Pixar's Brave ( now with spoilers!)

Tanglebones wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Every guy should love Casablanca. I'm not sure if that's my top romance movie, but it's up there. Amélie is probably my favorite. Actually, A Very Long Engagement is good too. La belle et la bête (1946) is pretty good too just because beauty and the beast is such a classic story. Anyways, those are a few of my faves.

Casablanca is one of my top 3 favorite movies, period - the order varies, depending on mood, but it's Casablanca, Twelve Angry Men, and Seven Samurai for me.

I knew there was a reason I liked you, Tanglebones.

I like The Big Blue. A romance and bromance rolled into one. Plus...Jean Reno as Enzo. Forget-a-bout-it.
IMAGE(http://www.movie-roulette.com/photos_big/the-big-blue-3-1.jpeg)
A Luc Besson film.

The Empire Strikes Back. If she doesn't find the Han/Leia story romantic, I don't want to know her.

Brave was fantastic. Just got out so I can't write much but the second act took me by surprise! I am really glad that that did not show the big plot point during the trailers.

It was a nice departure from what they usually do and it was awesome. The visual fidelity in this movie was amazing.

It was pretty good. I was expecting it to be more of an adventure story. It is Pixar's mom & daughter movie to balance out the father & son stuff from Nemo for sure. Still I think it is my third favorite Pixar movie after Wall-E and The Incredibles.

Sadly the theater we went to kind of sucked. The audio messed up a few times and it seemed to be just barely out of focus (2D not 3D which always seems to be out of focus for me).

I enjoyed it, but they did telegraph the second act subtly in some of the trailers, if you were paying attention.

It was not my favorite Pixar film, but it wasn't a weak film, to be sure.

This was definitely a bit on the darker spectrum of films. But I enjoyed it.

Now I must go hunt down the soundtrack when I have money.

It was good, but one of Pixar's worst. I'd say it belongs above Cars. When Pixar's on their game, their films have a unmistakable quality I can't quite describe. This movie didn't have that for me. It felt like anyone of the other great CG houses could've made Brave. I don't think it was the marketing's fault, but I wanted a princesses adventure story, and instead, I got a typical princess story.

Saw it this afternoon in 2D. Not their best film, but was certainly enjoyable. Agree about being better than Cars. Need to get that soundtrack too!

Fun trivia: this was co-directed by the guy who made Sam & Max

I liked it. Not anywhere close to as much as The Incredibles.

For some reason, it reminded me a lot of How to Tame a Dragon (I know it's not Pixar). Maybe it was the setting or the art.

Oh, yes, the movie was flat out gorgeous, to the point that I almost thought some of the scenery was a little TOO real. If you're going to go with cartoon humans, you should at least keep the environment recognizably cartoony. Some of the scenes looked like shots of a real location with CG characters stuck in there.

Rykin wrote:

It was pretty good. I was expecting it to be more of an adventure story. It is Pixar's mom & daughter movie to balance out the father & son stuff from Nemo for sure. Still I think it is my third favorite Pixar movie after Wall-E and The Incredibles.

Sadly the theater we went to kind of sucked. The audio messed up a few times and it seemed to be just barely out of focus (2D not 3D which always seems to be out of focus for me).

My wife had the same issue. She was expecting Braveheart for kids with a female protagonist or something.

NSMike wrote:

I enjoyed it, but they did telegraph the second act subtly in some of the trailers, if you were paying attention.

It was not my favorite Pixar film, but it wasn't a weak film, to be sure.

I tried to tell her that the basic idea was somewhat communicated, she doesn't agree.

I honestly really enjoyed it.

I really liked it. It was way, waaaaaay better than Cars. ;D

I'll admit that there are some elements to the movie that I don't fully grok. After a long discussion about them with my wife (who I saw it with for her birthday), I think some elements of the mother-daughter relationship are inscrutable to me. I cannot scrute them.

Given how often the father/son thing is a hook for movies, and how good the movie was aside from that, I'm glad I saw it.

(Also: how great was La Luna?)

(Also, Also: The Monster U trailer was in front of of it. I don't get that at all. Who was clambering for a Monsters, Inc prequel? Wtf?)

obirano wrote:

I tried to tell her that the basic idea was somewhat communicated, she doesn't agree.

