11/9/2022 0 Comments Brave merida emotions![]() Instead of a story about men, or male fish, or male cars, or male monsters, Brave viewers are given a story about multifaceted women and oafish men who have little to no place in the primary plot. As I left the theatre, I heard more than one woman remark that Brave story creator Brenda Chapman “just gets it.” Or in the more eloquent words of Lili Loofbourow, “Chapman tacitly refutes our contemporary understanding of the fairy tale as a charming morality play more or less stripped of ambiguity,” in her approach to the story. The fighting, truces, and teamwork between mother and daughter are very powerful in Brave, and showcase an intimate, frustrating, and ultimately respectful relationship that so many women know all too well. In those stories, we see a man step in as a comfort to a feisty girl whose mother doesn’t understand her (see: Tangled, Mulan). The presence of a mother figure like this one was completely unexpected and transformed the film into something much more than a traditional Disney tale. Instead she is a product of her own generation (in which arranged marriage was the norm), but not such a caricature that she is not willing to literally fight to the death for her child despite their disagreements. Nor is she an angelic figure like the dead mothers of Disney films past. #Brave merida emotions movie#It’s a characterization that’s almost shockingly complex for a movie of this type.” Elinor is not merely a traditional mother hell-bent on grooming her daughter for marriage, regardless of her daughter’s wishes. Brave offers a distinct departure from this familiar trope.Īs Slate critic Dana Stevens wrote, “Elinor is shown shouting at Merida, ignoring her wishes, and then withdrawing when her daughter’s reaction hurts her feelings: In short, behaving like the frustrated mother of a rebellious teenager. As a result, the story then revolves around a positive relationship with a father or boyfriend, and a negative one with a (usually) female enemy like a wicked stepmother or an evil witch. On the other side of the Disney/Pixar relationship, Disney films feature female protagonists, but their stories often begin with the death or absence of a mother. Incredible learns to accept success as a family man instead of being a macho superhero. Finding Nemo and The Incredibles involve parent-child relationships, but at their cores they are stories about fathers-Marlin the clownfish learns to let his son live his own life as he journeys across the ocean to protect him, and Bob Parr/Mr. In Pixar movies, the presence of parents is often minimal-the (male) heroes of Toy Story, Cars, A Bug's Life, Up, and Ratatouille have mentors and friends instead of parents, and in the case of Toy Story, Andy's parents are only visible as voices that implore him to get rid of the things he loves so dearly. ![]() Most recently (with the absence of a father figure) we see this happen in Tangled, which promised a girl-power protagonist whose mother is determined to stifle her spirit for her own selfish ends. In Brave, we see a rare thing: parents and children negotiating their relationships with one another in ways that do not reduce them to caricatures like the rebellious daughter, the shrewish mother, the kind and unconditionally accepting father. But despite the simplicity of the premise, the narrative of a complex parent-child relationship is rarely given the opportunity to be displayed at the front and centre of any film, let alone a film for young people. On the surface, this doesn't seem particularly inventive. ![]() In the film, Scottish princess Merida, unwilling to accept an arranged marriage, asks a witch to "change her mother." The witch complies, the spell backfires, and Merida and her mother Elinor must work together to undo the damage. One of the most unconventional things about Brave is that, at its heart, it is a story about a mother-daughter relationship. While I agree that some aspects of the story were not exactly groundbreaking (spells, witches, marriage issues), and the Scottish history may have been a bit murky, Brave is actually more innovative than some of Pixar’s earlier releases, just not in the way that many were expecting it to be. After the film’s premiere, many critics complained that the film was “uninspired” and “conventional”. Prior to the film’s release, viewers knew that this would be Pixar’s first animated film to feature a female protagonist (a slightly embarrassing admission considering how many great films have come out of that studio), and also the first film to really master the animation of human hair. Much was made of Pixar’s latest release, Brave, before and after its premiere, for a number of different reasons. July 30th, 2012 by Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite Comments ![]() In the Blog The Surprising Appeal of Brave ![]()
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