After the disappointment of ‘Cars 2‘, Pixar could really use an unqualified success to restore its reputation as the best animation studio working today. Unfortunately, this weekend’s release of the Scottish fairy tale ‘Brave’ opened to decidedly mixed reviews. Were you among the Pixar faithful who trekked out to theaters to see the film? Did you and/or your kids enjoy it? Or does this Pixar entry not interest you at all? Tell us your thoughts in our poll.
I have not seen the film yet, and so will not cast judgment on it. What I can say is that the trailers don’t look anywhere near as bad as ‘Cars 2’, yet also have not excited me enough to run out and catch this in theaters. I think that I can safely wait for Blu-ray and not feel like I’m missing out on much.
Is that fair? Is the movie a lot better than it looks? Or is Luke’s lukewarm assessment pretty much accurate?
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William Henley
I may catch it this weekend. I have no intrest in the movie itself, but there is a theater about an hour from me that has it in Dolby Atmos, and I really want to check out the new sound system.
Nick McMahan
i thought it was just ok
EM
As I recall, the first teaser trailer I saw showed a landscape and not much else. It was beautiful and impressive but gave me very little sense of the movie to come. Later teasers were more revealing but didn’t strike me as compelling.
To see or not to see? I’ve seen every Pixar feature in theaters, but I might skip this one. If I do skip it, I’ll watch it on video. I’ve a friend who’s expressed interest in seeing this in the theater; if he really wants to go, I’ll go with him. But if so, I’d rather do so at matinee 2D price.
Over the years Pixar has earned itself much goodwill from me. Some of its films have earned a permanent place in my video library; even the Pixar features that I don’t particularly want to see again have had several points of brilliance (well, maybe just a couple or so in the case of Cars 2). But maybe it’s time to reconsider Pixar’s free pass.
Julian
Good luck watching it on video 😉
Yeah, sorry, that was a bad joke.
EM
? Obviously I don’t mean this week, but when an official (US) release comes.
John
I thought it was one of Pixars most visually compelling movies. Its was gorgeous. My ten year old daughter loved it. And as she likes to say when we come out of movies she will ask me or tell me is “a must own?” There was no question from her on this one. She said was an own. I for one have not seen the failure in Pixar that seems to permeate this site. I have enjoyed everyone of their films.
RollTide1017
I haven’t seen Brave but my daughter wants to see it so, I’ sure I will soon. I agree with you last 2 sentences though. I skipped Cars 2 in theaters because of all the negative talk on this site and other movie forums. Picked it up when it came out on BD and watched it with the family and it was fun. Not the best from Pixar but not the worst either (A Bug’s Life is still my least enjoyed).
I had fun with Tangled and my daughter loves Tangled so, Drew’s comments below make Brave sound like a win for both of us.
EM
Failure and negativity are relative. While I’ve seen all the prior Pixar features in theaters, on the other hand there are fairly few non-Pixar animated features I have seen theatrically during the same period. When I go to the movies, I hope to see the best. That doesn’t always work out. If I’m fairly sure a movie is going to be at most an also-ran (for me personally), I’d rather stay home. A “fair” movie is not a bad movie, but it’s not what I’m looking for. I’ve been extremely happy with some of Pixar’s output, but for me some of it has been just fair. My spider-sense is telling me that I would likely find Brave to be just fair, hence my lack of enthusiasm for a trip to the cineplex.
Drew
It’s a solid film. It’s definitely better than a few of the other Pixar films, in any estimation. It’s not geared towards children more than the other Pixar efforts.
I think the 900 lb gorilla in the room, and thus, the proper poll question, is whether HDD readers will rush to theatres to see a film that is essentially a period piece about a young Irish princess.
Even the bonus view review made it obvious that the real issue the reviewer had with it, had nothing to do with the film itself.
Have you seen ‘Tangled’? If so, did you enjoy it? ‘Brave’ is at least as good as ‘Tangled’ and is more mature to boot. If you feel like you would have loved ‘Tangled’ even more, if it had been more geared towards adults, and contained a little bit more mature subject matter, ‘Brave’ is for you. If you were ambivalent about ‘Tangled’, I can’t see ‘Brave’ doing it for you.
Aaron Peck
I must give kudos to the trailer though. In a time where trailers tell the entire movie, even spoiling most of the plot, ‘Brave’s trailer left out THE BIGGEST plot piece. I didn’t even see the second act coming, and was surprised when it happened.
Tom Landy
I have no desire to see this one. The animation in the trailers is at times gorgeous, but I’m just not digging the design of the red-headed princess. Plus the trailers show some of the characters acting REALLY silly in places, so much so that I found it off-putting rather than funny. It’s just too kiddie for my tastes.