Brave was no exception. The strong mother/daughter relationship reminded me of my own complicated relationship with my own mother. When two females are used to having their voices heard, they often battle to have the final word. Besides this relationship, the cinematography and animation of the movie was beautifully done. It captured the heart of a wild Scotland, with great uses of light and dark to add to the mystery of the lacking storyline.
For those of you that do not know the Story, it features a young Scottish princess, Merida. The time has come for her to get married to keep the unity of the clans of the area. She does not wish to be forced to wed, so in defiance to her mother, decides to fight for her own hand in an archery tournament. After finding out that regardless of winning, she still must marry, she searches for a way to change her fate. **SPOILER ALERT** After being given something she assumes will change her mom's mind, she soon discovers changing her fate means changing her mother completely. Rather than own up to her mistake, she then blames the witch that helped her "change her mother to change her fate" and the two embark on a journey to discover a cure. Not until the very end of the movie, does Merida finally apologize. After the entire ordeal, Merida's mother no longer required her to get married.
I feel like this storyline wasn't much of a storyline at all. There was no actual learning development for Merida, so she retains her stubborn attitude and never really does insist on putting the betterment of her kingdom above her own personal choices. This is not to say that she wouldn't, for her mother changes the rules before Merida actually chooses a suitor.
What angered me the most about this feature winning Best Animated feature in the Academy Awards is the values it sets for our younger generation. Rather than learn something about yourself, this princess teaches children if she complains or creates enough trouble, she will get her way. Unfortunately this seems to be the way of today's society, so it is no wonder that a movie like this was encouraged. With ideas such as "the customer is always right" when those of us who work in customer service know that often the customer really just have skewed paradigms being a major component in this cultural technique, of course Brave would win. People who complain in life often get free things, free nights in a hotel if it doesn't meet their expectation, backdoor entrance to special events because they weren't told about the event in the past, or even free food because they are "critics" on sites such as Yelp.
