Stuff

[anagramofbrat]

Ash/Raincloud continues to settle in. He is an absolute love-starved cuddlebug and will butt your hands with his head until you pet him. Also see drape himself over whatever part of your anatomy looks the most comfortable. He has also stopped running away from LilBeast for the most part and will let himself be petted by him as well. Guh. Lily doesn't even do that.

I can quite safely say that I like neither pina coladas nor getting caught in the rain. Both arriving and leaving work were underscored by having to be out during raging thunderstorms. Thankfully I had huge golf umbrella but after today and the monsoon wedding adventures on Saturday I'm quite done with being outside in inclement weather.

Kidzilla and I saw Brave after work, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Things of Note:

• Dat Hair. Seriously. Holy shit that must have been bitchcakes and butt cream to animate.
  
  
• Sometimes a little detail in a CG movie will try to sneak past and I'll catch it and I'll just go "Wow," at it - in this case, it was Elinor's face. For the most part, it's cartoon smooth, but there will be a shot of her from a different angle when she smiles or frowns and you'll see that she has crows feet, or forehead wrinkles or even dimples. I noticed that and was totally blown away by it.
  
  
• Angus. Fuck the disney princess line, we need a Disney Badass Horsie line. Angus can hang out and be bros with Khan (Mulan's horse).
  
  
• That final battle. I loved how ultimately it wasn't Merida's father who rose to the challenge of Mor'du, but her mother.
  
  
• I liked how the witch wasn't really an antagonist. More a catalyst than anything else. After all she did give Merida exactly what she asked for, no more, no less, and the only thing she demanded in return was that Merida buy all her goofy carved bear merchandise (And I was SO glad they came back to that purchase after the credits!)
  
  
• The Wisps. I was very strongly reminded of the little Kodomo guys from Princess Mononoke.
  
  
• I love how this story kinda showed the difficulties teenage girls have with their mothers in a warts and all sort of way. There were more than a few moments where I was uncomfortably reminded of my conflicts with my own mother, conflicts I later realized stemmed from us being more alike than either of us would admit.
  
  
• Merida's brothers. Some of the movies biggest giggles for me was them making their own brand of mischief in triplicate.
  
  
• I liked that at its heart, this was a story about family, and how you love them even when they drive you berzerk. Or try to stuff you into a too tight dress. Or turn you into a bear. Even if it's a very feminine, refined, dainty bear. (some of the other big giggles out of me were Elinor's more elegant behaviors made ridiculous in mama bear scale.)
  

Nitpicks and weirdness:

• While in general I loved the look of the movie, I feel like Merida and her brothers were done a disservice by their character designers. From her story and her behavior, you would guess Merida to be 13-16ish, or at least that's the age I would accept a betrothal as a reasonable plot point. The problem? She looks nine or ten, except when her mother is lacing her into her corset. Her proportions are all off. Same with Harris, Hubert, and Hamish - they behave like anywhere between 5 and 9 years old, but they look like toddlers. I think it's because they all have inordinately large heads maybe?
  
  
• there were a LOT of butts in this movie. I suppose that's a Pixar first.
  
  
• The gag involving diving into Maudie's, er, ample bosom for a key was funny, but also really rubbed me the wrong way.

Also? the short ahead of Brave, "La Luna?" Enchanting.

I gotta say, there is nothing that'll make your heart explode harder than coming out of a movie to be greeted by a grinning four year old jumping into your arms for a hug. That kid is going to murder me with cute someday.

Pizza for dinner, kitty cuddles and the sound of giggly kiddos made for a good end of the evening.

Comments

[gwenlianna.livejournal.com]

See I thought the dive scene was hilarious, but am forced to admit that they may have overdone the goofiness of the suitors a bit. I'm still not sure how I feel about that bit.

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

I loved it, too, and I agree with you 100% on Elinor's face. I wish Pixar could make the step away from Kewpie doll in general, but this movie took them as far away as they've gotten.

I loved the wisps and the Witch, too, and I do feel like the animators were consciously borrowing from Miyazaki in the sequences with her. The shop and the way it was drawn, crammed with bear knick knacks and details reminded me of Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away. It didn't feel like plagiarism, just learning from. ;)

[anagramofbrat.livejournal.com]

Considering Jon Lassiter is a HUGE Miyazaki stan, heavy borrowing is plausible.

[nireena.livejournal.com]

there were a couple things that irked me.

1) i thought this was shaping up to be more like mulan. here's she's got archery and sword skills, and barely uses them.

2) in a similar vein- here's she's supposed to be this crack shot with a bow. why didn't she just shoot out mordu's other eye? 'course then the mother wouldn't have been the one to defeat him.

3) this turned out to be almost more about the mother than the girl. not that that's necessarily bad, but it's not what i was expecting.

4) again, what i was expecting was that the girl would wake up to find her mother gone and have to go out in search of her or something. the whole stream scene served a point (daughter wasn't totally wasting her time in the woods all these years and picked up some useful ranger skills, mom needed to learn to lighten up and enjoy life more, plus better hurry up or mom will turn fully bear forever). but that part of the movie dragged a bit.

and yeah i had the same thoughts about the hair and the wisps. and the butts.