[Movies] Brave

Status
Not open for further replies.

fade

Staff member
I am not surprised about that review at all. The trailer had a rather mediocre feel to it. The animation was nice, though Pixar still can't compete with Dreamworks on hair. But I'm with phil . That was the vaguest trailer I've seen in a while. This is me watching it: "Oh cool a new Pixar film. Okay, looks neat. Uh huh... uh...huh... and? What? I have no idea what any of that was supposed to mean. I know nothing about the premise other than maybe her brothers get turned into bears because she doesn't want to marry Prince Ali. Oh and some in-your-face symbolism involving dress ripping." I got an uninspired feel just from the trailer.
Added at: 14:47
As for Shrek v. Pixar? Do we have to? If we do, well Pixar movies are nice, traditional stories. They're tight and well done, but Shrek was fresh and used an inverted fairy tale to poke fun of both storybook and pop-culture conventions and tropes, all in a story that was in and of itself interesting because of the inversion.
 
Man, no mention of MegaMind in that dream works poster? That was an AWESOME movie!

Any ways, the whole corset thing in Braves trailer really annoys me. Writers tend to fall back on this trope that a corset symbolizes female oppression. A corset that's properly fitten and tied is not uncomfortable and offers great breast and back support. Hell, men used to wear corsets back in the civil war era!

It basically the same as bra burning or something. I don't wear a bra because I'm being put down by "the man"...I wear one so when I'm out an about my hooters are knocking me in the face.

I think I'm the only one this bothers.
 
Dreamworks has been doing a lot better of late. Kung Fu Panda, MegaMind, and Despicable Me were all great movies (and the sequel to Kung Fu Panda was better than it had any right to be). They clearly know what they are doing.
 
Dreamworks has been doing a lot better of late. Kung Fu Panda, MegaMind, and Despicable Me were all great movies (and the sequel to Kung Fu Panda was better than it had any right to be). They clearly know what they are doing.
That's because Dreamworks has stopped trying to undermine and attack Disney and Pixar at every turn, and instead focused on making entertaining films.
 
Dreamworks has been doing a lot better of late. Kung Fu Panda, MegaMind, and Despicable Me were all great movies (and the sequel to Kung Fu Panda was better than it had any right to be). They clearly know what they are doing.
Just a little correction, but Despicable Me was done by Illumination Entertainment, the same people that did Hop, and just recently, The Lorax. It was not done by Dreamworks.
 
Just a little correction, but Despicable Me was done by Illumination Entertainment, the same people that did Hop, and just recently, The Lorax. It was not done by Dreamworks.
So yeah... they've only done one good movie then. Well, Horton Hears a Who was okay.
 
Any ways, the whole corset thing in Braves trailer really annoys me. Writers tend to fall back on this trope that a corset symbolizes female oppression. A corset that's properly fitten and tied is not uncomfortable and offers great breast and back support. Hell, men used to wear corsets back in the civil war era!
That's all fine and good, but that's not what's going on in these scenarios. It's forcing an unwilling woman to wear a corset that is clearly too tight, all the while ignoring her protests. THAT is female oppression, and it's a handy trope for writers.
 
That's all fine and good, but that's not what's going on in these scenarios. It's forcing an unwilling woman to wear a corset that is clearly too tight, all the while ignoring her protests. THAT is female oppression, and it's a handy trope for writers.
Point 1: This is a teenaged girl who is rebelling. Her mother has to force her to wear proper support for decency, really. I wanted to wear skirts well above my knee to school when I 16...my father forced me to dress decently. I resented him for it but looking back on it I understand it.

Point 2: I assume the mother wears a corset as well, so she should know how to tie it comfortably. Instead she ties it up as tight as possible and declares it "perfect". It would have been perfect a if it was a few notches looser as well and any woman that has worn a corset can you that!

It's lazy writing. They just didn't have a better way to say "Look! Oppression!"
Added at: 19:50
Edit: I want to make it clear this my only problem thus far. I'm not a hardcore feminist and i haven't seen the entire movie. I just had to roll my eyes at this scene. It was pulled off better in Pirates of the Caribbean. At least in that movie the garment was unfamiliar to Elizabeth Swann and her servants.
 
S

Soliloquy

Dreamworks has been doing a lot better of late. Kung Fu Panda, MegaMind, and Despicable Me were all great movies (and the sequel to Kung Fu Panda was better than it had any right to be). They clearly know what they are doing.
When I saw the trailer for MegaMind, I thought "Oh, they're doing an animated ripoff of Dr. Horrible."

Haven't actually seen the movie, though.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I wanted to like both Megamind and Despicable Me... but both of them felt like pandering saturday morning cartoons.
 
