Brave (New) World? You keep using that word...

[ibmiller]

During my recent happy trek to my home state, I had the opportunity to watch Brave with my sister and one of my closest childhood friends and his wife. Since 2009’s Wall-E, I’ve tried to see Pixar films in theaters (I’m still kicking myself for missing The Incredibles my freshman year of university, Fall 2004). I actually had watched Up in 2010

Comments

I didn't think an arrow would fly like that...

[anonymous]

I'm very much in agreement with you that Brave is an ultimately forgettable and mis-titled film. I think it's working title was "The Bear and the Bow." Not very catchy or meaningful, but it was at least more accurate. The title that came to my mind while watching this one was "The Bear Queen." Again... not great but whatever

Agreed

[ibmiller]

I'd completely forgotten that it was "The Bear and the Bow." Now that would be a much cooler title. I'm kind of biased against one-word titles these days, but that's a whole nother story

[timeofchange]

and sadly, though expectations and wishful thinking buoyed my views of that film beyond my current assessment (plus the truly excellent first ten minutes of that otherwise rather unremarkable film)...on the whole, the film was disappointing. Though I’m sure other blogs will dissect the gender issues ad infinitum, what really bothered me was the worldbuilding and lack of creativity in handling the well-worn tropes and emotional beats which are supposed to anchor the story.

Word! I, too, had high expectations and was disappointed. The mashup of mythic elements (when did will-o-wisps ever portend anything good?) was irritating, too.

Also,

Finally, an Inigo Montoya cavail: I do not think the words “fate” and “brave” mean what you think they mean.

Indeed.

Thanks for this excellent review.

[ibmiller]

I don't know enought about the wisps, though I thought they weren't nearly as effectively done as the forest sprites in Princess Mononoke (but then, that's somewhat unfair, since that film does better in almost every single area...especially gender...than almost every other film). I don't necessarily mind mashup things, but it has to be carefully and intentionally done - for example, I love Narnia, but I understand what Lewis was doing (mishmashing all medieval and ancient mythology into a wonderland, each element with its own symbolic resonance, plus you get familiar with medieval romance tropes in the process!), but not so much with this film.

My pleasure! Thanks for reading and commenting!

[mosinging1986]

Thank you for this review! This was something I have been worried about from the start, but I didn't want to research too many reviews for fear of being completely spoiled if I do decide to see it after all:

Furthermore, though the males are viewed as irresponsible figures of fun (which, as it gets into gender issues that I’m attempting to avoid, I won’t say much more about),

I, personally, would love to hear the gender issues, if you choose to do that. As soon as I saw yet another 'brave girl defying her family', I wondered if this would be yet another dull GRRRL POWER flick, where males are portrayed as mostly useless. I'm a girl, but I am sick to death of such stories.

[ibmiller]

Sorry if I spoiled anything - I forgot to add a spoiler warning at the top.

The problem with gender issues is that people have done it so much better than me - Here from the less feminist perspective (http://hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2012-06-28.shtml) and here from a more feminist perspective (http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2012/07/brave.html) - both excellent reviews. I wrote the review because I was quite disappointed in the quality of the world Pixar created, and that was something I was't seeing in the discourse surrounding the film. So hopefully I've added a bit of something to that discussion.

Thanks for commenting!

[mosinging1986]

No worries about spoiler warnings. I chose to keep reading. (And I didn't find it too spoilery anyway.)

Thanks for the other reviews. That was exactly the sort of thing that was worrying me from the moment I learned about this movie. I hate both extremes: the 'men and women are exactly alike/interchangeable except for physicality', and the 'men are evil/stupid/useless' routine. If all of this is accurate about this movie, it's weird that not many people seemed to pick up on it.

I'll probably catch it after it leaves theaters, just to see for myself. But it's not something I'll choose to pay for and end up getting stuck sitting there or losing my money if I'm annoyed and choose to walk out.

Thanks again. I appreciate a guy's POV as well.

[ibmiller]

Oh, good. I think sadly our culture is so saturated with bith of those male stereirypes that people forget it happens- I do myself sometimes, even though I hate the pattern. Sexism is bad both ways. Even in my favorite films (like Beauty and the Beast).

editing?

[millersbran]

Just a quick question -- I realize I'm quite late reading this, but I don't frequent your journal. In your (rather long) third sentence, I think you have a "not" that doesn't belong, which changes the meaning entirely, of course. "...it's not my opinion that..." Is it possible to edit an entry once it's posted?

Interesting. I think I may try to pay closer attention, especially when you review these kinds of movies -- although I DO appreciate spoiler warnings...

Jan Miller

Re: editing?

[ibmiller]

Good catch - thanks! Have actually edited that sentence a bit more, since I think it flows better the way I have fixed it.

Maybe I should do reviews for all the movies I give you guys :) Then you'll be cool with me giving my small sibbies things.

Also, did you watch Wreck It Ralph with sibbies? I heard they finally finished it.

Re: editing?

[ibmiller]

Also, I don't think this review is super spoilery...