As you know, last week I took Kiddo to see Brave, on it's opening day. The show was SOLD OUT at our location for the entire day! So it was no surprise to me to learn that it debuted at No. 1 that weekend, making around $66.7 million!
Everybody is wondering why the movie did so well, and of course there are the general reasons:
As you can see Merida is like a lot of girls- she wants to be like the boys and have fun, shooting arrows, riding her horse, being free. But Mom wants her to act like a lady, which means containing the wild hair, learning to play music and sew, and to be regal in her bearing. Most of us can understand why she chaffed and in the audience we were with, you could tell that story was resonating with ALOT of the moms!
We loved that they kept the Scottish music and folklore in the movie. Though it was hard to explain the Will O' the Wisps (an actual phenomenon of swamp and bog gas, seeping up through the earth and interacting with the natural resources, to create the blue flames
folklore says leads you to treasure or doom, and to change your fate) very quickly to a 5 yr old. But she understood and found them enchanting. The songs were amazing, and Kiddo is already begging for the soundtrack (I shouldn't be surprised, we played Celtic music to get her to go to sleep when she was a baby), and who knew Emma Thompson had such a great voice?
I was literally blown away by the animation, especially if you watch the horses running (thumbs up for using the larger horses, like the war charges of yore), I swear they looked totally life-like. Literally the BEST Pixar animation yet! Which is also why I have to give a caveat- the scary bear scene as above in the clip, is just that- pretty dark and scary to young kids. Kiddo was in my lap, but once she realized Merida would be alright, she was ok. But for kids under 5, it might be pretty intense.
As Kiddo wants to hunt, as is doing phenomenal with her BB gun, she of course was amazed at the archery sequences and turned to me and asked if I knew how to shoot a bow and arrow. i should have known as soon as I said yes, that her response would be 'ooo, so you can teach me!" (thanks so much Disney, more money on sports gear coming up, as Kiddo wants the real thing, not a toy! LOL). But I was SO awed to hear all the girls in the audience cheering for Merida to win- it was the 'if they can do it, so can we, and better' thing. Having been raised when things, like sports, weren't always equal for girls, it makes 'my heart happy' (as Kiddo and Kai-Lan say) to see how far we've come!
And that in itself was HUGE for a Disney movie. That the only help Merida needed to solve the problems at hand was to:
Kiddo was totally enchanted with the movie, and stayed glued to the screen. She loved the scenes between Merida and her mother, and afterwards when we went to the bookstore, she wanted Brave: A Mother's Love, over the regular story book. I know- awwww! In fact, I would call this a super Mother-daughter movie to see together, as it gives you ALOT to talk about. There were quite a few moms in the audience (including me, I freely admit it), who teared up at the end (not to mention quite alot of 'I need to call my mom" comments in our immediate area!). Another sign of a quality Disney movie!
My ONLY gripe was not about the movie itself, but the pre-movie previews. They went on FOREVER. Seriously I think there were at least 15 and 5 commercials for cell phones. Yes, the kids loved seeing the new Ice Age, Despicable Me and Finding Nemo 3-D previews, but 30 minutes of previews? Pretty hard with a cinema full of ansy kids.
Kiddo wants to go back and see the movie again, and can't wait to have it at home on video. I think it might end up out ranking Wall-E and Tangled as her favorite Disney movie! I loved it also, and I know we'll have lots of family time when the video comes out with this one! So we give it a 12 out of a 10- you've got to see this movie!
On a side note- I have to admit the merchandising for the movie seems pretty good so far- a higher quality than normal. Meme bought Kiddo the Tolly Tots Merida doll, in tartan, complete with bow and arrows, and she loves it! It's really cute! Even the t-shirts have really NICE designs. Nobody had Angus the horse in stock locally, and it's on Kiddo's wish list already! So be prepared for Brave merchandise to be on YOUR kid's wish list this season too!
Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received info and video clips, free of charge, from Disney, as part of their Blogger Outreach Program, for review/posting purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or other, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about the movie or merchandise.
Everybody is wondering why the movie did so well, and of course there are the general reasons:
- it's Summer- the kids needed a decent movie to go see, as Summer boredom is creeping in
- Disney has heavily promoted the movie and gotten the kids, especially the girls excited to see it
- you know with a Disney movie, you don't need to 'preview it' for too much adult content, making it a safe bet for most parents
- Merida is the only TRUE tomboy (Tangled's Rapunzel doesn't count) to become one of the Disney princesses. And most importantly, the first one who doesn't NEED a prince to save her/show her the way, and who she doesn't end up with at the end of the movie. She wants to just live her life, HER way, and not depend on the 'happily ever after' that is tradition.
