Queen Elinor (Emma Thomp-son) and King Fergus (Billy Connolly) want their daughter married.
As Pixar’s very first female hero, Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald) carries a lot of responsibility on those slender shoulders. With “Hunger Games”-worthy archery skills and a tentacular mop of fiery red hair, she seems poised to strike a mortal blow against sexism and ginger-ism alike.
And yet you can’t help wishing they’d thought a little further outside the box. A princess, really? They couldn’t have bestowed girlhood on an inanimate object? An alien? A micro-pig? (Google it. You’ll be glad you did.) This Celtic-themed story hews so closely to classic fairy-tale tropes, it’s the studio’s most Disney-fied production yet.
Set in the verdant hills and vales of medieval Scotland, “Brave” follows the wayward eldest daughter of King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), who hope to see her married off to one of the scions of their fellow clan rulers, to help maintain an uneasy tribal peace.
Much to the queen’s chagrin, her tomboy daughter’s love of horseback riding, arrow-shooting and hawking runs counter to the ethos that “a princess strives for perfection.” As the day of the suitors’ visit approaches, Elinor attempts to tame Merida’s wild mane, whose uniquely articulated strands and tendrils are the film’s crowning visual achievement.
But Merida’s curls — and personality — can’t be contained by the hooded, corseted get-up her mom forces her into. She upends the prospectives’ archery competition by citing a technicality that allows her to join in — to try to win her own hand. (Shades of the Greek myth of Atalanta here; one imagines “Free To Be You and Me” on repeat in the Pixar writers’ room.)
When her mom freaks out, Merida flees to the woods, where she’s led by a will-o’-the-wisp — a mythical, glowy Scottish forest-jellyfish — to the cottage of a witch (Julie Walters) who promises the princess a spell to “change her fate.”
One of the reasons Pixar’s brand has endured so strongly is its capacity to make audiences of all ages feel childlike wonder. When you buy your ticket, you expect the unexpected. But I’m betting nearly everyone already knows what happens when you make a deal with a witch for a spell, and this is exactly what happens here: Things fall apart.
Merida’s fate — to be forced to be married — changes when something major (I’ll avoid spoiling the surprise here) happens to her demanding mother, and the rest of the movie becomes a scramble to undo the curse. This involves a bit of so-so physical comedy, and one nearly surreal sequence that sees Merida justifying her hunting-and-fishing skills to dear old Mom.
But none of it leads to this red-haired royal living up to the title the way you hoped she would. She never even gets the chance to venture very far from the castle. I wonder how much this has to do with Brenda Chapman — Pixar’s first female director — having been replaced partway through by Mark Andrews. Their presumptive differences of opinion are palpable.
Supporting vocal talents are enjoyable enough, especially Craig Ferguson and Robbie Coltrane as two of the gruff clansmen whose sons are in the running to be Mr. Merida. Pixar stalwart John Ratzenberger has a cameo as a Scotsman named Gordon.
The Pixar short “La Luna,” which is playing in theaters before “Brave,” corresponds closely to the feature’s emphasis on sentimentality over humor. In it, three generations of men take a rickety little boat out on the ocean to watch the moon rise; the little boy discovers it is their life’s work to tidy up the lunar surface with their brooms and brushes. The message, I guess: Sticking with the family business ain’t so bad.
Except in Merida’s case, the family business is built on a foundation of antiquated gender roles. Don’t think too hard! Look at her amazing hair!