Brave! Now here's a feminist film for my family! Do you know how excited I was to go see an animated Disney feature with a strong-willed, non-traditional female lead? First the fabulous Tiana and now this? Add to that Merida's curly red mane to match my own daughter's and I just knew this would be the greatest Disney triumph ever.
And yes, Merida bucks tradition by preferring horseback riding, archery and adventure to princess training. She is the hero of her own story, fighting for family, solving mysteries and ultimately saving the day. However, it's only after she causes all of the problems in the first place and exhibits some pretty awful character traits.
She practically sets out to destroy her mother, presumably because her mother represents everything she hates about women's roles. When she nearly succeeds, it takes her an unforgivably long time to feel bad about it. If only Merida felt more Brave! and less Petulant! It certainly made me long for Mulan's heroic sacrifice and scrappy intelligence. Though Merida sets everything right in the end, Brave ends up feeling perilously close to a cautionary tale. "Take it easy, feminists, you still need to respect societal traditions or you could just unravel everything."
The kids were terrified by this film. We sat too close to the front and I ended up buried under two sobbing children.
It was beautiful. We will watch it again. It just couldn't live up to my lofty expectations.
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