I’ve talked quite a bit about Pixar on my blog recently. So, I thought, what the heck. Why not talk about the latest thing from Pixar that’s caught my attention.
Teaser Poster for Disney & Pixar's "Brave"
And that, of course, would be the forthcoming (June of 2012, so forthcoming in a year) “Brave“.
Where “Cars 2” has caused to arise in me a ginormous “meh” of indifference and disinterest, “Brave” does the exact opposite.
“Brave’, if you hadn’t yet heard, is a fantasy story set in the Scottish Highlands. It stars Pixar’s first female protagonist, a highlander princess who yearns to be an archer.
And then, quite naturally, things apparently go wrong from there.
I won’t share what I’ve read of the plot. (You can catch that on the Wikipedia link above.) I suspect it’s a bit premature to talk about what’s going to happen in a movie that’s to be released a year from now.
But what excites me about this movie is manifold: first, the visuals, if that picture is to be believed, are going to be gorgeous. I love gorgeous visuals. Second, of course, is that the movie is quite clearly a fantasy (or fairy tale, in Disney parlance). Third, and this one is speculative in nature, but I suspect quite strongly that “Brave” will return Pixar to its tradition of providing the total pacakge of quality story-telling, interesting characters, and thought-provoking themes.
What about you? Is there anything you’re looking forward to, right now?
The Undiscovered Author 
Oh I can’t wait for this! It does look gorgeous, and also straight up the fantasy vein I prefer (not a contemporary setting). Other than that, season two of game of thrones, which is odd because I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I thought I would when I read it years ago. 😉 Both long waits.
No HBO, here, so no Game of Thrones even if I wanted to. Then again, what I saw in the preview (online) was a little over-the-top in the violence department… and I’m just not sure we’d be cool with that kind of thing down in the Casa Chez Watkins.
Yeah it’s brutal. Blood, grit, and sex and all… However, Martin’s characters are all very complex. It’s what keeps me thinking/chewing after.
See, that wasn’t my reaction. I don’t really see his characters as complex, generally. They’re pretty one- or two-dimensional, in my personal opinion, except for the Starks. Almost universally predictably nasty, petty, and at times sadistic. The Starks and their ilk are more nuanced, but still usually have a mean, cold, or cruel side. That’s part of why I find it so difficult to work through the books. The writing is great and the story interesting, but it’s very dark world, with the bad, the badder, and the ugly. There’s no real good, and so nothing for me to latch onto… (I mean, I don’t necessarily want sterling, infallibly good characters. But I need some light to be shining, something bright and good to look toward.) It might be more engaging if the bad guys were naunced, too, and had a good side. But for the most part… they don’t. All that said, what I find encouraging about the HBO show is that, by all accounts, this is very well-done, production-wise. Which gives me hope for more well-done cinematic fantasy in the future. So I definitely wish it good luck going forward.
@Theresa: Sounding a bit like Rome…lol.
*sighs* I haven’t gotten around to the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I tend to not to read too many of the super big hits ’cause people always talk about them; then I get sick of hearing of ’em and I no longer care, haha. (Silly, huh?)
It’s great to see (or rather hear about) fantasy stories going big like this, though. If I had HBO I’d give it a shot. As for the books…meh.
Hehe I want to watch Rome too, actually Tiyana!
Actually, I agree Stephen. That was why I never finished the series. I never found any characters (while reading) that I wanted to root for (my usual gritty fantasy complaint) and the ones I like did ended up dying. So, it’s strange to me that the TV series actually made me like several characters, and I wonder if I would have the same impression if I went back and re-read the novel.
Interesting… so your impression of the characters is somehow… better… in the television version?
Yes. Though, that may be due to the actors who, for the most part, do an excellent job.
Indeed – of those I am familiar with, Sean Bean, aka Boromir, was an excellent choice to play Ned Stark.
Oh wow! Haven’t heard of this one yet. Sounds interesting. 🙂
Hm…I’m looking forward to a few movies, though none are from Pixar, heh. There’s one called War Horse. I’ll give you the IMDb summary ’cause I’m too lazy, lol:
Follows a young man named Albert and his horse, Joey, and how their bond is broken when Joey is sold to the cavalry and sent to the trenches of World War One. Despite being too young to enlist, Albert heads to France to save his friend.
I’m excited about this one because so many modern war movies seem to be set during WWII. It’s nice to see something being made about WWI.
Hmm. That does seem interesting.
Just watched the trailer for War Horse on imdb. Wow! Looks good. I just might end up watching it! 😀
I hadn’t heard of this one yet either, but it does sound interesting. Something to look forward to. 🙂 I’m also looking forward to a new show, I think it’s called Grimm, that’s coming out this fall. It’s Grimm’s Fairy Tales in a modern setting.
Interesting; do you know what channel Grimm is supposed to be on?
Not exactly been all-on-board with Pixar lately…Even though I didn’t watch it, the concept behind Cars looked like a total flop. I dunno. It looks like it might be a cool movie, but I doubt Brave will raise my faith in Pixar. But that’s just me. I’m sort of a mediaphobe 😀 lol
I agree that Cars was not a terribly great movie, IMO, but it was so out of synch with the rest of the Pixar movies that I can’t hold it against them. I don’t feel like it fairly or accurately relfects the direction of the studio – and WALL-E, Up, and Toy Story 3, all of which came after Cars, proved that to me. Those were all really good and highly enjoyable movies, with that characteristic Pixar flair. I expect “Brave” to be in the same vein as those, as opposed to Cars… But by “mediaphobe”… do you just mean you don’t enjoy TV or movies that much, generally?
I actually did enjoy Wall*e now that you mention it. 🙂
By mediaphobe, I just mean that I don’t generally “get out much” in terms of entertainment—no matter what kind, I’m kind of apprehensive to enjoy a lot of it. Just for personal reasons. Although I do enjoy crying over a good movie, listening to awesome music, or sitting down to an enthralling boook. It’s just a matter of finding the right ones. Which in my case is often difficult.
Ah. I don’t get out much, either – neither the time nor the money to see everything I want to see. But I’ve no compunctions against letting my innate fanboyish enthusiasm bubble over when something cool comes along. 🙂
😀 I indulge in a bit of fanboyishness too from time to time…
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