I’d never heard anything about it til the boyfriend and I walked into the theatre the other night on our way to see Prometheus, and they had a HUGE screen running and re-running the trailer for it just inside the door. We both stopped short, and the boyfriend said “Wow- they made a movie about you!” 
So we’ll probably be going to see it.
Of course, after UP, I just don’t trust Pixar to not make me cry like a baby, so I’ll be well-prepared with kleenex.
My first impression is this:
In the early days of computer animation, everyone agreed that the hardest thing to get right was hair.
So I get the impression they were thinking “We can do hair now! Let’s do a shitload of hair! Hair as far as the eye can see!”
Just got out of it.
Sadly, no scenes that deeply moved me, so that was disappointing, but plenty of amusing bits, and of course it looked great.
The only thing I really had a problem was the dreadfully mediocre songs. They were utterly generic empowerment pop songs that could have been in any Disney made-for-video release - with a Scots accent. Bleagh! Eddie Reader was not available? They had the opportunity to do something great, and what we got sounded like Miley Cyrus with a brough.
I was expecting something more like Tangled, but it was basically Brother Bear.
I was definitely entertained and I’m glad I saw it. I agree with the above comments about the music, however (at least the vocal music). I’d say it was good, but lacked the feeling of originality that some of the other Pixar movies have had.
Then again, a middling Pixar film is still far better than a lot of other stuff out there.
ETA: I actually found the vocal music distracting. It pulled me out of a couple of moments in the film. As though I needed to be told directly how I was supposed to feel.
Saw it last night with my six year old. He was a little frightened a couple times (it gets VERY loud a few times). But once we explained the plot he was OK.
For the record, there is a little scene at the end of the credits (the VERY end, literally you have to wait forever).
All in all I enjoyed it. Very beautiful backgrounds indeed.
I’m sure the movie is beautiful and funny and entertaining, but I can’t help but think that Disney is quickly running out of ethnicities to exploit.
Other reviews I’ve been reading have been saying to skip the 3D version because so much of the action takes place in the dark (caves, night, dark castle, etc.), and it muddies the background coloring. That might be why the red looked “off.”
Wha?
“Some dust” got in DesertDog’s eyes, making them tear up.
Well, I cried like a little girl. Within about five minutes of the movie’s beginning. And I almost really lost it at the end because it was getting to the point where I couldn’t hold in the sobs.
But you’re talking to the girl who once cried at an orange juice commercial, so YMMV.
Beautiful but they could have done so much better with the story.
I’d have to agree with the general consensus:
It was visually lovely, and a pretty good movie.
The story was awfully bare bones.
Electing to make the characters Scottish was a terrible choice, for the simple reason that it’s just been done to absolute death, including a major animated picture already (I realize the characters in How To Train Your Dragon SAID they were Vikings, but they were Scots) and Pixar put absolutely nothing new in it. Same clothes, same gross, aggressive behaviour, same time period, same everything we’ve seen before.
The story was, even by Pixar standards, amazingly simple. There was basically no B story, no dynamic antagonist, and much of the character’s behaviour was unexplained; a major character makes a complete change in attitude halfway through the movie for no obvious reason.
It was better than Cars 2, and about as good as Cars, and inferior to all other Pixar films.
Saw it today. I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that it felt … tinkered with, somehow. Like it was an interesting original idea, and then somebody else took control and changed it. “Set it in Scotland.” “Throw some songs in” “Giver her a horse.” Even if that’s not what happened to it at all, it somehow felt more prepackaged than Pixar’s previous offerings. On the whole, decent. It does look really really pretty.
It did experience a mid-course management change. A couple years back then starting going sideways between Brenda Chapman and the producers and so she was replaced as director by Mark Andrews.
I know there were some style changes but the broad strokes of the are what I remember them being when it was announced years back.
Personally, I liked it a fair bit. Not an instant classic like many of the other Pixar movies, but if it had been released under the Disney Animation label instead of Disney Pixar I think it would be perceived differently. Up, Ratatouille and the Toy Story movies cast big shadows.
Saw it this morning with my wife, two adult friends and their two 8-year-old kids. Everyone liked it a lot. I don’t think it’s at the peak of Pixar movies, but I’d put it healthily above Cars.
I definitely wasn’t expecting the big twist that set the plot in motion:
her mom turning into a bear, and it’s unusual in this age of overly verbose trailers for a pivotal plot point early on in a movie to be such a surprise, so that was enjoyable.
I do agree that the exaggerated Scottish characters felt a bit recycled, but as with most Pixar movies there was enough entertainment at all times to more than make up for minor criticisms of that sort.
SAw it this morning, and enjoyed it. Was surprised that, even though it was set in (medeival?) Scotland, they still managed to work their Pizza Delivery Truck into it
Agreed that the trailers did not spoil main plot points, but unfortunately in this case I think it hurt more than it helped. I felt cheated out of a tomboyish adventure of self discovery. She never actually got to go on the tomboysih adventure of self discovery because she got tricked by Grandma Witch Coyote, but I felt tricked too. I preferred the story arcs I made up with my own imagination while not really being satisfied with what was actually happening in the film. And the tapestry (heh) my imagination was based was the apparent narrative in the trailers.
A double feature of Brother Bear and Mulan will probably get you the story you wanted.
It was definitely cute. It’s nice to have an actual functional mother-daughter relationship being the center of a movie for a change, and I actually found the lack of “villain” a good thing.
However - holy plot holes batman! It was absolutely rife with characters doing stupid, senseless or otherwise unexplained things for no apparent reason.
How big a blank cheque does she give the witch? “Make my mother be different”. How could anyone with half the sense of a shoelace make such a DUMB mistake? Say what you think - “make my mother NOT WANT TO MARRY ME OFF”. Then the escape scene - okay, I can just about accept her not making any attempt to actually tell anyone what was going on at that point - she’s in shock, and her dad’s on a drunken rampage - but why go to all the trouble to bring her mother inside the castle the next day? Here’s an idea - walk inside on your tod and go see your dad now he’s sober. You’re allowed! It’s your house! What was the intended purpose of the spell in the first place, since its only actual effect - turning people into bears - appears to be classed as a side effect? Why the need for the wild horseback ride at the end, when the only actual instruction that was given - to mend the tapestry - could be much more easily accomplished by staying in the room?
I don’t remember that degree of missing motivation in other films. As far as I can remember, every action in, say, Finding Nemo, or Monsters Inc, or the Incredibles makes actual sense for the character concerned (there’s one HUGE plot hole in UP! - maybe they’re just getting slack?) But the plot in Brave is suffering from a severe case of Not THought Through
Having said all that, I did actually rather enjoy it. Fun characters, gorgeous visuals (that hair!