(no subject)
So, I saw Brave!
I liked it a lot. I just eat up that sort of legendary... woods.... giant rocks... kinda mysterious will-o-the-whisps and demon bears stuffs.
It's basically one of those "main character messes things up, has to fix it, winds up growing because of it" stories. Merida is still a teen who will do the equivalent of calling her mother a dirty bitch and then flipping out like it's the end of the world wondering why she got slapped in the face for that. Her selfishness isn't so much that she wants her freedom and control of her life but that she's willing to do something as manipulative as try to change a person's free will to achieve it (at least in modern magical thought, that's the kind of thing that will bite back hard. Big no-no).
Part of the conflict and situation seems to be that Merida's family came out of a warrior family that has seen a lot of strife and non-typically-royal stuff before Merida's birth. I'm guessing they're trying to be more settled down and regal now, but can't get away from their warrior roots, hence royalty that still goes and lives outdoors, a father who would indulge his daughter's interest in his weapons and feel proud when his daughter does something that would make a warrior proud, and Merida's mother's insistence that she is a "lady." All this warfare and running around the woods is over, and now we are going to act like proper royals, starting with the ladies. Someone has to act like royalty around here. You hear me, husband and kids?! Stop putting weapons on the table!
One thing I just LOVED about this movie is that the witch is neutral. She has no ulterior motives concerning what she provides for Merida, no intentional reason for the spell to not go the way Merida thought it would (as for why it went the way it did... well, the answer is pretty simple when you think about it, if you see the movie). She's not evil or anything. She's just plain eccentric, and capable of granting wishes you really should think more about before making. This is something I've been wanting to see more of (I actually kind of wish Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog was more like this, or that he and Mama Odie were seen more as a light-dark balance). I know there's a Miyazaki connection in Pixar, and I'd been wondering when that Miyazaki quality of rarely having a purely evil or villainous character who needed killing off would rub off.
Also, this movie managed to get away with NO love interest whatsoever. It didn't even try to force in Merida winking at some new boy who shows up or put in a little sexual tension to please the marketing department the way Mulan did. Merida's not ready for marriage now. She might be later, but she's not ready now. This isn't about a princess who doesn't want to marry the suitors but will fall in love with that new guy and make her choice and be "free" by choosing him. She just doesn't want to marry. And the boys aren't even all that into it, either, it turns out.
Stay until after the credits for a fun little bonus.
I liked it a lot. I just eat up that sort of legendary... woods.... giant rocks... kinda mysterious will-o-the-whisps and demon bears stuffs.
It's basically one of those "main character messes things up, has to fix it, winds up growing because of it" stories. Merida is still a teen who will do the equivalent of calling her mother a dirty bitch and then flipping out like it's the end of the world wondering why she got slapped in the face for that. Her selfishness isn't so much that she wants her freedom and control of her life but that she's willing to do something as manipulative as try to change a person's free will to achieve it (at least in modern magical thought, that's the kind of thing that will bite back hard. Big no-no).
Part of the conflict and situation seems to be that Merida's family came out of a warrior family that has seen a lot of strife and non-typically-royal stuff before Merida's birth. I'm guessing they're trying to be more settled down and regal now, but can't get away from their warrior roots, hence royalty that still goes and lives outdoors, a father who would indulge his daughter's interest in his weapons and feel proud when his daughter does something that would make a warrior proud, and Merida's mother's insistence that she is a "lady." All this warfare and running around the woods is over, and now we are going to act like proper royals, starting with the ladies. Someone has to act like royalty around here. You hear me, husband and kids?! Stop putting weapons on the table!
One thing I just LOVED about this movie is that the witch is neutral. She has no ulterior motives concerning what she provides for Merida, no intentional reason for the spell to not go the way Merida thought it would (as for why it went the way it did... well, the answer is pretty simple when you think about it, if you see the movie). She's not evil or anything. She's just plain eccentric, and capable of granting wishes you really should think more about before making. This is something I've been wanting to see more of (I actually kind of wish Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog was more like this, or that he and Mama Odie were seen more as a light-dark balance). I know there's a Miyazaki connection in Pixar, and I'd been wondering when that Miyazaki quality of rarely having a purely evil or villainous character who needed killing off would rub off.
Also, this movie managed to get away with NO love interest whatsoever. It didn't even try to force in Merida winking at some new boy who shows up or put in a little sexual tension to please the marketing department the way Mulan did. Merida's not ready for marriage now. She might be later, but she's not ready now. This isn't about a princess who doesn't want to marry the suitors but will fall in love with that new guy and make her choice and be "free" by choosing him. She just doesn't want to marry. And the boys aren't even all that into it, either, it turns out.
Stay until after the credits for a fun little bonus.