The lon-awaited, highly-anticipated BRAVE movie review is now here! First of all I was so excited to take my family with me and even have a mini-reunion of some of my local blogger friends that I met on my recent Chimpanzee adventure. If you haven’t met them yet – on the left is Mary from Couponers United and Jen from The Suburban Mom.
Now for the movie. I loved the opening. Merida and her red kinky curls just made me smile. I loved seeing her carefree spirit. Her mom chasing her around the table was a great reminder to take time for our children (yes, a movie giving life-lessons). Within the first 5 minutes a very large bear entered the village. This scene even made my husband jump so I would take note that this might be a frightening part for sensitive children.
Merida is the headstrong daughter of King Fergus and Queen Elinor. She is fantastic at archery and loves to carry on the carefree spirit she had as a child. It came time for her suitor to be found. This is carried on through an age-old custom with three other kingdoms coming to their castle. The three eldest sons had to participate in games to find out who would win Merida’s hand in marriage. Merida was outraged! She fought this tradition to the end and in the process tore a beautiful family tapestry her mother had crafted.
Merida takes off into the forest and finds the “wisps” (fairies) she did as a child. I don’t want to go the whole movie away, but I feel that some of these details are important when you are deciding if this film is right for your child/family. The “wisps” are leading a path to a witch in the woods. Obviously this means that there is a magical aspect to the film. Merida is so upset that she wants to change her mom and the witch casts a spell turning the Queen into a bear. This is the turning point in the movie where it gets a little frightening. Fighting scenes between the Queen Bear and a Prince Bear (he met the witch too) were extremely loud and cartoon violent. My 5 year old is a tough cookie and doesn’t get scared easily, but during these scenes she was curled up in my lap, eyes closed and ears covered.
As a grown up I really liked this movie. I liked the deep seeded story that I’m not sure if many kids will pick up on. My favorite line was “Legends are Lessons”. Yes, there may have been rules in place that we don’t agree with, but ultimately there is a lesson in them. The Queen even learned a lesson throughout the story from her daughter (how often does that happen?). We can learn from our past, mistakes or not, and grow from that. And the soundtrack….LOVE it. Superb music even a tune from Mumford and Sons.
My 9 year old said her favorite part was the archery. She is a gal who thinks she’s to old to like princesses so as a mom not wanting her little girl to grow up too quickly was glad that Disney added a little tomboy characteristics to Princess Merida.
Overall review is caution towards witchery and fighting bear scenes, but I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. My husband left the theater saying it kept his attention throughout – and that is a great indication that Disney/Pixar made another great film!
