A couple years ago I was in an airport Borders, hope you
kids aren’t too young to know what a Borders was, and I came across a book that
had just been released. The title and
cover art blew me away and I had a nice little chat about it with the excited cashier. I then voraciously read it all the way home
on the plane and finished it 2 days later.
I was overjoyed when I found out they were making a movie and last night
went to see it in theaters. Sadly, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter was
cancelled due to “the popularity of Ted”…so
it was pulled from the schedule to make room for another screening… Anyway, I saw Brave instead.
Pixar entered the movie industry with Toy Story as the first full length computer animated feature ever
made and has been on top ever since.
More amazing is that they pulled this off in the middle of the Disney renaissance
which compounded their success given that Disney became a helping hand instead
of a competitor. After the Pixar
contract was up and Disney officially bought Pixar trouble started brewing and
we have finally seen the consequences of this event. Last year’s Pixar movie, Cars 2, was admitted by the studio to be not a very good film,
however due to the Disney marketing machine it was the most financially
successful Disney movie of all time, due to merchandising. But why Cars
2? After Disney bought Pixar they
decided that computer animation was the wave of the future and they scrapped
the entire 2D animation department and gave John Lasseter, CEO of Pixar,
“independence” from Disney executives and power over the new Disney animation
divisions. This lasted well for a while
with great films like Wall-e and Up while Disney floundered with bombs
like Chicken Little. So Disney pulled a fast one and sucked up all
the combined resources to make Tangled
which saved their reputation. The
problem was then that for 2 years or so Disney was hogging most of the talent
and computer hardware to handle all of the complex lighting, fabric, and fur
effects in Tangled so Pixar had to
fall back on a back burner project lighter on computing requirements. We are once again seeing the heavy hand of
influence of Disney in Brave.
While the younger viewer will probably be thrilled by the
dark landscape, the young female protagonist, and the quirky adult characters,
there is still a lot going wrong with this movie, especially when you consider
that it is a Pixar movie. First off,
since I’ve gone on about the target audience, let’s talk about the protagonist. Merida isn’t very interesting. No surprise there, most protagonists aren’t
all that interesting, but they are usually augmented by their supporting
cast. In Brave the focus is all on Merida, even though it’s her Mother that
drives the plot and all of the events center around her. Incidentally, the mother is probably the most
fun and interesting character in the whole movie, and you can see the Pixar
hand in making a communicative and interesting character with little dialog
just through gesture and expression.
Merida is, as conforms with the Disney writing style, a perfect little
princess, but she’s independent and rebellious, so we are supposed to like
her. This is all well and good but her
character growth is almost nil and she gets everything she wants in the end of
the movie with everyone else changing to suit her needs. No compromise, no sacrifice, no growth,
that’s what really bothered me Brave. And I understand that it’s a trait of
princess movies that the heroin gets everything she wants at the end and she
has to be devoid of character flaws, but it has never been more glaring than in
Brave, accept maybe in Princess and the Frog.
What’s more, the advertizing campaign both gave away the
mediocrity of this film and hinted at the gender issues, and by gender issues I
mean not gender issues raised by the narrative but those perceived by the
marketing staff. Traditionally, Pixar
trailers have shown very little about what their movies are actually
about. Think about the Toy Story trailers that break the 4th
wall or Wall-e or Up where they would show one scene with
no context. They mastered the art of
teasing you with an interesting premise and making you want to pay for the show
even though you had no idea what was coming.
And the genius of that system was that they could always deliver. However with their last two endeavors, they
have released very conventional trailers with one liners and action packed
sequences that give you a pretty good idea of what the movie is about. In the case of Brave though there were actually multiple trailers created
specifically to be targeted at boys or girls.
The one for boys featured Scottish slapstick, action, and the bear
characters, while the one for girls focused more on Merida, her mother, and
their conflicting goals. While I have no
problem with tailoring your advertizing to different audiences, I find it
disturbing that Pixar did this given that they have never needed to do this in
the past. It seems as if they knew a
general trailer would not be good enough and if that was the case I question
why they released a finished project that wouldn’t have the wide appeal that
their past movies have had.
The deplorable thing about this situation is that so far
Pixar has been the pinnacle of family entertainment since 1995, and now they
release a film that resembles a slapped together modern Disney feature. As the plot unfolded I was a little concerned
to see plot elements from previous Disney features like The Sword in the Stone and Robin
Hood, but I gave those a pass and called them tributes, or visual
conventions, mostly revolving around archery.
However after Merida finds a witch who grants her wish I was face
palming the entire time as I could predict every scene. Wicked witches, backfiring wishes, and of all
things, human transformation into bears, because Disney executives are still
scratching their heads, wondering why no one liked Brother Bear and are trying to justify it by cramming bear
transforming into the public consciousness.
And I don’t make the comparison to Brother
Bear lightly. In my mind it’s just a
step above Twilight. But the similarities are uncanny. Bear transformation, quirky slapstick
learning how to be a bear, humility through being an animal, family member
trying to kill you thinking you “the bear” killed or ate you “the person”. It’s such a complex plotline I refuse to
believe it’s a coincidence.
Probably the most noticeable failure of this film,
especially as a Pixar feature was that there was no emotional investment. No “awww”
moment that made anyone in the audience want to cry. In all the great Pixar movies there is some
form of universally understandable loss or tipping point in the story where
almost all is lost. Brave never reaches that point because it never slows down and the
plot is so simple everyone knows how it needs to end.
I waited a bit to post this because I wanted to comment both
on box office numbers as well as the response to Brave. I’m a bit surprised
to say that critics are almost entirely agreeing with me calling it, safe, intermittently
interesting, commenting on the choppy feel of the multiple plot lines, and
almost universally criticize Pixar for putting out a subpar product. Interestingly enough though the box office
numbers so far are pretty standard for Pixar’s releases, 154 million by week
two. Pixar movies have traditionally dropped
in ticket sales by about 35%ish in their second week. Brave
dropped a full 48%. So far the
international response has also been luke warm which has surprised some given
the Scottish setting. Compared to the
enormous international revenues of Pixar’s other film the 11 million pulled in
so far is a little embarrassing especially given that it was also highlighted
at the Edinburgh International Film Festival which shows Disney was banking on
the international audience to pick up the slack. It seems that the Scottish stereotypes have
hurt the film and cancelled out any popularity abroad that was gained given the
entirely Scottish/English cast.
We are only coming to the end of Brave’s third week but so far it had done nothing for this reviewer
than signal the end of an era. I can only
hope that Pixar and their Disney overlords learn from their mistakes quickly
and get back to making movies with universal appeal and charm.
Movies Referenced:
2012-Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
2012-Ted
2012-Brave
2011-Cars 2
2011-Tangled
2009-Up
2009-Princess and the Frog
2008-Wall-e
2008-Twilight
2005-Chicken Little
2003-Brother Bear
1995-Toy Story
1973-Robin Hood
1963-The Sword in the Stone
