Movie review: Pixar’s ‘Brave’ a break with tradition?

By Ashley Bergner, Box Office Buzz

Merida, the star of Pixar’s new animated movie “Brave,” isn’t exactly your typical Disney princess. Instead of spending her days in a castle pining for “prince charming,” the Scottish princess (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) loves to be outdoors, riding her horse through open fields, climbing up the side of steep cliffs and practicing archery. She’s strong-willed and fiercely independent — traits that often put her at odds with her mother, Queen Elinor, who’d rather she be a more traditional, demure lady.

The conflict between the mother and daughter comes to a head when Queen Elinor announces the clans of the kingdom will be gathering, and the chiefs’ sons will be competing for Merida’s hand in marriage. Merida hates the idea of a forced betrothal and tries to purchase a spell from a witch that will “change her fate.” However, the spell doesn’t work out quite like she planned, and instead it brings a curse down on her family. The princess must work to heal bonds that have been broken and find a way to save her family’s kingdom before the curse becomes permanent.

Pixar to do dinosaurs, the brain in two newly announced movies

By Adam Swiderski, Source: Blastr.com

Everyone’s favorite animation studio may have a full slate ahead with the fantasy film Brave and Monsters University (sequel to Monsters, Inc.) on the way, but that doesn’t mean they’re resting on their laurels. Instead, they used the D23 Expo to reveal the existence of two new projects that sound like nothing the studio has attempted before.

Both are as-yet untitled, but the descriptions are enough to get our animation-loving hearts racing. The first is from Bob Peterson, who wrote and co-directed Up, and features a world in which the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs never happened, meaning the creatures coexist with humans. The second, to be directed by Pete Docter, is being called “an inventive new film that explores a world that everyone knows but no one has seen: inside the human mind.”

Pixar’s ‘Brave’: First Look art — EW.com EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS

Image Credit: Disney-Pixar and EW.com

Entertainment Weekly has an exlusive look at Pixar’s 13th feature-length movie Brave (out June 22, 2012) which ventures into new territory for the animation studio: The Scotland-set adventure film will be Pixar’s first fairy tale, its first picture starring a female protagonist, and its first film co-directed by a woman. EW.com has the first look at some of the concept art for the project, and we can also confirm that Reese Witherspoon will no longer voice the movie’s heroine, a tomboyish princess named Merida, due to scheduling issues. Instead, the character will be played by the (appropriately) Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald (No Country for Old Men, Boardwalk Empire).