Sometimes meeting in the middle isn’t good enough.  There’s merit in compromise, but it can also foster mediocrity.  In order to be brave and bold, you have to step out of a comfort zone and take a chance on something that may not appeal to the masses.  From 2007 – 2009, Pixar excelled at this risk-taking in the field of animated family films.  They proudly made a movie about a rat and artistic expression.  They showed no qualms in spending an entire first act on a post-apocalyptic Earth.  They embraced an elderly hero who used his walker as a weapon.  Making a fairy tale with a female protagonist wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was new ground for the revered animation studio.  However, their new film Brave, retreats into the timidity of a standard princess narrative, limits the view of young girls to merely the issues they have with their mothers, and then teaches a weak lesson about communication.  The movie is filled with lush visuals, a nice sense of humor, and a good heart, but there’s not much bravery in Brave.

A new clip from Pixar’s latest feature Brave has been released.  The story centers on Princess Merida, a young girl who accidentally sets loose an evil curse when she wishes for the freedom to escape her restrictive life.  This clip plays straight to the younger audience for the film, as a brawl breaks out between suitors that are trying to win the hand of Merida.  Slapstick abounds and I sincerely hope this kind of humor doesn’t permeate throughout the entire film.  We’ve come to expect a smarter and more nuanced type of humor from Pixar that skillfully plays to all ages of the audience, and this kind of funny business isn’t exactly striking the right chord with me.  That said, there’s a lot to love in the previous Brave trailers so I’m eager to finally catch the full film.

Hit the jump to watch the clip.  The film features the voices of Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, and Julie Walters. Brave opens in 3D on June 22th.

Oh Brave, I’m so excited to see you.  In the void between Game of Thrones seasons, on the heels of the evocative yet unsatisfying Snow White and the Huntsman—I can’t wait to see what Pixar can do with the epic fantasy.  So I am proud to share images of what looks to be one of the more fantastical elements of the movie, the wisps.  Director Mark Andrews explains the spectral creatures:

“They were said to lead you to treasure or doom—to change your fate—but they’re an actual phenomenon of swamp and bog gas seeping up through the earth and interacting with the natural resources to create the blue flames. People would follow these lights thinking they were little fairies, and basically drown or get sucked down into the bogs.”

Our look at the wisps is just a glimpse (which given their nature may be all we get), but the design is lovely.  We also have a very clear look at the Witch (voiced by Julie Walters) along with detailed character descriptions, all after the jump.  Brave opens on June 22.

Four clips from Disney-Pixar’s latest film, Brave, have gone online.  The story centers on Princess Merida, a young girl who accidentally sets loose an evil curse when she wishes for the freedom to escape her restrictive life.  All the footage released from this film has looked excellent, and I’m eager to be whisked away to the Scottish Highlands by another (hopefully) well-crafted and effective story from Pixar.  Moreover, this marks the studio’s first film with a female protagonist and their first fairy tale, so hopefully we’re in for a treat.

Hit the jump to watch the clips.  Brave features the voices of Kelly Macdonald,  Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, and Julie Walters. Brave opens in 3D on June 22^nd.

The first round of the NFL Draft kicks off tonight, and while fans across the country are busy prognosticating/praying, Disney is capitalizing on the excitement with an NFL Draft-inspired TV spot for the upcoming Pixar flick Brave.  It’s actually a pretty smart product integration, as it’s been obvious from the previous trailers that the Mouse House has been trying hard to lure the male crowd to the female-centered movie.  It’s a bit ridiculous to think that young males won’t go to a movie just because a female is the main character, and we’ve learned from The Hunger Games that strong, independent female protagonists are an enormous draw when done well.

Nevertheless, this spot does have some fun jokes and is packed with NFL-related references.  Also, somewhat surprisingly, there’s a pretty racy gag involving a certain female body part.  I guess we can expect a scandalous PG rating for the latest Pixar pic.  Hit the jump to watch the spot.  The film features the voices of Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, and Julie Walters.  Brave opens in 3D on June 22nd.

