Brave

Good enough for one viewing, but afterwards I laughed out loud at the thought of ever watching Brave again. An animated average that doesn't entertain as well as an adult would expect it to, and it’s only really good as part of a children's programme during the lazy Christmas holidays. It’s a shame. (20/01/2013)

Pixar's 13th feature film. It's not quite what it needs to be, though the basic premise is good. The lamplighters took an old Gaelic legend retold by Robert San Souci's Brave Margaret, threw in a little something of their own, and the first Scottish princess was born. Although it has good jokes here and there, it fails to evoke a sufficiently magical atmosphere. However, certain rebellious girls might like it. (05/04/2020)

A fairy tale for children... well, why not, a successful one. But I put it on at the kind of time when you’re pleasantly tired and you don't want to see anything drastic or "deep". That's why I reached for Brave, I thought it would be perfect for such a moment. Well, it probably would have been, but I didn't like her story – I was expecting something a bit different. I laughed here and there, but otherwise I was bored. I watched two acts – after 50 minutes I turned it off and went to go read instead. I gave it another chance in the morning, but I still wasn't into the lecturing about how important mothers and family are. After all, I don't need to be lectured about that (which is probably why I didn't like it for the most part – I'm not fond of those particular stories where the main character/woman wishes things were different just because they're screwed up at the moment). Even though I’m giving it a low rating, I would definitely recommend watching it. And the heroine really did have great hair. (05/05/2013)

I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed it. A nice story, perfect animation, great atmosphere, and non-violently “educational”. Perhaps is not as original as previous Pixar films, but it’s still very nice. I was expecting a variation of “a princess has to marry an ugly prince, but she loves a poor peasant”, but what I got was a touching fairytale about a daughter-mother relationship. I’m satisfied. (01/12/2012)

Brave is a likeable animated film that offers nothing new apart from the (basic) story, but I still found myself enjoying it. As usual, this film features a lot of didactic nuggets and sentimental passages that are (or should be) meant to educate and impress children, but that's just the way it goes with films like this. On the comedy side, I really enjoyed myself in places - the funniest characters were the "bears" (those who have seen it will understand the quotation marks), the maid and the witch. I liked the animation itself, it was really magical in places. In short, it was a nice and well made animated film that does not reach the quality of Ice Age, Ratatouille or How to Train Your Dragon, but it still fulfilled its purpose: it entertained me and was a feast for the eyes. (14/07/2013)