Pixar is brave, but not entirely original

Brave is a splendid experience, but it feels more like a Disney movie than a Pixar one, with its fairy tale plot full of transforming forest creatures, plucky princesses and a crooked old witch with her bubbling cauldrons.

Did Pixar raid the Disney vault, or did Disney turn the vault over and shake it over Pixar, like pepper on a bowl of stew? It's hard to determine now that the two companies are one.

By invoking these Disney tropes, though, Brave and Pixar are hearkening back to Disney's classic era of hand-drawn animation that includes films like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid. I'm curious about their intentions. To see if Pixar could do an old-fashioned Disney movie? If so, then Brave is a rousing success. If they did it to reinvent the fairy tale, then they fall drastically short — consider Brave on par with either of Disney's last fairy tale movies, the perfectly enjoyable duo of Tangled and The Princess and the Frog.

I question the motives of the movie and its makers, but please know that I loved this picture. It is a fully realized and beautifully designed animated adventure. It may use all the building blocks of a Disney fairy tale, but it uses them in ingenious ways. Yes, we might have seen these things done before, but never like this, and never in a Pixar movie.

In the Scottish highlands a royal family must arrange a wedding for their daughter with an independent streak amid all those tangles of red hair. This is Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), a free-spirited teenager who would rather roam the countryside shooting arrows at her favorite trees than be prim and proper or bound up in some corset on a wooden throne.

Merida embarrasses her family at an archery tournament where she's supposed to pick a husband. Her refusal to pick, and the way she refuses, sparks a mock conflict between her father, the burly one-legged Fergus (Billy Connolly), and the leaders of three other royal families — including one kilted droog who would make a great plotline on Game of Thrones, and another dressed like William Wallace in Braveheart.

Merida's family drama underscores the film's ultimate message about fate and destiny, and how women within this kingdom don't get to have a say in their futures. This is probably where I should tell you that Merida is Pixar's first female protagonist in the studio's history. It's unfortunate the way Merida expresses her independence is with a man's weapon, but nevermind that.

I'm hesitant to discuss the plot further because the film's advertising has left out some major developments, which created surprises for me in my viewing. Just know that a friendly bear turns up that will upend Merida's life if she doesn't get some advice from a wrinkly old witch who moonlights as a woodcarver of exceeding talent. The witch has a remarkably simple voicemail system: "For Option 1 please dump the green vial in the cauldron. For Option 2, please dump the red vial …"

It is refreshing to see the plot being pushed forward by women, including Merida and her patient mother (Emma Thompson). The men are given lots of comedic moments, including a fort battle in the castle keep, but they are mostly background filler to the dreams, hopes and desires of the female characters. And just look at Merida, what a striking character and screen presence. (Her hair definitely helps; never has hair moved so realistically in an animated movie.)

This is not Pixar's greatest movie — that goes to WALL•E — nor is it anywhere near the abysmal and wretched Cars 2. It's mostly an entirely average Pixar movie, and an above-average Disney movie. Yes, they have different scales, because Pixar is so meticulous, so exact, so perfect at designing plots for their movies to sit in. This film looked fantastic, and had just the right combination of laughs, tender character moments and thrills. But the plot felt recycled, and it made me curious as to why a company known for their one-of-a-kind stories would turn to an idea as overdone as a fairy tale.

Many more photos after the jump.