Brave (no spoilers)

Friggin gorgeous animation

Brave is a good movie. This much is true. It's good and it is worth going to the theater to watch. Is it the knock out hit that I was promised? Nope. It's just a pretty good Disney movie. There's nothing particularly special or stand out about it. Take the Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Tangled, then switch out the romance plot for "doesn't want to get married" and you have Brave. At some points I even actually found the story telling kind of lazy, like they threw in a character or plot device just to keep everything marching along in the single line they set out for it.

What really makes this movie worth watching in the theater is the animation itself. I mean, just wow. This goes way beyond the crazy intricacy behind just Merida's hair animation. Every second of this movie is mind blowingly animated to beautiful perfection. Pixar really outdid themselves. 

It's almost like Pixar had this idea for a crazy beautiful Scottish landscape and animated character design and they just needed Disney to give them an excuse to do it. This is especially evident in scenes that look stunning but are unnecessarily long. (for people who have seen the movie - spoiler free example: when they are fishing)

Probably the worst thing about the movie for me is the ambiguous magic. There is nothing I hate more than ambiguous magic, and it's rare with Disney movies which is why I love Disney movies so much. You break the spell with a single kiss from her true love, you use your last wish to set the genie free, once the witch is dead her spell is broken, a single magical tear saves his life, etc. You know exactly how the magic works and what the character did to resolve its effect. Not so in Brave. The magic has a very frustratingly ambiguous solution. Yes, I realize I am probably the only person in the world who thinks about these things obsessively. 

The weirdest thing about the movie is how quickly it goes from whimsical fun to deadly serious. I would not take small children to see this movie. They would be scared and then completely lost. There is a lot of humor, and I loved the little triplet brothers, but there's not enough to balance it out. 

I will say though, I did like the start of the plot and how everything was set into motion. There was a bit of a twist that I didn't expect but should have, and that made it pretty entertaining. 

Verdict: I liked Brave, it is a stunning movie from an animation standpoint but just a good movie from a story standpoint. I will probably buy a poster but not a DVD.