Brave

After yesterday's post, enough folks have asked me how I felt about this movie that I decided to answer their questions here.

Overall, I liked and enjoyed the film, and I recommend it if you haven't seen it. 

The story was straightforward but fun, with an interesting mother-daughter relationship at its heart and the usual cast of cute characters.  The lesson that learning to accept responsibility is a key part of growing up was both spot-on and something the film delivered well. 

The graphics were as lovely as always.  Hair is extremely difficult to animate, and as many articles have remarked, Pixar worked very hard on Merida's hair.  The result was wonderful; in many ways, Merida's hair was the most compelling character in the movie. I frequently found myself marveling at it. 

All that said, Brave was not anywhere close to Pixar's best. The story was too straightforward, too simple.  When the movie ended, I felt vaguely cheated, as if somewhere on the cutting-room floor sat fifteen minutes of subplots I really wish I could have seen. 

The father was also a completely useless buffoon who happened to be a king.  His role was necessarily secondary to the main story, but he could have been at least vaguely competent at something without distracting from the main plot. 

Again, though, I enjoyed the movie and on balance recommend it.