Finally, a Pixar-Disney cartoon that doesn't end with kissing a prince:
Breaking a myth and composing a new one, the movie appeals to this feminist consciousness.
The Brave
With an Artemisian streak, the princess is a master archer. Her mother the queen wants to marry her off, to withhold tradition. The father/King is there, supportive of his daughter like Zeus was to Artemis, but playing a subsidiary role, often as the side-kick.
The princess rebels against her mother. The queen goes into panic attack mode (that feeling mothers know so well when they sense losing control over their children.) Angry and in retaliation, the queen burns her daughter's bow(I will deprive you of the thing you love the most). The girl is crushed, and slashes the cord between her and her mother (estrangement: die). The princess runs off and finds a witch; she trades her necklace for a spell "to change my mother - and change my fate." The mother eats the bate and turns into a bear, and so begins the adventure. The mother-daughter journey conjures up an old myth, and the queen decides to break the tradition and to let the tribes' youth choose their fate, to marry based on love. Then there's a bear fight- the good bear (the queen) wins, the spell is broken, and it ends with all the tribes happy, and with mother and daughter riding their horses smiling.
There are more layers to the plot, equally interesting, but I'll leave those for someone else - some other time. But in short: There's no twist - the princess does not find the prince, he does not find her (for all we know, he might never exist) - it's not that kind of story. How refreshing!
The Brave is a story about transforming and healing the mother daughter relationship, it is about individuation and interconnectedness, it is a story of initiation, a rite of passage from one world view to the next. The journey represents different aspects of the feminine in her development: as the maiden moving into maturity, 'marrying herself' and choosing her path, and of the queen connecting with her wild side and moving into her crone years of power. The mythology was nicely utilized. On could write more about this ... I guess I could too.
It made me think of Pippi Longstocking.
For the coming generations, we need more stories like this one.
Every little girl should see this film! with her mother. Yes ladies, you need to find your wild side. The movie promises to be entertaining, with its moments of underhanded adult entertainment and amazing graphics- just check out the hair on that little princess ... as a regular person with hair like that, I tell you, it's perfect: those fresh curls on some parts of the head, springy ones here and there, some nappy and some like fluffy cotton dispersed all over... wow- chapeaux.
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