Originally Posted By mawnck >>Fox News ... It's a fair and positive review of "Brave".<< It's a **fair and balanced** review of Brave! Sorry, couldn't resist. I'll banish myself back to WE now. And I'm seeing it Saturday, with a mixture of hope and trepidation.
Originally Posted By Evening Star <In my mind that sums up most Princess movies.> I meant that in the current vein of the bumbling, peppy, slightly neurotic teen girl that's become fashionable lately. The Hannah Montana-esque character the audience is supposed to love on form rather than substance.
Originally Posted By mawnck But but but .... she has RED HAIR! That they worked for 600 years perfecting! Because NOBODY HAS EVER DONE A PRINCESS MOVIE WITH COMPLICATED HAIR BEFORE! Ow, I think I just sprained my sarcastor.
Originally Posted By Evening Star That was in regards to Rapunzel. Merida is unknown to me as yet other than a slightly less fluffy personality version of Ariel.
Originally Posted By mawnck Ouch! >>Pixar Isn’t Even Trying. Brave, Reviewed.<< >>I am hesitant to give away the movie's big plot twist halfway through, but suffice it to say, when it happens, it's a needle-off-the-record moment that sends the movie careening off in an entirely different, much dumber direction. ... The movie's second half is a weirdly aimless slog, as if it forget all the threads it set up in the first half. If I didn't know it was animated, I'd have thought they had to bring all the cast together for some last-minute emergency reshoots. ... I'm not sure what the problem is—maybe they just thought having a female lead was enough?—but to see a Pixar movie this sloppy, conventional, and slipshod is downright flabbergasting.<< <a href="http://gawker.com/5919593/pixar-isnt-even-trying-brave-reviewed" target="_blank">http://gawker.com/5919593/pixa...reviewed</a>
Originally Posted By FerretAfros It's interesting that both Brave and Cars 2 have gotten pretty bad reviews, and they were the first (I believe) to be produced entirely after the official Disney merge. Perhaps it's just a conincidence, but it seems like and awfuly big one to me...
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Saw the preview for "Monsters University" snore... All things considered, I'd rather see more 'Wall-E' 'UP' and 'Ratatouille'
Originally Posted By oodelally or maybe that brad bird, andrew stanton, and others of the brain trust, were working on outside projects.
Originally Posted By oodelally oh and john lassetter has 3 times the amount on his plate and just like walt with Disneyland, can no longer give all the attention to his animated movies
Originally Posted By irishfan My two favourite reviewers here in Australia gave it 2 stars out of 5, my expectations have decreased dramatically.
Originally Posted By u k fan It's interesting that a lot of reviews say it's a movie of two halves given it's loss of director half way through production. I'd be interested to know how much that has affected the movie that we see before us now!!!
Originally Posted By mawnck >>john lassetter has 3 times the amount on his plate and just like walt with Disneyland, can no longer give all the attention to his animated movies<< Ooh, interesting point! Although I'm not so sure Lasseter isn't the problem here. Busy or not, his name is on the line that says "Director" in Cars 2. No one but the PR department was claiming that Walt had a key creative role in the mediocre movies toward the end of his life. It'll be interesting to see just how resilient the Pixar brand really is, if they've burped out two turkeys in a row. I see the reviewers still talking about "Pixar quality" when reviewing Dreamworks movies, but Pixar quality doesn't seem to be what it used to was. If it turns out that Madagascar 3 is better than Brave (and it *is* pretty dang good), then the zombie apocalypse must be coming any second now. >>It's interesting that a lot of reviews say it's a movie of two halves given it's loss of director half way through production.<< Yeah, but remember that movies aren't directed in a linear fashion, especially animated ones. When a movie jumps the shark halfway through, and it had two directors, it's natural to assume that one director messed up the bad half. But third acts that don't live up to their lead-ins has become a bit of a Pixar trademark. Up and Wall-E both spring to mind. And what little I know of The Bear and the Bow (I'd better be careful - this is turning into a limerick) doesn't jibe much with what I've been reading about Brave. If the first half of Bolt had been noticeably better than the second half, you certainly couldn't have credited Chris Sanders for it. No matter how badly you wanted to.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>But third acts that don't live up to their lead-ins has become a bit of a Pixar trademark. Up and Wall-E both spring to mind.<< Yep! The first 2/3's of both films were so strong. Toy Story 3 however broke that trend -- not a dry eye in the house and I can't imagine a more satisfying conclusion to that trilogy.