Brave (2012)
★★★ — Brave (2012)
Pixar's Brave arrived in 2012 with a fair amount of anticipation behind it, not least because it marked the studio's first film with a female protagonist at its centre. The project had a complicated road to the screen: Brenda Chapman, who originated the story and drew on her own relationship with her daughter as its emotional engine, was replaced mid-production by Mark Andrews, making her the first woman to direct a Pixar feature and, somewhat awkwardly, the first to be removed from one. Chapman retained a directing credit, and the personal impulse behind the story, a mother and daughter who cannot quite hear one another, remained intact. The film was produced entirely at Pixar's studios and released through Walt Disney Pictures, running at a brisk 93 minutes. For a sense of how animation can take very different routes through family and personal themes, it's worth having a look at my reviews of Josep and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, both of which sit in interesting contrast to what Pixar was doing here.
The setting is the Scottish Highlands, rendered with considerable care and an obvious affection for the landscape, the clan culture, and the general windswept business of medieval Celtic life. The story centres on Merida, a princess who would rather be loosing arrows into the forest than sitting through lessons in courtly deportment, and the magical catastrophe she accidentally sets in motion when she tries to change her mother's mind by more unconventional means. The three rival clan lords and their sons provide much of the broader comedy, giving the film a boisterous, almost theatrical quality alongside its quieter emotional throughline. On the voice cast front, Kelly Macdonald leads as Merida, bringing a recognisably Scottish warmth to the role. Emma Thompson plays Queen Elinor with the kind of controlled, dignified presence she does rather well, Billy Connolly is reliably exuberant as King Fergus, and Julie Walters and Robbie Coltrane round out a supporting ensemble that is, on paper at least, a pleasingly Scottish-leaning affair. If animated family films are something you follow on this blog, my reviews of Trolls and No Dogs or Italians Allowed cover some very different territory in the same broad space.
Brave sits in an interesting position in Pixar's catalogue, polished but unremarkable by the studio's own high standards, and the question of whether it earns its place among their more celebrated work is something reasonable people disagree on. Here is what I made of it.
Brave (2012) is a visually sumptuous Disney/Pixar film that swaps fairy-tale romance for something rarer: a story centered on a mother-daughter relationship, set against the windswept highlands of medieval Scotland. For those with Scottish roots (or just a love of tartan, bagpipes, and rugged landscapes) the film’s atmosphere is instantly immersive. The animation is lush: misty glens, crumbling castles, and Merida’s famously unruly curls are rendered with stunning detail, making the setting feel like a character in its own right. The story follows headstrong Princess Merida as she defies tradition, accidentally curses her mother, and must mend “what’s been torn apart” before it’s too late. It’s a familiar arc (rebellion, consequence, reconciliation) but grounded in familial love rather than courtship, which feels refreshingly different for a Disney princess tale. Kelly Macdonald brings warmth and grit to Merida, and the emotional core between her and Queen Elinor lands with sincerity, even if the plot mechanics sometimes feel rushed. That said, Brave never quite reaches the narrative or emotional heights of Pixar’s best work. The middle sags with repetitive chase sequences, the magical elements lean toward convenient rather than coherent, and the supporting clans (meant to add comic relief) often veer into caricature. It’s beautiful and well-intentioned, but lacks the tight storytelling or thematic depth of Up, Inside Out, or Coco. Brave is a decent, heartfelt film, more admirable than astonishing. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s proudly its own thing: a Celtic-flavoured fable about listening, understanding, and the messy, fierce love between mothers and daughters.
I keep coming back to that central relationship, because it really is the thing that holds the film together when the plot starts to creak. The mother-daughter dynamic is handled with more honesty than you typically get from this kind of story, and that counts for something. There are films that aim for spectacle and miss the humanity entirely, and Brave at least never makes that mistake. It just sometimes loses the thread of its own story while chasing bears around a castle. For all its rough edges, it's a film I find myself defending more readily than I expected to, if only because its heart is genuinely in the right place. Which, as any Scot will tell you, is usually enough to be getting on with.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2012 | Watched: 2026-04-22
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Brave (2012) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Brenda Chapman: The Prince of Egypt (1998)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
More family: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Wonder (2017) · Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anastasia (1997)
