'Brave' brings to bear Pixar's brilliancePixar’s ‘Brave’ opens with the short “La Luna” and shows that Pixar can do more in eight minutes of film than most studios can do in 80. While “La Luna” was not near as funny as “Lifted,” the short that was shown before “Ratatouille,” it shows the extensive imagination that Pixar can harvest. Beautifully animated, the creativity and the ability to tell a story without words is still amazing. I would love to be in on the process of how they come up with the shorts.
If you can’t believe that a short makes it worth going to theater, “Brave” brings all of the expertise, imagination and ability of Pixar to bear. Even the first eight minutes of the film evoke feelings of family, surprise and fear. There are only a couple of minutes where the film drags just a bit, but it isn’t enough time to go to the bathroom. Every other sequence is magical. It doesn’t take anything away from the film, but the will-o-the-wisps reminded me of Pac-Man. Maybe it was the “Wreck-It Ralph" trailer beforehand, but I really wanted to hear the wacka-wacka (or the bahn bahn from the Atari 2600) sound effects as Merida followed the wisps. |
People have dismissed the film as a mother and her daughter, but the film is really about the family. Don’t miss out on this film. It is one of the best this year.
Footnote: I know that the studio is Disney/Pixar now, but Disney as yet to reach the level that Pixar has with their computer animation projects. “Tangled” was a good start, but I want to see consistently great stories coming out of the Disney animation department, and sometimes, we just get good animation – better than anyone else not named Pixar, and not far from but also not up to the classics. |
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