Brave (2012) - ***1/2 out of 5

The people at Pixar have some of the more consistent-quality controlling filmmakers working today, and they crank out another winner. It doesn't match the Pixar triumphs like UP or TOY STORY 3 if only because it doesn't have that that trademark emotional gutpunch (My God, adults at those UP and TS3 screenings I went to cried.) This is more on the level of RATATOUILLE or FINDING NEMO, simply a terrific comedy that got me semi-involved with the narrative. In essence, Pixar makes adult comedies that also appeal to children.

But this movie has gotten wrongly slammed by misguided liberals who whine that they expected a "Pixar feminist" movie and complain instead that they got another Disney Princess movie. Which is total bullshit.

It does broadly follow that popular and popularily derided Disney Princess formula, but with sophisticated creative touches and surprising turns by the movie's original female director/writer (she was replaced during production because the movie was behind schedule.) Really reminds me of to a degree of THE INCREDIBLES (Pixar's best movie IMO) with what it did with the superhero formula in that regard.

What do I mean? There is no prince. There is no villain. The two lead characters are women. The princess doesn't marry or fall in love with anybody at the end. Well there is a witch*, but she's a benevolent nice scatter-brain, no more evil at worst than a legal gun dealer. There are princes, but they're one-off jokes.

Even with the conventional plot set-up with the orthodox mother and the liberalized daughter, both are treated with more depth and intelligence than usualy in these sorts of movies as they're stuck together trying to solve their dilemma (girl got mad at mom, accidentally turns her into a bear.) The princess is likeable, she made a childish mistake out of rash anger, owned up to it and fixed it like an adult. In the ending, she's treated like an independent adult woman. Oh and she shoots arrows.

I mean my fellow libs, doesn't that sound like basic feminism 101 in a nutshell that we wished Hollywood would do more of or attempt at the movies? You know, try to actually back up their supposed progressive values?

In that fashion, if PROMETHEUS aged like milk for me in reflection, BRAVE is aging like wine. It's not a great movie, but it deserves much more credit than it's currently getting. It's getting punished for orbiting the Earth and not landing on Mars.

*=Someone pointed out to me that the BRAVE witch in design (with the oversized eyeball) was obviously influenced by the evil witch in SNOW WHITE, the original Disney princess movie. A clever twist on the cliche.