At the Theater- Brave - Pixar and Disney's latest collaboration is technically thrilling as a viewing experience (the colors are extremely vibrant and the animation is outstanding), but the story ultimately feels more like an obligatory sequel to a superior franchise starter because of a familiar script and a few too many secondary characters that seem pulled from the stockroom of past animated films. Outside of the main protagonist, Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), I really don't think there's any lasting, fleshed out characters that will stand the test of time. That said, it's the first Pixar film that I've checked out in the theater (2011's Rango was the first animated feature I had seen in the theater since I was a kid), and I'm glad I finally got around to shaking off those hesitations.
Other vocal talents featured include- Emma Thompson as "Queen Elinor" (whose character design is the spitting image of a young Jane Seymour) , Billy Connolly as "King Fergus" (who reminded me a little too much of "Stoik" in How to Train Your Dragon), Julie Walters as "The Witch", with Robbie Coltrane, Kevin McKidd and Craig Ferguson as representative clan leaders. There's three rambunctious "little brothers" that will probably steal the film for many.
See it with your little ones in a quality theater, but be forewarned- a couple of sequences involving a rather frightening, villainous bear might leave them covering their eyes or pulling to your side.
There's a short film, La Luna, that plays before the feature- it's well-intentioned but I felt it to be a bit underwhelming as well.
As far as Pixar films are concerned, I enjoyed The Incredibles, UP!, Monsters Inc., Toy Story and Toy Story 3, A Bug's Life and Finding Nemo quite a bit more. The first half of WALL-E was outstanding where the second half was not, Toy Story 2 and Ratatouille were serviceable and I will continue to skip the Cars movies...
8.0 out of 10
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