I have had my eye on this movie for over a year now. Last summer I was considering what movie would be my then 2 year olds first experience in the movie theater. Movies are obviously really important to us and it was important that we choose the right film when taking her to the theater for the first time. I barely gave any other film scheduled for release any thought because if Pixar had something coming out it was the one we were going to see. I think Pixar is without doubt the best studio for producing animated films. Films like Wall-E, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Monster’s Inc, and Up are already important to our daughter and we both loved them all as well. I specifically think Up was a really incredible film that was so imaginative and funny, but I have liked almost all of the Pixar films. We don’t review our daughter’s movies as part of this blog so I would like to take the opportunity to recommend seeing all of them.
As it goes with Brave I didn’t feel that it met my expectations, but there are several reasons for that and that isn’t to say that it was a bad film. The first problem is that my daughter clearly wasn’t in the age range of the target audience. That’s my fault though and not really a problem with the movie. She seemed to enjoy the film enough but for the most part I think by and large the story went over her head. I think there were real problems with the story structure as well, for example there was no real significant antagonist in the film that was actually center to the overall story. The story turned out to be more about the relationship between a mother and her strong willed teenager. It was a good story that I think is really appropriate for older children, just not really up my 3 year olds alley.
Speaking of the story I found myself having an interesting revelation as we waited for it to start. I didn’t even really know what this movie was about beyond it being about a red head Scottish girl that appeared to be a warrior. I want my daughter to see films about strong female characters so it seemed perfect but despite all the attention I paid to it during the past year I never really found out what the actual story was. I think that is odd and I don’t know that this movie has really been marketed well enough to maximize its potential. It’s as if the studio doesn’t really bother anymore because they are Pixar and they know people are going to show up to see whatever they do. That may just be the way I am though and maybe I managed to miss a larger effort to advertise the film.
If you are thinking about taking your child to see this film I by no means want to discourage you but do consider the age and maturity of your child. I would think the appropriate age range might be something more like 5 and up but I don’t know for sure because my kids are younger. I don’t think this was the best Pixar movie and I don’t think it was really up to the caliber of their other films. It’s not bad and I will eventually revisit it and possibly find several things I liked about it. I was looking for something that really blew me away like Up did the first time I saw it and Brave just didn’t do that.
The Movie Snobs 