#Pixar’s brave | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

artist-issues · 2 months

Note

Forgive me if you've already discussed it, but what's your opinion of "Brave?"

I want to like it, but somehow (I haven't taken the time to analyze it) it doesn't quite fit together. The story is much more about the mother learning and growing than about Merida. I actually didn't like Merida very much.

No it’s okay, I actually haven’t ever discussed Brave, and I haven’t watched it or analyzed it in a long while. So forgive me, I’ll analyze while I verbalize, so this might be a little all over the place, but your observations give me a starting place!

It definitely isn’t my favorite Pixar movie, but I don’t think it’s a poorly made movie, either.

I will say it’s not true that it’s much more about Queen Elinor learning and growing than Merida does, (but I can see why you’d come away with that.) I think the movie actually does a really intentional job of showing them both, equally, learning and growing toward one another’s points of view. Way better than Turning Red did, anyway.

I mean, for example, they parallel each other’s “hypothetical argument.” They’re both struggling to communicate with the other. The first act is Merida being taught by Elinor, unwillingly. The second act is Elinor being taught (how to fish and survive) in the woods, at first unwillingly. Then she learns to trust Merida knows better and follows Merida’s lead to survive out there. Just like, when she enters the Great Hall and is ready to give up control of her fate for keeping the peace, you see that Merida has finally learned to follow her mom’s lead as a Princess, too. They go back-to-back, and learn almost equally.

I would put it like this: Merida learns that Queen Elinor was right all along—AND she learns more about who Queen Elinor is and how to understand her. On the flip side, Queen Elinor just learns more about who Merida is and how to communicate with her.

So that’s much better than a movie that says, “hey the mom is wrong and should let her daughter do whatever she wants, I guess.”

In general, the story is about a mom who wants her daughter to fulfill her fate, because it’s what’s best for her—but the daughter doesn’t want to follow anybody’s lead, and thinks she needs to get as far away from being traditional as possible.

Here, I’ll try to dive into it.

Queen Elinor knows that tradition is important, because she understands the lessons hidden in those traditions. The Princess sacrifices her own independence as a symbol of unity for the kingdom, by marrying one of the lord’s sons. She’s not just a symbol of unity—she’s a symbol of peace, wherever she goes. Clean, tidy, on time, never ruffled, in a world full of brutish hairy men who’s favorite pastime is killing each other. That’s what Queen Elinor knows is important. For the big picture. For everyone, including Merida.

And she’s right. A Queen’s selflessness saves her people.

But. Trying to force a Princess who doesn’t understand or believe in that lesson to do it anyway is no good either. You can’t force a leader to live by principals they don’t believe in. When you do, you get Mor’du, the demon Prince.

So there’s this balance. Yes, Merida, you’re fated, by birth, to lead and be a shining beacon of hope and peace in a war-torn land. That’s a good thing. But you can only be that leader and beacon when you’ve accepted it.

Queen Elinor doesn’t start out twitch that balance. She’s just trying to force Merida into her fate. Why? It’s the age-old struggle of parenting: you know what’s best for your kid, so you try to get them into that safe-zone as fast as possible. But they don’t get it, so they buck and kick and you decide “I don’t care if you don’t get it, I’m going to force it on you because it’s what’s best.” And you know where that attitude, of “you’ll do it, and I don’t care how you feel about it” comes from?

Fear. Fear that if your kid is given an inch to argue, buck, kick, run away, that they’ll run right out of your control into danger.

And what’s the movie called?

Brave.

And Merida doesn’t want to be a Princess because…”I’m not ready for this.” Fear. What’s Merida afraid of? Her own fate. She’s not fated to be an adventurer, she’s fated to be a Princess. She just has a wrong idea of what that means.

And they both think that they know, not only what’s best, but where the other person is wrong. Just like how Prince Mor’du thought he knew that he could be a better leader on his own than with his family. Both stem from pride. Which “tore the bond” of their love for each other.

Because—and now we’re back to their broken relationship, which is the real story here—

Queen Elinor and Merida can’t communicate with that pride, that false image of who the other person is and what they supposedly want, in the way. So it takes Queen Elinor getting out of her comfort zone and into Merida’s (the wild) to understand that Merida can survive and choose what’s right, on her own, and doesn’t need to do it Queen Elinor’s way. It also took Merida getting out of her comfort zone and into her mother’s (having to stop a fight between warring lords because her mom’s not around to do it, which is a snapshot of her future) to understand what her mother has always been saying.

Basically, the scene where she sees Mor’Du’s story is true is where Merida changes and grows the most as a character. Because that’s her suddenly realizing that her mom was right. And that’s a really good allegory for growing up and parenting. You can tell your kid all the right things and teach them all the right lessons, but at some point, it has to become real to them on their own.

It’s even neat because that scene is shot with Merida down in “the cave of discovery, “ while her mom is where?

Watching from afar. Not in there with her.

So yeah, those are my disheveled thoughts on Brave. It’s a good movie. It does feel like something about the actual events in the movie are a little lackluster—to be honest, the scenes where Merida is teaching her mom in the woods come to mind. I mean, on paper, all she’s really doing is teaching her to fish and do something a little unladylike. And then to calmly wait for the Wisps to appear instead of chasing them down. The events aren’t as…deep or attention grabbing as I think they could’ve been. But that’s okay, because it still gets the point across.