Spoiler:

The bear transformation was definitely hinted at in the trailers, especially if you saw the trailers that contained the triplets both as boys and as bears.

And definitely hinted at in the movie itself. When she went into the cabin, I had a good idea where the movie was going to go.

Michael Zenke wrote:

(Also, Also: The Monster U trailer was in front of of it. I don't get that at all. Who was clambering for a Monsters, Inc prequel? Wtf?)

Monsters might be my favorite Pixar movie, but the trailer was just OK for me. It was more of a teaser anyhow.

NSMike wrote:
obirano wrote:

I tried to tell her that the basic idea was somewhat communicated, she doesn't agree.

Spoiler:

The bear transformation was definitely hinted at in the trailers, especially if you saw the trailers that contained the triplets both as boys and as bears.

Spoiler:

Not to mention the scene where she was jumping out of the ruins reaching for her mother-turned-bear's paw while the other bear leaped at her from behind. Yeah, I had a clear idea of the overall plot from the trailers, I honestly didn't think it was all that subtle at all.

I have to agree that it didn't quite have that Pixar magic. I enjoyed it, but it'll probably be in the part of the Pixar collection that I really don't feel like watching again very often, if at all.

I loved La Luna. That was another great Pixar short.

Michael Zenke wrote:
Michael Zenke wrote:

(Also, Also: The Monster U trailer was in front of of it. I don't get that at all. Who was clambering for a Monsters, Inc prequel? Wtf?)

Monsters might be my favorite Pixar movie, but the trailer was just OK for me. It was more of a teaser anyhow.

I'm kind of intrigued by the fact that they put out three very slightly different version of the teaser. The difference among them is what Mike says when Sully pulls the blanket off him. I've long held this pipe dream of the seamless branching some digital discs being used in a major movie to create different experiences for an audience each time they see the film. Certainly the lower cost of digital distributing films has made it more cost effected to ship out different versions of a movie (like the various endings to Clue). I'd be excited about either of these two ideas being used.

Saw it last night. I thought it was good, but it was missing something. You could definitely tell where they kicked Brenda Chapman out of the director's chair and Mark Andrews took over.

I think my problem was

Spoiler:

lack of establishment that Merida and her bear-mom had seen things from each other's view. They spent one morning fishing then all of a sudden, BOOM! They're best friends? They definitely seemed to have found a middleground when they returned to the castle, but there wasn't enough exposition to support their evolution to that point. It read like her mom finally understood Merida's side of things, but I never saw anything that established empathy for her mom's perspective. The need to fix the curse within 2 nights (and at that point meant a little over 24 hours to solve the issue-- by the second sunrise or else!) placed too strong a sense of urgency to reach the climax, rather than allow the audience to really feel the strength and emotion of the mother-daughter bond.

Coincidentally, just yesterday I completed a two-day animation and storytelling masterclass taught by Pixar's Andrew Gordon and Matthew Luhn. After hearing Matt Luhn's lecture on the story development process, I have to say that I'm probably more disappointed in Pixar for releasing this movie as-is, than I am disappointed in the movie itself. It was a pretty good movie; it's just that for a studio to spend 3 or 4 years of story development before animation is really even fully under way, this story was pretty weak. With so much time to perfect the story, I feel like there should have been zero reason to leave any weaknesses in there. It does make me extremely curious about the internal politics that allowed for Chapman to be ousted from her own movie.

I loved the experience. It felt like an experience, much the way that classic Disney films do. I love Pixar, I really do, but I think one could argue that all of their other films have a hook or gimmick. Often this is Pixar finding an emotional hook in order to pull investment by the audience. They are master craftsmen at being effective at this. And “Brave” didn’t have this at all.

Without the hook it was just a classic story, like an adaptation of a Jan Brett book. For me NSMike hit the nail on the head about one of the things that really made the film stand out for me though:

NSMike wrote:

Oh, yes, the movie was flat out gorgeous, to the point that I almost thought some of the scenery was a little TOO real. If you're going to go with cartoon humans, you should at least keep the environment recognizably cartoony. Some of the scenes looked like shots of a real location with CG characters stuck in there.

The art is exceptional, completely agree.

Michael Zenke wrote:

(Also: how great was La Luna?)

