Brave: Does Anyone Actually Remember This?

[Frustration]

It was good despite all the studio meddling... but the effects of that meddling were clear. Pixar's earlier work had many more unique, individual touches, and they clearly weren't sending everything they made to focus groups to knock off all the corners and produce a smooth and neutered product that no one could find an objection to. (Consider all of the Ayn Rand references in The Incredibles, for example.)

Once Disney bought them out instead of working with them, the executives starting being more demanding and more restrictive, and the movies took fewer chances with the art and the message.

[hammerofglass]

Honestly I think the main problem with it is that the whole "mum turning into a bear" plot was pointless and took away from the rest of the movie. It contributes nothing to main theme or character development and they could have cut it entirely and lost absolutely nothing, yet it takes up a ton of the runtime. It makes the whole movie feel like a filler episode.

[Frustration]

I can't say that. It forced the mother to be in situations where her daughter's competence was obvious, and forced the daughter to fill-in for her mother and see how much skill it actually took to manage those situations. Both developed a greater appreciation for the other as a consequence.

[CharlesPhipps]

Ah, yes, the Horizon: Zero Dawn prequel without the cyborgs.

[Deledrius]

Honestly I think the main problem with it is that the whole "mum turning into a bear" plot was pointless and took away from the rest of the movie. It contributes nothing to main theme or character development and they could have cut it entirely and lost absolutely nothing, yet it takes up a ton of the runtime. It makes the whole movie feel like a filler episode.

I disagree; thematically it plays a role. The trouble is the execution makes it feel like there are two separate movies going on. You may not be wrong that they would have been better off excising it and doing something else instead, but the bones of a coherent story are there. It's been too long since my last watch of it to remember the details, but I recall thinking the movie was going to give me something different than it does, and that the mother bear element felt like a diversion from that initial promise. It does come around to be connected, but I'm pretty sure I experienced a similar feeling as you did. It's possible this dissonance has limited its success.

[Nealithi]

Honestly I think the main problem with it is that the whole "mum turning into a bear" plot was pointless and took away from the rest of the movie. It contributes nothing to main theme or character development and they could have cut it entirely and lost absolutely nothing, yet it takes up a ton of the runtime. It makes the whole movie feel like a filler episode.

I thought the mom turning into a bear was important because the family would lose her to the curse?
The whole repair the tapestry thing was a red herring in that it was not the tapestry that needed mending. But the bond of family?

[hammerofglass]

Honestly I think the main problem with it is that the whole "mum turning into a bear" plot was pointless and took away from the rest of the movie. It contributes nothing to main theme or character development and they could have cut it entirely and lost absolutely nothing, yet it takes up a ton of the runtime. It makes the whole movie feel like a filler episode.

I thought the mom turning into a bear was important because the family would lose her to the curse?
The whole repair the tapestry thing was a red herring in that it was not the tapestry that needed mending. But the bond of family?

The problem for me is that the film unambiguously frames Elinor as in the wrong and Merida as totally right (but handling it badly) in the original dispute. Hell, Fergus actually spells it out early on but is too generally useless to actually help them resolve it. Elinor was the only one who had really changed by the end of the movie and she did it long before the Official "mend the bonds" thing happened.

I'm pretty sure what you're saying is what they were going for, but at least to me the family drama was already resolved and it was reduced to a symbolic gesture to fulfill the technical requirements of a curse that was only applied because a teenager worded a wish poorly to a literal-minded fae.

[Deledrius]

a curse that was only applied because a teenager worded a wish poorly to a literal-minded fae.

Who among us hasn't had this happen, though?