The full trailer for Pixar’s Brave has gone online along with a new clip.  The past trailers have tried to blend the comic and dramatic sides of the film, and done so with varying levels of success.  The latest trailer puts up a clear wall between the two, showing off the amusing antics of the protagonist Princess Merida’s family (I love her father’s impression of his daughter) and then making a jarring, abrupt cut to the dramatic, mystical side of the adventure where Merida makes a wish to change her fate of being married off to another clan and losing her freedom.  The first half of the trailer made laugh, and the second half gave me chills (I love the use of Julie Fowlis‘ “Tha Mo Ghaol Air Aird A’ Chuain”), but I’m still looking for the connective tissue that will bring the two tones together.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer along with the clip (which falls on the comic side of Brave‘s schizophrenic advertising).  The film features the voices of Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, and Julie Walters.  Brave opens in 3D on June 22nd.

The first couple of trailers for Pixar’s Brave weren’t terrible, but they left something to be desired. The tone seemed a bit scattershot and the reliance on jokes and action over story and character felt uncharacteristic of a Pixar trailer. It made sense that Disney would be targeting young boys with the first trailers who otherwise might blow off “that fairy tale cartoon with a girl,” and I felt confident that the first peeks weren’t telling the whole story. A few days ago Disney released a full clip that I really enjoyed, and last night during the Oscars they debuted the film’s first TV spot. Both the clip and the TV spot are fantastic, and they hint at the kind of movie I was expecting when I first read the logline for Brave: “a young princess in the Scottish Highlands defies an age-old custom, inadvertently unleashing chaos and fury in the kingdom.” I really, really love the tone and the atmosphere of this TV spot and I can’t wait to see the full film this summer.

Hit the jump to watch the spot. The film features the voices of Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, and Julie Walters. Brave opens in 3D on June 22nd.

A new trailer for Pixar’s Brave has gone online.  Rather than show off a bunch of scenes from the movie or even give an overview of the plot.  The movie follows Merida, young princess (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) in the Scottish Highlands who defies an age-old custom, inadvertently unleashing chaos and fury in the kingdom.  This trailer doesn’t explain any of that and instead ops to show one scene.  The scene has three less-than-desirable men trying to win an archery contest for Merida’s hand in marriage.  Merida, none-too-happy with the situation, eventually has to show everyone what an utter bad-ass she is.  I still want to see more of the film’s scope, but the new trailer does a good job showing the movie’s comic and dramatic sides.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer, and click here to see the poster that was released yesterday. The film also features the voices of Emma Thompson, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, and Julie Walters. Brave opens in 3D on June 22nd.

A new trailer for Pixar’s upcoming film Brave has been released. The pic is the studio’s first fairy tale and revolves around a young princess (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) in the Scottish Highlands who defies an age-old custom, inadvertently unleashing chaos and fury in the kingdom.  The tone of the trailer is a bit scattershot.  On the one hand, there are grand statements about changing your fate and wanting freedom.  On the other hand, there’s a guy in a kilt mooning his fellow Scot.  Tone aside, the visuals look fantastic. Overall, the trailer is alright, but I think Brave still has the potential to be a great movie.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The film also features the voices of Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, and Julie Walters.  Brave opens in 3D on June 22, 2012.

A new synopsis for Pixar’s Brave has gone online.  We already knew the film was set in the mystical Scottish Highlands and revolved around a young princess (voiced my Kelly Macdonald) who defies a sacred custom of the land, inadvertently brings turmoil to the kingdom, and then makes an ill-fated wish in order to set things right.  The new synopsis adds a bit more color to the previous synopsis although it doesn’t add much in the way of new plot details.  However, it’s looking like that for everyone who was unimpressed with Cars 2 (i.e. everyone), Brave will be the terrific experience we’ve come to expect from Pixar.

Hit the jump to check out the synopsis.  Click here, here, and here for our Brave interviews at D23.  The film also stars Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, and Julie Walters.  Brave opens in 3D on June 22, 2012.