As you can see Merida is like a lot of girls- she wants to be like the boys and have fun, shooting arrows, riding her horse, being free. But Mom wants her to act like a lady, which means containing the wild hair, learning to play music and sew, and to be regal in her bearing. Most of us can understand why she chaffed and in the audience we were with, you could tell that story was resonating with ALOT of the moms!
We loved that they kept the Scottish music and folklore in the movie. Though it was hard to explain the Will O' the Wisps (an actual phenomenon of swamp and bog gas, seeping up through the earth and interacting with the natural resources, to create the blue flames
folklore says leads you to treasure or doom, and to change your fate) very quickly to a 5 yr old. But she understood and found them enchanting. The songs were amazing, and Kiddo is already begging for the soundtrack (I shouldn't be surprised, we played Celtic music to get her to go to sleep when she was a baby), and who knew Emma Thompson had such a great voice?
I was literally blown away by the animation, especially if you watch the horses running (thumbs up for using the larger horses, like the war charges of yore), I swear they looked totally life-like. Literally the BEST Pixar animation yet! Which is also why I have to give a caveat- the scary bear scene as above in the clip, is just that- pretty dark and scary to young kids. Kiddo was in my lap, but once she realized Merida would be alright, she was ok. But for kids under 5, it might be pretty intense.
As Kiddo wants to hunt, as is doing phenomenal with her BB gun, she of course was amazed at the archery sequences and turned to me and asked if I knew how to shoot a bow and arrow. i should have known as soon as I said yes, that her response would be 'ooo, so you can teach me!" (thanks so much Disney, more money on sports gear coming up, as Kiddo wants the real thing, not a toy! LOL). But I was SO awed to hear all the girls in the audience cheering for Merida to win- it was the 'if they can do it, so can we, and better' thing. Having been raised when things, like sports, weren't always equal for girls, it makes 'my heart happy' (as Kiddo and Kai-Lan say) to see how far we've come!
And that in itself was HUGE for a Disney movie. That the only help Merida needed to solve the problems at hand was to:
- believe in herself
- trust her mother
- use what she already had learned,, through her experience and from her family
- have the support of her family
You really can't argue with any of those themes. Especially when you have a daughter and the toy companies bombard them with advertising for pink/frilly/gentler items. Teaching our kids to believe in themselves, stand up for what they believe in and that they can be what ever they want to be is SO important. To actually see a Disney movie expounding on those themes is awesome!
Kiddo was totally enchanted with the movie, and stayed glued to the screen. She loved the scenes between Merida and her mother, and afterwards when we went to the bookstore, she wanted Brave: A Mother's Love, over the regular story book. I know- awwww! In fact, I would call this a super Mother-daughter movie to see together, as it gives you ALOT to talk about. There were quite a few moms in the audience (including me, I freely admit it), who teared up at the end (not to mention quite alot of 'I need to call my mom" comments in our immediate area!). Another sign of a quality Disney movie!
My ONLY gripe was not about the movie itself, but the pre-movie previews. They went on FOREVER. Seriously I think there were at least 15 and 5 commercials for cell phones. Yes, the kids loved seeing the new Ice Age, Despicable Me and Finding Nemo 3-D previews, but 30 minutes of previews? Pretty hard with a cinema full of ansy kids.
Kiddo wants to go back and see the movie again, and can't wait to have it at home on video. I think it might end up out ranking Wall-E and Tangled as her favorite Disney movie! I loved it also, and I know we'll have lots of family time when the video comes out with this one! So we give it a 12 out of a 10- you've got to see this movie!
On a side note- I have to admit the merchandising for the movie seems pretty good so far- a higher quality than normal. Meme bought Kiddo the Tolly Tots Merida doll, in tartan, complete with bow and arrows, and she loves it! It's really cute! Even the t-shirts have really NICE designs. Nobody had Angus the horse in stock locally, and it's on Kiddo's wish list already! So be prepared for Brave merchandise to be on YOUR kid's wish list this season too!
Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received info and video clips, free of charge, from Disney, as part of their Blogger Outreach Program, for review/posting purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or other, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about the movie or merchandise.
Good review Nicole. Had a lot of fun with this one for the first half or so, but then after that, things started to go downhill for me and it lost my focus. Usually, I love the heck out of Pixar films but this one didn’t do much for me, except give me plenty of eye-candy to gaze at.
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