a foreign language. And the plinking sound the stars made was absolutely perfect. There really was barely any plot, the short existed merely to fill my heart with warming.

It was...so...cute...

Oh yes it was. Warmed the cockles of my heart it did. Soooo...cute!

The Moon is made of stars

Watched it, found it not to my tastes and problematic, wrote a review about both. I will say this, though: if somebody ever decides to actually make a The Legend of Zelda flick, I want the animators of Brave to bring it to life.

edited 26th Jun '12 10:25:34 AM by DoKnowButchie

/sobs

My friends and I personally found Merida very likable. She's a teen, she doesn't act rationally. All three of us are teens too though, so that probably helped. I do agree with some of the stuff you said about Merida having no guardians and generally being much freer than a typical princess.

The problem is, some people wanted LESS of that.

I'd like to remark on this:

My impression was that she disliked them because she was forced to do them, and Elinor's stressing "lady lady lady" all the time while forcing Merida to do things made Merida hate the very idea of being ladylike. They were stuck in a downward spiral of conflict. The end of the film shows them sharing both a feminine activity (tapestry) and a masculine activity (horseback riding) as bonding experiences, so I don't think it fails to illustrate that they've found a middle ground.