Photo-A-Day #2630

Brave has been the word on all of our lips in this house for the past couple of months. Actually Brave has been on my mind since we went to Disney well over a year ago. I saw that single word on a sign in the Celtic script and I just knew that something amazing was coming from Disney. Little did I know that it was another Disney Princess to add to their pantheon of princesses. This time the princess is a strong willed girl named Merida. She is a princess of a Scottish clan with a proper Queen Mother, a Rowdy but loving King Father and mischief making triplet brothers.

We were able to get a set of sneak peek tickets at the last minute thanks to our friend Niri. I’d been posting like crazy about the movie and expressing how much we wanted to see it, she let us know about a site where we could register for the sneak peek.

We got there about 5:30 and were one of the first 20 people in the theater. Eva was in her Merida dress and was so excited. It got pretty loud while we waited and she got tired standing but all in all did okay. We saw a few other bloggers at the event too and there were many seats reserved for Press and Bloggers but we were still able to get decent seats.

The movie opened with a short film about the moon, it was adorable. Then the movie started in earnest.

Brave is a beautiful movie with themes on family, fate, pride, forgiveness and love. I thought that the story would be more about the relationship between Merida and King Fergus, her father. But in actuality the movie was more about the relationship between Merida and Queen Elinor. From the trailer we know that Merida is to be betrothed to one of the sons of the three other clans: Macintosh, MacGuffin and Dingwall. The young men must compete for Merida’s hand in the game of her choosing. she chooses archery and we know that she beats all of the guys for her own hand. That is about all I can say without spoiling anything except that there is a bear called Mor’Du that is part of the story, too.

Pixar continues to up its game when it comes to movies. Each one is more visually stunning than the next and the way people look becomes more realistic with each new movie. Not only has the look of people been improved but animals and settings get better and better. The horses and bear and so much more looked completely incredible.

As far as the story goes it was another wonderful story. What I loved about it was that this was a loving family and a strong princess. Merida is smart brave and skilled. There is a central conflict between Merida and her mother but it is nothing more than any average mother and daughter go through any given day, especially if that daughter is a teenager. Finding common ground and understanding is what we see as another theme of the movie. I found the whole story very satisfying and entertaining. There were many funny moments in the movie and some touching moments as well. This is a fantastic story that mother’s and daughters should go to for the story, little brothers and dads are going to enjoy the action. There are some intense moments of peril that might be scary for young children. Eva was frightened at some parts but for the bulk of the movie she enjoyed it.