Brave
Directed By:
Michael Andrews and Brenda Chapman
Written By: Mark
Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman, and Irene Mecchi, from a story by
Chapman
Starring: (the
voices of) Kelly MacDonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, and Julie Walters.
Editor: Nicholas C. Smith, Original Music: Patrick Doyle
For
all its fantastic characters, inventive narratives, and ability to make me open
tear ducts I wasn’t even aware I had, the most impressive part of the Pixar
brand today for me is its seamless ability to truly design visual storytelling.
No longer can we watch animation without thinking of the shot structure,
editing patterns, and mise-en-scene like
the ways we consider in films made without the aid of computers (which, of
course, is very few these days). Especially in Pixar’s Brave, their latest film, I found myself constantly tracking the
“camera placement,” for something that wasn’t even there. Pixar has continually
pushed the mold of what animation can mean, it certainly shows off the
company’s ability to use animation not as an end but as a medium, even if Brave isn’t as “groundbreaking” as the
company’s previous entries.
It’s
tough when you are Pixar—so many of their films have literally pushed the bar,
that when something as solid and well crafted as Brave comes along, the gut reaction is to attack it for not being
the equivalent of the Sistine Chapel. What does come up slightly disappointing
is that Brave, which has been highly
publicized as the first Pixar film to feature a female protagonist, is the film’s
rough edges.
