REACTING to *Brave* THIS IS OUR FAVORITE!! (First Time Watching) Animator Reacts

What's your favorite accent???

Honestly Merida and her mother has a much deeper and well developed relationship than Anna and Elsa I don't know why most people keep referring to "Frozen" as "the one movie" that is not about romantic love when "Brave" came out first and is way better

Young MacGuffin is speaking in a Scottish dialect called Doric iirc. His voice actor was asked to just mumble and make up stuff but he suggested the use of Doric since it's a pretty old dialect and most people have difficulty understanding it. He mentions it on an interview which I thought was cool since it gave it more authenticity instead of just mumbling vaguely Scottish-sounding sentences lol

I love the parallel of arranged marriage in this movie. Fergus and Elanor (parents) were an arranged marriage and she was not happy about it, at all. But they worked out and she loves her husband dearly and he loves his wife enough to AVENGE her as his immediate reaction after thinking she was dead. That's why Elanor was 'shocked' when Merida was strongly against it, forgetting how she felt and instead turned to lecturing her on what she believed to be best. Merida isn't against marriage. She just wants time to find herself and love being herself, she ISNT READY FOR SUCH A BIG STEP. That's why finding her own love in her own time was so important to her. Maybe one day, but not NOW.

A thing I want to mention as someone who does archery as a hobby is that they not only did get the archers paradox right, but also the shooting technique is really good. In another comment section I read that they even went to an archery club talking with the people there and getting camera shots of different angles etc. So props for the animators and filmmakers to put the effort in and to convert it into this animation. ( hope this is understandable English isn’t my native language)

Merida's dad is easily among Top 5 Disney Kings, maybe even Top 3 He's so much like her and literally supports her in basically anything

Before they decided not to have any romance, Young MacGuffin was originally the one she was going to fall in love with. He's my favorite of the 3. Sure, he was shy and bad at archery, but he looks very kind, and if you look for him in the background, he's always staring at Merida like he's in awe. They would make a good pair.

Merida fighting her father, who's considered one of the strongest, to protect her mother, is my absolute favorite scene of this movie.

the part where elenors eyes go black and there's a sense of hopelessness makes me tear up everytime 😭

Brave has so many layers, especially the complicated mother-daughter relationship! I don't know why it's not the most popular Disney movie but this story is so inspiring. I really loved the naughty triplets 😂

I like the point you made about some of the pressure Merida was feeling came out of the moms worry for the kingdom. I never considered how Elenor would have known the other lords' demeanours and understood how easily these men might break their alliances at the slightest of offenses. She knew the political mindfield her daughter was going to have to navigate when Merida becomes queen and the likelyhood that Merida would need to be the diplomatic one in her future relationship.

Fun fact: When you see the witch carving wood at her table, look what’s also sitting there; the Pizza Planet truck!

Speaking of details in the animation, theres one thing I just noticed that never fully clicked for me. When Elinor finally returns to her human form and Fergus runs to embrace her and he stumbles over himself, it's not just because he is so overjoyed to see his wife who moments ago he thought was dead; it's mainly because Merida fricken chopped off part of his peg leg making it shorter and causing him to trip and fall.

I totally agree with James about story telling and it’s why I read books. I love story telling and the way people can make you feel a certain way because of the words they use, that’s why retellings are so popular with readers. I love looking at the stories of old and finding truths in them. It also shows that humans haven’t really changed much if you think about it.

As a Scots native, I absolutely love this movie! Doric dialect, the singing, clans etc is just brilliant

In pretty much all celtic mythology and tradition the fairy folk or "Fae" are mischievous as hell and love messing with people for shits and giggles. As a welsh person my knee jerk reaction to the wisps would have been "avoid, avoid avoid!!" But brave is a beautifully animated film, the textures of everything from landscapes to the animals and ofc meridas amazing hair is just so lush and vibrant 😍 I can overlook the somewhat simplistic story. The soundtrack also slaps!

Oh I definitely had moments like that with my mom when I was younger, where we were both just talking at each other and not to each other, not really listening. So this film felt true to the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship to me. And I actually watched it with my mom when it came out! We were both so moved by it ❤️ Glad you guys enjoyed it, it’s a wonderful film!

Love this movie. Merida is almost identical to my oldest daughter with her hair and attitude. The story also reflects how we related to each other when she was in her teen years. We were either best buds or ready to kill each other(rhetorically speaking that is)

Pixar made an actual render engine to render Merida's hair. It was so SO complicated to render on regular engines.

I always sided with Merida more but I never thought the mom was evil. The older I got the more I understood that the mom still loved her and realized some of Merida’s faults. Still team Merida though 🤣