It looks like Emma Thompson’s long-in-development biopic Effie is finally gearing up for production. Thompson wrote the original script, which is a biopic of Effie Gray and centers on her doomed marriage to art critic John Ruskin in 1840’s London. Despite her beauty, Ruskin didn’t consummate the marriage and the devastated Gray eventually fell in love with Ruskin’s protégé, painter John Everett Milias. Deadline reports that Dakota Fanning will star in the title role, taking a part that was previously circled by Carey Mulligan and Saorsie Ronan.

Greg Wise (who is Thompson’s husband) will play Ruskin, and it appears that Tom Sturridge (Pirate Radio) will be playing Milias instead of previously mentioned Orlando Bloom. Rounding out the cast is Julie Walters and Derek Jacobi as Ruskin’s parents, Thompson as Lady Eastlake, the woman who takes the suffering Effie under her wing, and Edward Fox is in talks to play Eastlake’s husband. Production is set to begin October 17^th in Scotland, London and Venice. Richard Laxton (An Englishman in New York) is directing.

Splitting J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was a risky proposition from a narrative standpoint.  Financially, it was an unsurprising move, but if you have one movie that’s all slow, methodical character development and the second movie that’s all fast-paced action, then each movie could be monotonous because they’ve lost the other half of their story.  Both parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows managed to avoid that problem.  The first part, while mostly centered on wandering and quiet moments, still managed to work in humor and thrilling set pieces.  By contrast, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is an almost non-stop epic battle that still finds time for the character development and deeply moving moments the series became known for.  It is the grandest of all of the Harry Potter films in scope, in action, and in heartbreak.

One thing I love about the way Pixar markets their original films is that the trailers show very little footage from the actual movie itself. You’re able to go in almost completely fresh, without feeling like you’ve already seen 2/3’s of the movie. The next original film to be released from Pixar will be Brave next summer, and now The Pixar Blog confirms that the first teaser trailer for the film will be attached to Pixar’s Cars 2 when it hits theaters next month.

The studio’s first fairy tale (and their first film with a female protagonist), Brave centers on Princess Merida, a skilled archer who accidentally sets evil upon the Scottish highlands when she is granted an ill-fated wish. The phenomenal voice cast includes Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, and Julie Walters. Judging by the gorgeous concept art that Pixar released in March, we’re in for quite a treat. Brave is slated for a June 22^nd, 2012 release, while Cars 2 hits theaters June 24^th.

Warner Bros. has released a new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.  There’s really only one word to sum up this trailer, however cliched its use might be: epic. It begins with a warped version of the Harry Potter theme that we’ve all come to know and love, generating some fantastic tension for what’s ahead. Fans of the book will not be disappointed and may let out a shriek or two at some of the memorable moments glimpsed in the trailer. I’m loving the operatic feel that Part 2 looks to embody, and can’t wait to see how David Yates and Co. wrap up the most successful franchise in film history this summer.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Ralph Fiennes.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 opens in 3D on July 15th.

I’m already looking past Cars 2 and on to Pixar’s next film Brave.  That’s partially because Cars 2 looks awful and partially because Brave will feature the studio’s first female protagonist.  It was also going to be the studio’s first film with a female director (Brenda Chapman), but there was a bit of controversy last October when Chapman was replaced by Mark Andrews, who previously directed the Pixar short One Man Band.

Behind-the-scenes drama aside, Brave looks like it could be a great film.  The film is set in Scotland and centers on a tomboyish princess who accidentally unleashes evil on her kingdom and must save the day.  The princess was to be voiced by Reese Witherspoon but scheduling conflicts forced her to drop out.  She’ll be replaced by they actually scottish Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire).  Hit the jump for more details on the film plus a first look at the concept art.  Brave is set to hit theaters in 3D on June 22, 2012. [Updated: Disney has provided some high-resolution images of the concept, which you can check out after the jump]