BRAVE from DISNEY PIXAR Hits the Bull’s Eye with Fun, Humor and Scottish Hilarity!

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Category: Film

Published on Thursday, 21 June 2012 22:36

Written by Janet Walker

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BRAVE, DISNEY PIXAR's newest 3-D animated film, brings to the screen in this folklore tale adventure mystery, magic and mystique along with all the great Scottish fun one can handle!

Directed by Mark Andrews BRAVE stars the voice talent of Kelly Macdonald, Kevin McKidd, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Craig Ferguson, and John Ratzenberger. BRAVE, is produced by Katherine Sarafian and Executive Produced by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter.

With all the whispers of BRAVE being a compilation of DISNEY great moments and Merida being just another boring DISNEY Princess, the naysayers couldn’t be further from the truth!

BRAVE elevates animated filmmaking with fresh content and fresh creative! The dialogue is witty, sharp and funny with genuine exchanges between mother and daughter. The 3-D dances and sparkles with crispness and depth and the sights of the lush Scottish highlands jump from the screen. The progression of animation is stunning as every curl in Merida’s full head of Irish red curls are alive and have life on their own.  

Merida, voiced by Kelly Macdonald, the first born daughter of Queen Elinor voiced by Emma Thompson and Lord Fergus, voiced by Billy Connolly, are of the ruling clan. Merida is expected to follow tradition; and in following convention she must, of course, be a lady and possess all the skills and refinement of a proper princess. She on the other hand, as her father Lord Fergus, states, “wants to have the wind in me hair and shoot me bow.” Her mother only desires her teenage daughter to be respectable. As the two lock horns Merida demands her freedom and with a will, wit and aim more like her father, she’s determined to have it at any cost.

Being a DISNEY animated film, BRAVE does have the elements associated with DISNEY; the family dynamics are very funny with moments of heightened suspense. A film of relationships between Mother and Daughter BRAVE tugs at the heartstrings as Merida’s plan to escape the prison of tradition becomes the key to finding her true place and happiness.  The climatic ending is worthy of a pack of tissues!

DISNEY PIXAR hosted select members of the media for the BRAVE Press Day held at the LOWES Hotel in Hollywood. Having the opportunity to participate the following are excerpts from the Press Conference with the very funny Director Mark Andrews, who briught down the house with his impression of his Scottish tour guide and recounting the stories he told, and Producer Katherine Sarafian.

Janet Walker:  Personally, when I saw BRAVE I felt it elevated animated filmmaking. I thought it had fresh content and fresh creative and beauty and mystique and mystery and over eight years of bringing this project to life what was or can you pinpoint one just memorable moment in this process?

Mark Andrews: Skinny dipping in the Locke was pretty memorable. (Room erupts in laughter)

Katherine Sarafian:  I would say the first Scotland trip in 2006. That was very special because it was the first time we really connected to the real place in a real way. In our heads it made sense back in Emeryville, California that it was a Scottish set adventure well it wasn’t until we got there, saw the sky, smelled the smells, [took it all in] and looked into the rhythm of the accents and the people and the storytelling that we really just got it. Why there was such folklore and legends. Its real magic of tales spun from that region. It’s just a real thing. We could feel it.

Mark Andrews:  We knew there was great potential in the movie just from the setting. And we had all these aspects of it; this great parent child relationship, and the setting and the world. You know I’m a history buff, a Middle Ages buff, and a myth and legends buff but until we got there and started to talking to our guide and people who lived there, [we just didn’t know].

The one thing I brought back is there’s a story in Scotland about everything. We’d just be driving along the road and I’d say, ‘Bob, what about that tree?’ (Breaking into perfect, gruff Scottish accent) ‘That trees where they tied up Kahail in the war!’ (Room erupts with laughter).  Well, ‘What about that mountain?’ (Again in perfect gruff Scottish as the room erupts) ‘That’s where the giant fell dead after being beaten to death.’ What about that lake, ‘I kissed my first girlfriend in the lake and she was a Silkie and she ran off with the fairies.’  (The room is roaring with laughter).

When you’re working on an original film you’re going, ‘Where the hell what do I start?’ When there is just so much material, which one do I pick because you’re inspired by everything; we took everything and took license with it.  

DISNEY PIXAR’s BRAVE hits the bull’s eye of fun, humor and Scottish hilarity! Fun for the entire family!

Opens in theaters June 22, 2012; Check your local listings!