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Download Brave Easily one of the most trusted names in animated filmmaking, Pixar is back with another original story for children and adults, alike. Following behind a pair of franchise sequels (Toy Story 3 and Cars 2), with Brave the studio is set to tackle its very first full-length princess fairy tale story – a staple of Disney’s hand-drawn animated classics. This round, Pixar alum and John Carter co-writer Mark Andrews is stepping into the director’s chair, after the film’s creator, Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt), left the project following a series of creative differences.

After the mixed response to Cars 2, which received Pixar’s harshest critical lashing to date, has the film studio managed to produce an animated experience that successfully balances a new story, enjoyable characters and groundbreaking visuals for movie lovers of all ages – not just the juice box crowd? Following in the footsteps of films like Up and Wall-E, not to mention franchise threequel Toy Story 3, does Brave once again raise the bar for animated films?


Fortunately, Brave is a return to form for the studio and delivers plenty of fun for moviegoers from all walks of life. However, for anyone who was especially moved by the studio’s more “mature” films – namely the aforementioned Up and Wall-E - Brave could come across as somewhat less ambitious (and subsequently a little underwhelming) – as the core storyline relies on a lot of familiar fairy tale tropes. This isn’t to say that the film fails to deliver a competent narrative or charming characters – but, for some, the studio may not have provided as many memorable or thought-provoking story beats this round. But even though Brave may not soar quite as high as some of Pixar’s most celebrated efforts, the movie still offers plenty to enjoy – not to mention, a solid mix of traditional princess power coupled with the studio’s trademark charm and humor.

Since a long-long time Scotland has been experienced heroic wars and battles, it witnessed the birth of battles heroes and legends who glorified the history of the Highlands of Scotland. Children of the place know it all as the tales had taken the form of bed stories and generation over generations had become hearers of them. The land is jagged but strong and is mysterious in nature. Watch Brave online to see Merida, a young girl becoming the part of heroic anecdotes and traditional stories when she puts up a fight to ferocious of all monsters and beasts. Merida is a daughter of King Fergus and his wife Queen Elinor. She is unlike any other girl born in the mystical Highlands of Scotland. Her interests are not that of a usual princess but that of warrior prince. She is courageous, valiant, brave, and strong. She is a proficient archer and fervid and ardent at her acts. Impassioned to do something different and of bravery she defies all the traditions and conventions that a princess or any other girl of the kingdom must follow.


Download Brave to witness the brave soul facing up her destiny and going against the set code of laws of the land. When she Merida decides to take her own rout to live life the way she wants she unknowingly stands against the divine laws laid by the boisterous lords of the place. They three lords who have become the idol of worship are Lord MacGuffin, Lord Macintosh and Lord Dingwall who all are crotchety and tough. Merida’s impulsive acts and stubborn attitude unknowingly makes these gods furious and they unleash their fury on the kingdom. To seek help she meets a old woman who is suppose to be wise and she is endowed with an ill fated grant which help her learn the significance of being brave to finally extricate the monstrous curse before the time lapses.

That said, even with a number of predictable story beats and a lot of one-note male characters, Brave provides plenty of eye candy for animated film fans. The hair effects alone are incredible – not to mention the gorgeous rolling hills of the Scottish countryside. Additionally, the movie offers a solid story that, in spite of a heavy reliance on familiar archetypes, manages to put a unique stamp on the fairytale genre. Merida isn’t exceptionally different from prior Disney Princesses (who yearn to be free of their responsibilities and live a “normal” life) but the similarities won’t prevent audiences from identifying with the character or her personal journey.

Like most animated films, Brave is screening in 3D and, like most animated films, the movie looks sharp in the premium format – rarely relying on “jump out of the screen” gags. Consequently, either version of the film is recommendable – since the 3D effect is neither distracting nor essential to enjoying the onscreen action.

While it doesn’t break a lot of new ground, Brave Download is a beautiful and competent entry in Disney’s robust fairytale film pedigree – one that is sure to dazzle younger viewers. Princess Merida will, without question, have no trouble competing alongside iconic Mouse House heroines like Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and Ariel, as one of Disney’s best animated leading ladies. Nonetheless, even though Brave is solid from beginning to end, the experience might be a little underwhelming for older viewers who expect Pixar to continue pushing the boundaries of animated film storytelling with another “mature” offering. Ultimately, it’s an easy film to recommend, but some ardent cinephiles might want to temper their lofty expectations.

The "Madagascar" franchise, with its skeletal, if somewhat clever plot mechanics (animals from the Central Park zoo are mistakenly shipped to exotic lands – first Madagascar, then Africa proper – all the while longing for their urban environments), and characters almost exclusively defined by outdated ethnic stereotypes (mostly tired New Yorkers-as-neurotic-Jews-or-loud-African-Americans stuff), is arguably the least ambitious or satisfying of DreamWorks Animation’s admittedly low-wattage carousel of animated tent poles (which now include “Shrek” and its off-shoots, “How to Train Your Dragon,” and “Kung Fu Panda&rdquo. And while “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” isn’t some kind of triumph, it is a surprisingly satisfying romp, especially when it keeps its manic pacing up. 

“Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” begins with a kind of “Previously on ‘Madagascar’…” update, which you’d be tempted to call lazy but with a series of movies as instantly forgettable as these, you’ll probably welcome the recap (especially since matters have been further complicated by the admittedly exemplary “Penguins of Madagascar” cartoon series on Nickelodeon). In short: our animal protagonists (Ben Stiller as Alex the lion, Chris Rock as Marty the zebra, David Schwimmer as Melman the giraffe and Jada Pinkett-Smith as Gloria the hippo) have been stranded in Africa (where the last film, “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” took place) after their penguin cohorts have flown off to Monte Carlo in a monkey-powered plane (don’t ask). The animals, longing for the creature comforts of Manhattan (after the other animals make a mud reproduction of the city, Alex goggles at the attention to detail: “Nine Duane Reades on the same street!&rdquo, decide to go intercept the penguins and use the plane to return to New York, once and for all!

But, of course, the subtitle is ‘Europe’s Most Wanted,’ and after an “Ocean’s Twelve”-y interlude in a Monte Carlo casino, their plane crashes and the animals are, once again, marooned on foreign soil. Further complicating matters is the fact that they’re being doggedly pursued by Captain Chantel DuBois, a kind of officious Cruella DeVil-type animal control officer voiced with relish (and a zippy French accent) by Frances McDormand. Seeking a way to travel through the country incognito (and eventually get back to New York), they team up with a group of traveling circus animals (Bryan Cranston is a Russian tiger named Vitaly, Martin Short is an Italian seal named Stefano and Jessica Chastain is some kind of cat from some country named Gia). And that’s pretty much as far as it goes concerning the movie’s actual &ldquolot.”

The first act or so of “Madagascar 3” can be defined by what the penguins would describe as “zesty exuberance” – it kind of pinballs from one joke to the next, with a smattering of smart visual gags sprinkled in for good measure. These might not make much sense (how the hell did they get to Monte Carlo in the first place? It took a plane for the penguins to get there but they just kind of show up), but there is a kind of spring-loaded rapid-fire quality to their delivery that is pretty damn enjoyable. There are also some agreeably strange divergences, like the love affair between a delusional ring-tailed lemur voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen falling in love with a giant oafish circus bear that rides a tiny bicycle.

While the series has never been known for being visually dazzling (the character designs, for the most part, remain a painfully under-stylized eyesore), there are moments of oomph in the first section of the movie, too, particularly when they’re careening around Rome (they set up their circus tent inside the coliseum). You can tell the animators visited the actual location and took really, really detailed notes. (Even though, as is in the case with every DreamWorks animated movie released in 3D, there are too many moments where shots are held for seconds too long just to show off the boring dimensionality.) The voice cast seems enlivened by the change of venue too, with Stiller in particular getting off zingers with aplomb and the rest of the cast, both new and old alike, chugging along amiably.

As the movie wears on, however, the charm fades. The picture suffers from unsightly pacing issues, sometimes rocketing along and other times pausing for inordinate amounts of time, mostly for moments of character development that require a stop-in-its-tracks halt (as is the case with Vitaly’s backstory, which involves his circus trick – squeezing through incredibly small rings). You can tell, too, that the story was conceived with Jeffrey Katzenberg, sitting in his office (paneled, it’s imagined, in solid gold) and throwing pencils into the ceiling, saying, “Let’s have the next one be set in Europe! And we’ll put in something about a circus! It’ll be like a Fellini movie! Kids love Fellini!” Except, you know, they don’t.

And the looseness of the concept, becoming, structurally at least, a series of increasingly uninteresting vignettes, eventually threatens to dismantle the whole movie, particularly when the movie  *uh, spoiler, we guess?* returns our animals to their New York home. This should be a moment of catharsis and understand, imbibed with genuine, painful emotion. Instead, the emotional stuff is quickly, poorly dispensed with, so that the filmmakers (co-directors Eric Barnell, Tom McGrath, and Conrad Vernon) can loudly indulge in a nonsensical circus performance set to Katy Perry’s “Firework” (just like “Rust & Bone!&rdquo which, lit up with rings of glowing neon, is designed like Cirque du Soleil by way of “TRON Legacy.” By this point the influence of co-screenwriter Noah Baumbach, who at least once during the film’s production was the sole credited writer, has all but dissipated, the movie seeming more like a traveling circus than a locked-down production (Cranston and Chastain, for instance, were only hired in January; usually animated movies begin with the voice tracks and take years of on-again/off-again recording to complete). You get the sense he was largely responsible for the tiger’s failed-glory backstory, and for some of the more barbed jokes about New York, but you’d think he would have given some emotion to go along with the zings.