Thanks for asking!

#Brave #Pixar’s Brave #Pixar #Disney Pixar #Disney #Merida #princess Merida #Mor’du #analysis #character analysis #meta #Scotland #storytelling

45 notes · View notes

womeninfictionandirl · 7 months

Text

Merida by Mike Henderson

#mike Henderson #Merida #merida dunbroch #princess Merida #brave #brave 2012 #brave (2012)#Disney #disney princesses #Pixar #Pixar’s brave #art #artwork #disney art

45 notes · View notes

scurviesdisneyblog · 5 months

Text

𝙿𝚒𝚡𝚊𝚛 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚙𝚝 𝚊𝚛𝚝Ｉ(2010 - 2018)

4K notes · View notes

racer62 · 7 months

Text

My friend called me this morning and just started off with no hello or anything.

"You know in Once Upon A Studio where every Disney character comes to life? Where are the Pixar characters?"

"It's just the disney characters, the Pixar characters are probably at Pixar studios."

"They're probably fighting for their life."

"Huh."

"The Pixar characters are in life threatening situations every second in some of their movies. They're probably fighting a monster or something."

"Go to sleep."

And I couldn't stop thinking of how funny the idea was

1K notes · View notes

megsarts · 5 months

Text

#rise of the brave tangled dragons #rotbtd #brave #merida #disney #pixar

470 notes · View notes

capturingdisney · 2 months

Text

Character designs by Steve Purcell for Brave

#brave #brave 2012 #concept art #character designs #merida #king fergus #the witch #disney #disneyedit #disney edit #pixar #pixaredit #pixar edit #capturingdisney #*

354 notes · View notes

juniemunie · 1 year

Text

Still thinking about ROBTD stories where hiccup is the only one that finished his movie because he and toothless need to be together but everyone else still hasnt gone through their character arcs yet and it makes me laugh

2K notes · View notes

fandomnerd9602 · 9 months

Text

Merida cuddles with Y/N…

Merida: what do ye think of the sound of little feet running thru our home?

Y/N: did your brothers turn into bears again?!

Merida: no! That’s not what I-

Y/N: baby you have to stop going to that witch-

Merida: I want yer kids!

Y/N: oh…I’d love that

Merida: (giggles) good.

The two share a kiss, not noticing that Merida’s brothers run past them, having been turned into bears again…

#merida imagine #merida #brave merida #merida x reader #disney pixar brave #brave #disney animation #disney imagine #disney fluff #disney x reader #disney #disney movies #brave disney #princess x knight

531 notes · View notes

sboochi · 9 months

Text

Good news: the hair wasn't nearly as bad as I thought! Bad news: the face was a nightmare!

#brave #pixar brave #merida #my art #aaand with this one the glowy portraits collection is done #i learned Stuff by doing these and it was a fun challange #but boy are they exhausting

412 notes · View notes

disnerdpodcast · 11 months

Text

1K notes · View notes

mossycat · 11 months

Text

You can't sit with them sksksk

#mossyart #rotbtd #rise of the brave tangled dragons #httyd #rtte #rotg #how to train your dragon #rise of the guardians #tangled #brave pixar #hiccup #jack frost #rapunzel #merida #merida dunbroch #hiccup haddock #toothless #race to the edge

431 notes · View notes

womeninfictionandirl · 11 months

Text

Merida by Adam Murphy

#Adam Murphy #Merida #merida dunbroch #Pixar #Brave #Disney #Disney princesses #Disney Pixar #Disney’s brave #princess Merida #art #artwork #Pixar’s brave

21 notes · View notes

sibbydoo · 11 months

Text

🔆ROTBTDoodles 2023 — DAY 5: OLYMPUS

Time is a strange thing.

383 notes · View notes

lilandraws · 10 months

Text

do you ever feel like

part 1

*:･ﾟ✧ — commissions are open -> more info here

319 notes · View notes

thedisneyhub · 1 year

Photo

Merida voiced by Kelly Macdonald BRAVE (2012), directed by Mark Andrews & Brenda Chapman

#disneyedit #pixaredit #braveedit #filmedit #brave #*#pixar #dylan

1K notes · View notes

snake-berry · 6 months

Text

Part One of my ASOIAF-Disney Princess crossovers: Arya as Merida (feat. Catelyn as Queen Elinor)

this was so much work holy shit my drawing program was loading at snail speed like it was BAD... the sheer amount of layers... n e ways hope yall like this! included lil references to both brave and asoiaf

#yes ik brave is technically pixar whateverrrr its close enough #asoiaf art #valyrian scrolls #valyrianscrolls #asoiaf fanart #arya stark #arya stark fanart #catelyn tully stark #catelyn stark #catelyn tully #half of the corners have symbols that represent brave and half have symbols for asoiaf #meridas bow and the wisps #stark wolf + tully fish and arya's needle #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #rapunzel won the sansa poll so that might come soonish but might do a diff one first #but this was a lot of work so im taking a wee break and returning to my portraits first

167 notes · View notes