A really interesting short from Pixar. I wish I hadn’t initially read comparisons to Mario Galaxy- there aren’t any to my mind, but I kept thinking about that article and considering how wrong I found it to be.

WipEout wrote:

It does make me extremely curious about the internal politics that allowed for Chapman to be ousted from her own movie.

Agreed.

When I spoke to my wife she said she found the connections tenuous but in thinking about Brave I keep comparing plot beats to

Spoiler:

Brother Bear.

These are certainly two very different films, both in terms of art and story. Still, I was suprised that Disney would release a film with even a few tenuous connections. I'm not disappointed by it, just surprised a bit.

Michael Zenke wrote:

I really liked it. It was way, waaaaaay better than Cars. ;D

Pretty much all their other movies are better than cars. This one happens to be top of my list.

Michael Zenke wrote:

(Also, Also: The Monster U trailer was in front of of it. I don't get that at all. Who was clambering for a Monsters, Inc prequel? Wtf?)

Disney's accountants/share holders....

Anyone have an idea which character Ratzenberger played? He was credited as Gordon, but didn't recognize his voice in the movie and he has done a character in every Pixar film so far I believe.

I thought it was great. Well above what I was expecting. Rottentomatoes had it at 80% on Thursday so I was cautious but it turned out to be wonderful.

[quote=Rainsmercy]

Michael Zenke wrote:

Anyone have an idea which character Ratzenberger played? He was credited as Gordon, but didn't recognize his voice in the movie and he has done a character in every Pixar film so far I believe.

I'm fairly certain he's the guard that loses half his mustache, but he just as well be the guard that notices the Queen during Merida's speech. Neither really had much in the way of lines.

Wipeout, I totally agree with your assessment. I also did not feel

Spoiler:

that Merida and Elinor really got a chance to understand each other's plights. It seemed like Elinor just got it in time for the plot, not because she would've really come to that understanding.

And the thing is, I feel like it could've been done better. Have a scene where Elinor watches the three boys competing for her daughter's hand talking about her like she's a prize. Make her imagine herself being wooed by those boys. That kind of thing, I don't know, I'm armchair directing here.

I think Merida's half was communicated a little better. When she tries to pacify the angry lords, it was obvious to me that now she gets "oh, this is what my mother has to deal with!"

Guys, this soundtrack is amazing.

EDIT: Also, concept art.

Wow, super nice pics. It really is a gorgeous film.

I just recently saw this list somewhere on Tumblr, and it's made me appreciate even more how deftly this movie is done. I think it would be difficult to label Brave as a 'chick flick'. Not impossible, especially given assitude. But difficult.

film about a group of men getting into shenanigans= “comedy”
film about a group of women getting into shenanigans= “chick flick”

film about a friendship between two men= “buddy flick”
film about a friendship between two women= “chick flick”

emotional film about father/son relationships= “drama”
emotional film about mother/daughter relationships= “chick flick”

film about a young man finding identity= “coming of age”
film about a young woman finding identity= “chick flick”

Michael Zenke wrote:

I just recently saw this list somewhere on Tumblr, and it's made me appreciate even more how deftly this movie is done. I think it would be difficult to label Brave as a 'chick flick'. Not impossible, especially given assitude. But difficult.

film about a group of men getting into shenanigans= “comedy”
film about a group of women getting into shenanigans= “chick flick”

film about a friendship between two men= “buddy flick”
film about a friendship between two women= “chick flick”

emotional film about father/son relationships= “drama”
emotional film about mother/daughter relationships= “chick flick”

film about a young man finding identity= “coming of age”
film about a young woman finding identity= “chick flick”

Well obviously it's animated which automatically makes it a "children's movie" right? :p

Michael Zenke wrote:

I just recently saw this list somewhere on Tumblr, and it's made me appreciate even more how deftly this movie is done. I think it would be difficult to label Brave as a 'chick flick'. Not impossible, especially given assitude. But difficult.

film about a group of men getting into shenanigans= “comedy”
film about a group of women getting into shenanigans= “chick flick”

film about a friendship between two men= “buddy flick”
film about a friendship between two women= “chick flick”

emotional film about father/son relationships= “drama”
emotional film about mother/daughter relationships= “chick flick”

film about a young man finding identity= “coming of age”
film about a young woman finding identity= “chick flick”

That does seem to sum it up pretty nicely.