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I would say the reviews for Brave have been more mixed than bad. Cars2 - now that was nearly universally panned, or at least "I expected a lot better from Pixar." Brave is at 78% right now on Rotten Tomatoes (I don't like their pass/fail system, but it does indicate a 3-1 ratio of basically "good" vs. basically "bad.") A couple of the reviewers like it quite a lot. Here's a very-good-not-perfect review I read in the Voice on the subway yesterday, in online form: <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-06-20/film/brave-pixar-Kelly-Macdonald/" target="_blank">http://www.villagevoice.com/20...cdonald/</a> Roger Ebert sort of captures the overall "take" I'm reading, which is "The good news is that the kids will probably love it, and the bad news is that parents will be disappointed if they're hoping for another Pixar groundbreaker. Unlike such brightly original films as "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo," "WALL-E" and "Up," this one finds Pixar poaching on traditional territory of Disney, its corporate partner." My hope is that after the critical (and to a degree Box Office) hit Pixar took on Cars2, and the "better, but a little too corporate Disney and not groundbreaking Pixar" consensus that seems to be forming on this one, that Lassetter feels the need to reclaim some of the innovative spirit. We'll see. In the meantime, I'm leaning towards seeing this one on the big screen - Cars2 was the first Pixar I waited to see on video. Even the negative reviews mention that Brave LOOKS great, and much of that will be lost on the small screen. And the overall quality seems to be "good if not great," so I think I'll see it. I think I'll go 2d, though - general consensus is there isn't much that 3D enhances, and the color palette is (intentionally) dark to begin with.
Originally Posted By idleHands If you are fortunate to live near one of the 14 theaters showing Brave in Atmos, definitely go. Everything I've read so far about this new Dolby sound system seems amazing: <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dolby-atmos-brave-premiere-pixar-laff-339193" target="_blank">http://www.hollywoodreporter.c...f-339193</a>
Originally Posted By magic0214 I saw a preview screening and I really enjoyed it. No, it is not up to Pixar standards of bringing in situations new to animation (little dialogue in Wall-E, Miscarriages and Death in Up, etc.), but it is still a good movie. I really enjoyed the music in this film. Now in my Top 3 Pixar scores. I LOVED La Luna, one of Pixar's best shorts IMHO. Also, I loved the Monsters University trailer as well. I remember seeing that when I was 5 (!) in theaters, so this will be great to relive again. Seems like its getting the "This movie was my childhood! So excited for a sequel!" buzz that TS3 got.
Originally Posted By irishfan I loved La Luna, and enjoyed Brave, but no where near Pixars best. I found the change of story half way through quite jarring to be honest.
Originally Posted By u k fan mawnck, I know that movies aren't created in a linear fashion, it's just that as above I'm hearing that movie is really split in two and I'm wondering what the behind the scenes implications are/were. Was the movie heading to be terrible so they swapped director and fixed as much as possible? Who knows. It feels to me like someone's faith in this movie ran out and the result is a disjointed film. I don't blame either director as I don't know enough about the situation, it just seems like there's a correlation between 2 directors and a "change of story half way". I agree that Pixar movies drop the ball in the final third - that was one of my main criticisms of Ratatouille!!!
Originally Posted By EmmaJayne Just saw it and came away feeling a bit 'blah'. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't fantastic. Before we went in, my other half mentioned he'd read s review which claimed Brave felt more Disney than it did Pixar.. Well to me, it felt like someone trying to be Disney but falling short. It was incredibly lackluster in my mind. When the movie took it's dramatic dive for the worst my fiancé actually leaned over and said 'oh this is the talking dogs' which is what we always say when a good ( or at least bearable) film suddenly goes stupid ( clearly this all started from UP). There were parts with pretty poor animation, I know they were trying for a foggy/ smokey effect but it failed and looked like scenes from a video game and a cheap one at that. In the end he said he quite enjoyed it whereas I dont really know how I felt. I wa bored enough to check my phone three times but not so bored I checked Facebook.. I guess I'd lump it in with a Bugs Life, Ratatouille and The Incredibles in my 'Pixar movies I watched once and didn't really care about' category, which sits above 'that gawdawful Cars franchise' but below 'Nemo: an improvement on some but still didn't make me cry' .. I saw it but wouldn't go back a second time nor bother with the Blu Ray ( though the fiancé will buy it just so there's no gaps in the collection)..
