'Brave' Feature Animation Enters Theaters

"Merida is not upset about being a princess or being a girl. She knows what her role is. She just wants to do it her way," Brenda Chapman, the original character and story developer of Pixar's upcoming feature animation, Brave, recently commented to one news source. Chapman, once upon a time the director attached to the film, describes the spry princess as energetic, athletic, stubborn, a little bit wild, and most important of all, relatable. This weekend, Brave enters its long-awaited wide release, and along with it comes all the expectations, curiosities, and sympathetic breaking of tradition that seem to accompany projects from Pixar Animation Studios.

Merida is the first-born child to the jovial ruler of a kingdom set in 10th century Scotland. The girl, blessed with a furious flush of curly red hair and a passion for outdoor athletics along the lines of archery and sword fighting, is less an unruly child than she is an adolescent vying for the right to guide her own life. In Brave, it in is this bothersome conflict between folkloric tradition and Merida's matchless courage that viewers encounter an enthusiastic new CG feature.

Here, Destiny is a guarded word whose existence harbors surprisingly few meanings, but for Merida, it doesn't matter if doing things her own way doesn't jive with the opinions of her stately mother (Queen Elinor), heroic father (King Fergus), and overzealous clan leaders (Lords MacGuffin, Dingwall, and Macintosh).

However, the more the girl commits to her self interests, the further she exposes her beloved kingdom to fantastic peril. Merida is defying tradition, and the results of her actions are, by all accounts, catastrophic.

In this ancient land, the Scots are well acquainted with primeval wisps, eccentric witches, and various other phantasmagoric goings-on. But when Merida opens a Pandora's Box of sorts (namely, unleashing the historically evil demon bear Mor'du), it becomes strikingly clear that she's the only one who can set things straight; and no doubt, she's going to go about it in her own way.

Brave enters theaters this week, directed by Mark Andrews and produced by Katherine Sarafian. True to Pixar Animation Studios' history of producing features whose focus in on character dynamics, Brave zeros in on the tension between Merida and her mother, Elinor. The mother is doing her best to pass on a mountain of personal wisdom and strength, but the girl feels as if her adventurousness is being whittled away by the objectivity that being a "royal" entails. Andrews, the director, served as story supervisor on Pixar's Ratatouille (2007) and The Incredibles (2004); Sarafian produced the short film "Lifted" (2006) and served as production manager for The Incredibles.

Disney, for what it's worth, has earned solid support for the film's release across the pond in Scotland. The Scottish Government is projecting an upward tick in tourism somewhere near GBP 140 million (USD $218.36 million), and is betting big by further promoting national arts and environment in more than 70 countries in tandem with the international rollout of the CG film. Brave enters Scottish theaters in August.

Ideally, this "plucky princess" with a talent for horseback riding and all things archery will do more than satisfy Pixar purists in search of a legitimate heroine; Merida might encourage plenty of other plucky kids to keep connected to their family as well.