At the opening of the film, for instance, we find young princess Merida playing hide and seek with her mother Elinor. This is not to say story doesn’t contain any of the trappings of the rote princess story. Fortunately, Brave is a much better film than any of the cookie-cutter examples with which it might be confused. It’s a set up which, in less capable hands, could result in yet another recycling of the Dreamworks’ “be true to yourself” mantra or Disney’s own set of princess-genre bromides. Superficially, at least: the protagonist Merida is an impetuous red-haired princess who feels shackled by tradition and tribal expectation. With Brave, the people that brought us the Toy Story trilogy– arguably the greatest film trilogy originally conceived as a story for the screen–have given us a movie that, at first glance, runs the risk of being confused with the work of a more simple-minded studio. Now in its 17th year of box office activity, Pixar may have entered into chronological adolescence, but the studio is far from becoming a brazen teenager who’s unaware of the past. Have a great Fourth and we’ll see you back here on Thursday: The battle really heats up when Merida is told she must marry a young man she has never met.Just in time for Independence Day, a wonderful (if spoiler-heavy) review of Pixar’s latest from resident animation guru Jeremiah Lawson. Her mother, however, is not too pleased.Īs the story jumps ahead, we find out that Mom - Queen Elinor - and the teenage Merida often disagree about how a princess should act, dress and even talk. She and her dad happily shoot arrows into the forest. It’s her birthday, and the gift that delights Merida is not a doll or a toy, but a bow. Merida’s independent spirit is obvious from the moment we meet her as a tiny girl living centuries ago in the Scottish Highlands.

“There’s not someone else who’s going to rescue her and fix it all for her.”

“She’s much more relatable,” said producer Katherine Sarafian, who talked by phone to KidsPost about the movie, which opens Friday. (Pixar is the studio that created other movies including “ Toy Story,” “ Cars” and “ The Incredibles.”) She’s Pixar’s first heroine (a female hero), and the movie’s creators wanted her to be different. The star of the new animated movie “ Brave” isn’t a Disney princess. Movie princesses usually wear puffy dresses, have perfect hair and wait around for Prince Charming to save them from an evil witch.

Brave merida and elinor