Seeing a movie at the Highway 18 Drive-In Theater can be a confusing jaunt through time. The neon, retro sign? 1950s. The portable machine that takes credit cards? 2012. The one turquoise Buick Roadmaster? 1950s. The big, black SUV? 2012. The intro and intermission clips? 1950s. The feature films, “Brave” and “The Avengers”? Definitely 2012. In fact, “Brave” came out on the very day I went to see it – Friday, June 22.
One one level, “Brave” is about the upbringing of a young Scottish princess named Merida, voiced by Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire, No Country For Old Men) as the controls and decorum forced upon her by her mother, Queen Elinor (voiced by Emma Thompson, Men In Black 3) keep her from her true loves: archery and adventure. This mother-daughter struggle is tempered by the easygoing nature of Merida’s father, King Fergus, voiced by Billy Connolly (The Last Samurai), who bumbles his way through the movie as a lovable, but most ineffectual character. On another level, “Brave” is about that HAIR. Stylistically, the movie is everything you would expect a giant, technicolor Pixar tent pole to be – giant and technicolor – but that bright red, crazy, mesmerizing hair takes it to the next level. I’m sure I missed a few crucial plot points gazing at that bouncing head of coiled mayhem.
Which, incidentally, wasn’t a disaster. While the thirteenth Pixar film should be commended for being the first movie to come out of that particular production studio with a female lead character, it wasn’t a revolution in storytelling. Not that the plot wasn’t original, per say, but it happened to be compiled of many different oft-used tropes. A spell that has be-careful-what-you-wish-for consequences? Check. A beautiful, repressed princess? Check. An archery competition where one candidate blows everyone else out of the water? Check. And even though Merida did her part in fighting the final battle, the audience never really gets to see her use her archery skills in a meaningful way, or strike out on her own, or do anything that would rupture the airtight parameters Disney has set for what females are allowed to do in movies.
Nonetheless, the movie carries some touching scenes and some laugh-out-loud moments, as well as one prolonged, meaningful exploration of a mother-daughter relationship. “Brave” is no game-changer, but it is worth a watch, if only for the scene near the beginning when Merida jumps on her horse and rides off into the forest in a whirlwind of pounding hooves, an uplifting score (composed by Harry Potter 5’s Patrick Doyle) and flowing red hair that seems to say “Hey, look what we can do with CGI!” We’re looking, Pixar, and we like it.