There are a lot more players in the CG Animation game now than there were 10 years ago.
Dreamworks has had to step up as there's more competition now. This also means that the animated film talent pool is more dispersed, and animators and storyboard artists who wouldn't make it into Pixar or Dreamworks 10 years ago are getting chances elsewhere, and some of it pays off.

Blue Sky (Fox)- Ice Age 1-4, Robots, Horton Hears a Who, Rio
Illumination- Despicable Me, The Lorax
Sony Animation- Open Season, Surf's Up, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania
Nickelodeon & ILM- Rango
Pixar- Toy Story 1-3, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Cars 1-2, Wall-E, Up, Brave, Monster's Inc
Disney 3D- Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph
Dreamworks- Antz, Shark Tale, Over the Hedge, Flushed Away, Monsters Vs. Aliens,Bee Movie, Madagascar 1-3, Shrek 1-4, Megamind, Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda 1-2


That's not including the smaller production houses like Core (The Wild) and Starz (9) that are contracted out.
Or the stop motion houses.

Also of note: Dreamworks has made 6 movies since 2010, with a 7th coming later this year.
Pixar has made 2, with a third this year.
 
Blue Sky (Fox)- Ice Age 1-4, Robots, Horton Hears a Who, Rio
Illumination- Despicable Me, The Lorax
Sony Animation- Open Season, Surf's Up, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania
Nickelodeon & ILM- Rango
Pixar- Toy Story 1-3, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Cars 1-2, Wall-E, Up, Brave, Monster's Inc
Disney 3D- Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph
Dreamworks- Antz, Shark Tale, Over the Hedge, Flushed Away, Monsters Vs. Aliens,Bee Movie, Madagascar 1-3, Shrek 1-4, Megamind, Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda 1-2
Out of this list, I think Rango's the best one.
 
Obligatory Pixar vs Dreamworks images
Most of those faces are from promos for the movies, it's a marketing thing. The geniuses in Marketing think that expression instantly makes the characters look a little more "edgy" and it will help to keep from alienating the all important teen demographic. We had a woman from the Dreamworks Art Department come in and give us a rundown of how things work there, and she hated the Marketing department for this.Hearing the various talks we did, it was very clear that Dreamworks has a far more business-oriented mind.

The other thing to note is that the person who did the rebuttal kinda messed up by inadvertently pointing out that all the Dreamworks movies up that point were talking animals, while Pixar had used a variety of different types for their characters. Interestingly though, If you look at the films John Lasseter had the most influence over as either a writer or director, you do develop a pattern:

Luxo Jr.
Knick Knack
Tin Toy
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
Toy Story 3
Toy Story 4
Cars
Cars 2


He has a strong lean towards turning inanimate every objects into characters. He was even at the head of Brave Little Toaster for a long time, but there was a falling out, which is why he left Disney in the first place and wound up as the first aniamtor at Pixar.
Even his films at CalArts- "Lady and the Lamp" and "Nitemare", were about inanimate household objects coming to life.
Added at: 02:47
Out of this list, I think Rango's the best one.
Rango is amazingly good. I was blown away by it.
 

fade

Staff member
I haven't seen Rango because my wife and kids went without me and were bored to tears by it.
 
I haven't seen Rango because my wife and kids went without me and were bored to tears by it.
I can definitely understand that.
It's not a kids' movie. It's kid friendly in that it isn't offensive, but it is definitely not a kids' movie.
It starts with like a 15minute homage to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and the rest of the film is one giant love letter to Once Upon a Time in the West, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Fistful of Dollars, etc.
Added at: 03:08
The official trailer for Monster's University is also out.
And it looks baaaaaaaaad. But I thought the same of the first teasers for Toy Story 3 and that one was probably my favourite animated film ever. Definitely my favourite CG film. So I'm still hopeful.
 
Rango has been sitting on my bookcase for about the past 2 months. We just finally finished Horton Hears a Who tonight. It is a very silly movie.

--Patrick
 

ElJuski

Staff member
I thought the trailer for Brave was pretty muddled and meh, too. And it looks like, from what I'm hearing, is that its biggest flaw is that at worst the movie doesn't know what its doing, either, though overall, as usual, the end result is positive. I'll probably check this one out when it hits Netflix Instant.
 
Any ways, the whole corset thing in Braves trailer really annoys me.
I think I'm the only one this bothers.
You know why it bothers me? Because it is over-done. How many period piece movies show a woman being tied into a corset whether it's for comedic value or as a symbol of oppression or because zOMG it's a woman in her knickers? Cut me a damn break.
 
My bigger problem with the movie is how it comes across as being about a young girl's ability to change her destiny by standing up for herself and eventually being accepted for who she is. Instead it looks to me like the lesson here is running away from your problems and asking someone else to make things go the way you want is fine if you're a girl. I think I'll pass on this one.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top