Brave

Directed by Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell

(PG-13)

***

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If this weren’t a film from Pixar, “people would be hailing it as the end to the princess movie as we know it,” said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. True, this family-friendly hit about a headstrong Scottish princess doesn’t rank as “a masterpiece on the order of Ratatouille or Finding Nemo,” but it’s “gorgeously animated” and turns a rote opening into “an unusually astute exploration of the complex bond between mothers and daughters.” It’s also “never less than weird,” said Ty Burr in The Boston Globe. After predictably rejecting her parents’ idea of a sensible marriage, redheaded Merida accidentally turns her mother into a bear with a spell that the pair will have just two days to reverse. “Brave ends up in a richly emotional place almost in spite of itself,” but the story is so ill-shaped and overstuffed that it “feels held together by baling wire.” At least it’s a princess story that’s about something other than finding a man or vanquishing evil, said Rene Rodriguez in The Miami Herald. “The fact that Brave also happens to be a thrilling, funny adventure almost feels like a bonus.”