Princess Merida is not willing to conform and pick a man to marry. She wants to change things and have her own life, she enjoys archery and is not interested in the royal life.
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Set in Scotland in a mythical time, so when Princess Merida gets the chance to change things she makes a very reckless choice which unleashes a beastly curse. A very strained relationship with her mother Queen Elinor who is attempting to get her daughter to behave and act like a Princess should. This certainly pushes Merida over the edge as she is not interested in getting married and uniting different parts of the kingdom.
Considering Brave was released a year before Frozen it does not seem to get the credit it deserves. Along with Tangled (2010) which pushed the boundaries and changed what Disney used to be about. Brave shows that female characters can dare to be different within a Disney film, especially when you look at Merida's hair and how utterly different it is to all other Princesses we have seen before. While that may only seem like a small thing I personally feel that it is a very good and important message.
The main thing the story looks into is the relationship between mother and daughter. This is where the bear curse comes into it and how that must make them realise their differences and strangely enough to understand each other a lot more. I guess it does sound a little bit strange considering she had been turned into a bear but it was left in such a way that it makes perfect sense to help with the film.
I have now watched this a few times and really do stand by the fact that it is very underrated and not talked about enough which is a shame. Maybe it is just too different for some people? The formula is not the same compared to other Princess films but that is why I like it a lot more than some of the older ones (possible blog post will come about that soon).
A very different story but a very enjoyable one at that, something that we should embrace a lot more and be very proud of Disney for daring to be different and push the boundaries in a very impressive way!
The voice acting is truly top draw with Kelly Macdonald and Emma Thompson taking on the leading roles of Merida and Elinor in a fantastic manner. Not forgetting Billy Connolly and Julie Walters having slightly smaller but still very effective roles. I love that they did keep it nice and Scottish in terms of Macdonald, Connolly and then Robbie Coltrane. Along with Kevin McKidd and Craig Ferguson also being Scottish, something that was very important to get the accent right. It just shows that Thompson and Walters both have good accents going on for the film as well considering they are English. I just feel having a Scottish Disney Princess should have been a very big deal and I hope I have highlighted just how much I love that!
