Cast...er...Collection of Voices: Hey, it had John Ratzenberger, so what more could you want? Definitely not star-studded. If you don't know who they got, I'll help you out. You know every British actor that you always think sounds kind of funny compared James Bond? That's who they got. The fact that I didn't say to myself "Wait, that's Billy Connolly" the whole time, I think, means they did a good job.
Plot: Pretty direct plot here. No major twists. Not a lot of stand-out moments. It actually felt shorter than a lot of Pixar movies. It all felt a little more familiar to Disney's brand. I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. Due to the subject matter, I don't think they could fill it with a lot of details the way that, say, Toy Story is filled with throwaway jokes and sight-gags start to finish. That's the nature of the story. Also, I feel reasonably confident saying this is the most violent of Pixar's movies. I like it for that. It had a little more freedom to it which was nice.
Animation: It's pretty. You can tell they had fun doing all the nature in this one, getting to flex a few new muscles. If anything, Merida's hair is almost distractingly well animated. It puts Rapunzel to shame, although there was certainly less to work with.
Elephant in the Room: Really!? Are you fucking kidding me!!! I was a little irritated when people were making a huge deal about Merida being the first female Pixar protagonist (whatever, I guess that's cool. I really never thought about it one way or the other), but, wow. Is this what we get in return? I guess Mulan's gay too. This is such asinine bullshit that I can't even fathom how someone pulls that away from the movie. I get that it's a EW gossip piece, but really? Really?!
Although, in the immortal words of Jerry Seinfeld, "Not that there's anything wrong with that."
To Sum Things Up:
It's tough being the youngest Kennedy. All your older siblings have done so much and have such big reputations, it's hard to stack up. Brave's good. I doubt it'll lose Best Animated Feature come Oscar time, but it won't be in the Best Picture discussion either. It's a great movie that happens to be family friendly. I recommend it, but it is middle of the rung Pixar, which still better than most of what's out there.
Side Note: If you see this alone, do so at a late showing. First of all, you don't want to be around that many children. Secondly, and more importantly, it's awkward being alone in a theater full of kids. I know I'm getting too old for that not to be a little suspicious.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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