Synopsis:
As a child, Princess Merida grew up wild, free to do pretty much what she liked. Her father taught her archery, and it became one of her strongest skills. As she grew older, her mother put more restrictions on her behavior, determined to turn her into a lady. Merida doesn't really consider what that might mean for her, until her parents finally tell her that she will be expected to marry the first-born son of the leader of one of the three neighboring clans.
Merida attempts to win the right to decide her own fate, but the results are disastrous, putting a rift between her and her mother and leaving the clans at each others' throats. In despair, Merida runs off and eventually comes across a witch who promises to give her a spell that will change her mother and thereby change her fate.
Unfortunately, the spell does things that Merida never intended, and if she doesn't figure out how to set things right soon, the effects will be permanent.
Review:
I think seeing Snow White and the Huntsman so recently made me appreciate this movie more. Brave was clearly written by someone (according to IMDb, Brenda Chapman) who knew what kind of story they were telling and stuck to it. There was no romance shoe-horned in at the last second. This was, pure and simple, a story about a mother-daughter relationship.
