Princess Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) makes a strong heroine in the Disney/Pixar animated movie “Brave”. The story is about a young princess who would prefer to do her own thing rather than to have to be prim and proper like she is expected to be. Her mother, Queen Elinor (voiced by Emma Thompson) is very hard on her because she wants her to act like a princess all of the time. Her father, King Fergus (voiced by Billy Connolly), is a little more relaxed and I felt that he felt intimidated by his wife at times. While the king would join in with others and be boisterous and have fun, the queen would keep her royal composure and calm the situations down. When her parents invited three different Scottish clans to have their sons participate in some competitive games for a chance to win the princess’s hand in marriage, Merida was given the choice of what sport she wanted them to compete in. As a skilled archer, she chose archery and because she was not ready to get married and was not happy with the choice of suitors, she entered herself into the competition and won. This infuriated her mother, the Queen, because she thought that her daughter was an embarrassment.
Upset with the entire situation, Princess Merida rode off on her horse and ended up at a witch’s cottage where she purchased a potion to change her mother. Unfortunately for Princess Merida, the change was not quite how she intended it to be.
The story goes on and the Princess tries to remedy the situation with the aid of her troublesome triplet brothers. If you want to know how the rest of the story goes, you will have to see it! It is too good not to see for yourself and I don’t want to spoil it anymore for you. My husband, our four year old son and I went to an advanced screening on Monday (June 18th). There are a few parts that might be a little scary for young audience members. Our son is four and he doesn’t scare easily so he was okay.
Things that we loved about the movie:
The scenery and animation— My husband is from England and I lived there for 11 years after we got married. We have been to Scotland several times and Disney/Pixar did an amazing job portraying the Scottish Highlands. It is stunning there and it looked equally as stunning in the movie.
The actors— We love Billy Connolly. He is extremely funny and we have been watching his shows and movies for as long as I can remember. He did a wonderful job portraying King Fergus. Emma Thompson did an amazing job with her Scottish accent. There were several times that both my husband and I thought we were listening to our friend Claire when we were listening to the queen. All of the acting talent was amazing.
The characters— Princess Merida was a great heroine. It was nice to see a girl who knew what she wanted and did not want and was not afraid to let people know. Her troublesome triplet brothers were always up to some sort of antics and they were just all around funny and adorable. The King and Queen were great because they were so opposite to each other. There wasn’t a weak character in this movie.
The story— I thought that it was a great story and it was one that I could personally relate to. I am sure that most people could. All of Disney movies have a life lesson and this one does not fail.
The comedy— Some people might find some of the comedy to be a little inappropriate but I thought it was really funny. There were brief flashes of nudity (behinds or bums as they would say) and a few instances where the king and queen were very flirty with each other. I believe that might have contributed to the PG rating along with the scenes that were scary.
I can honestly say that I didn’t dislike anything! My hubby really liked the movie too and he doesn’t often have the same taste as me! Our son was a little excited because it was only the second movie that he has seen at the cinema but he enjoyed it.
Disclosure: My family and I were invited to attend a pre-screening of the movie “Brave”. No other compensation was received.
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