Watch: Pixar releases 2 1/2 minutes of new fairy tale 'Brave' as new trailer
You can see their new lead character, Merida, take control of her own fate
Merida (Kelly MacDonald) is determined to take control of her fate in the new animated film 'Brave'
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Disney has now released a two-and-a-half minute trailer for this summer's "Brave," and it's basically a trimmed-down version of one of the movie's key moments which was shown to the press last year at the D23 Expo.
It's a smart moment to use for many reasons. FIrst, it's a great example of visual storytelling, and in a few quick moments, we learn a lot about the characters, the situation that Merida (Kelly MacDonald) finds herself in, and how she and her parents are at odds over her future.
In addition, it's a lovely example of how quickly Pixar can sketch character. I feel like even though this is just two-and-a-half minutes long, we get a sense of all three of the suitors who are trying to win Merida's hand in marriage, and we get some sense of the dynamics between all of them.
Finally, I love the animation itself. In particular, there's a moment in this scene when Merida is about to fire the last of her three arrows, and the physics of that arrow are so accurate, so well-done, that it reminds me just how far Pixar is ahead of most of their competition.
By now, they've got to be getting pretty close to finished with "Brave." Like many of their movies, there was a major reworking of material, which is often part of the process. Both Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews are credited as director here, and this is a significant film for Pixar in several ways. They're dealing in more typical Disney territory here, with a fairy tale setting and a princess for a lead. It's also significant because they're coming off of their first critical failure, the largely-disliked "Cars 2." I'm sure the veritable mountain of money they made on the film assuages any sting that comes from taking a beating after one of the greatest streaks of critical acclaim for any studio ever, but I'll bet they'd be even happier if this was a big rebound for them.
I like the idea of using extended moments from a film to sell it, because it gives you more of a sense of the real voice of the movie. You can cut a good trailer for almost anything through deception, but it's harder to lie when you see an actual scene from the film. And in this case, it looks like they've got the goods.
"Brave" arrives in theaters June 22, 2012.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupCody B
February 23, 2012 at 3:43PM EST Reply to CommentI think this was an extremely smart move on Pixar's part. The first trailer was good but to me it just felt oddly like something made by Dreamworks. But this clip/trailer totally sold me on the film. It felt like Pixar through and through and I loved every minute of it. I was genuinely disappointed when the trailer ended. I got so drawn into the characters that I just wanted sit there and watch the whole movie. Bravo Pixar, bravo.
dk Man, absolutely. I got so drawn in(pun intended) that I was a bit surprised when it ended. Looks like they have another hit on their hands.
February 24, 2012 at 1:16PM ESTjweezy
February 23, 2012 at 3:51PM EST Reply to CommentI wish more studios would do something like this. I wasn't a big fan of The Devil Wears Prada overall, but the trailer they released with that first meeting was excellent.
crack3d
February 23, 2012 at 4:42PM EST Reply to CommentA++ for that hair alone.
Sean
February 23, 2012 at 4:54PM EST Reply to CommentI was just thinking about Pixar the other day and I came to a conclusion: Pixar needs a Bambi's mother moment.
What I mean by that is, as great as Pixar is, and I agree that Pixar is miles beyond most animation studios, there hasn't been a moment for me, in any Pixar film, as profound as when Disney killed Bambi's mother. Disney had the balls to point his finger at the audience and say "you did this." It was one of the most powerful moments in the history of cinema.
Disney didn't seem to be afraid to embrace horror and social commentary in his films. Think of the scene where the children turn into donkeys in Pinocchio, or the sexuality and viciousness of the evil queen in Snow White.
I think Pixar has moments that hint at something like this. The beginning of Up, where we see the old man losing his wife, and then striking the man with his cane and running into his house in fear, were fantastic and really seemed to be saying something about what it meant to be old and alone. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie never seemed to live up to this fantastic beginning.
I know they're children's films, and I shouldn't expect them to be too dark. But when I think about the great fairy tales and children's stories, they all have moments of real darkness and terror in them. I think that's because there is real darkness and terror in the world, and if you leave that out of a movie, children can pick up on it, and feel like they're being lied to.
KlarkKent I thought the death of the mother in Finding Nemo was pretty darn close. It certainly effected me more than Bambi, which coming from a rural area in which hunting is common and animals are often used for food, struck me even as a child as utter pablum.
February 23, 2012 at 9:15PM ESTI'll give you Pinnochio though. That was some scary stuff. Pixar has had fantastic moments in each of it's films, but nothing horrific like that.
Sean That's a good point about the mother in Finding Nemo, Klarkkent. But the truth is, I forgot about it.
February 24, 2012 at 4:44AM ESTI think the big difference is similar to Up: that the dark passage happens at the beginning of the movie, so you don't have much time to get to know the characters, and the stakes aren't as high.
Bambi's mother's death happens at the end of the film; Disney takes the time to establish the relationship and Bambi's dependence on her. And the way her death is handled is really intense: with the music swelling and the shot fired offscreen.
I'm sorry it didn't resonate with you, but I remember Bambi's mother's death more than I remember the movie itself.
Pixar seems to be willing to go dark at the outset of their movies (Finding Nemo, Up)
EricD Actually, I think a lot of people were hit pretty hard by the first fifteen minutes of Up. You introduce an incredibly sympathetic character, full of confidence and energy, and then you see that character's dreams get crushed. Then she dies. Pretty heavy for a cartoon.
February 24, 2012 at 8:55AM ESTSean I agree, EricD. As I stated in my first post, I think the beginning of Up is the heaviest Pixar has ever gotten.
February 24, 2012 at 12:48PM ESTI think my problem with Pixar is that they use tragedy and horror as setup at the outset of the movie to establish character motivation (the old man wanting to take his house where he and his wife had planned, Nemo's father's overprotectiveness of his son), but they never revisit it in the context of the film. It's almost like each Pixar film has a prologue where there are real stakes involved, but as the film goes on, those stakes gradually diminish. I never find myself too concerned with the welfare of the characters in a Pixar film, I know everything is going to turn out happily in the end.
Disney used tragedy and horror as transformative moments within the overall arc of the film. The donkey scene in Pinocchio and the Mother's death in Bambi contributed to the character arc by changing the way the characters, and the audience, viewed the world around them. Even though the movies ended happily, your confidence was shaken that Disney was going to give you that ending.
DK I agree and disagree. Bambi affected me heavily as a child, in fact at the age of 12, I fled the scene of my first deer kill. I had killed a doe, and all I could think about was that scene in Bambi. Dad handed me a knife and told me it was my kill, I had to clean her. And I just ran, heh. I still hunt, but man that first doe, whew. That scene was killer.
February 24, 2012 at 1:21PM ESTBut I disagree that Up and Nemo weren't as dark, they just weren't as dark for you. Nemo was especially traumatic for children, the two I've watched it with repeatedly asked in frantic tones what happened to Coral.
I honestly don't remember the donkey scene in Pinocchio at all, so it doesn't hold a candle to the Bambi scene for me.
Sean You may be right, DK. I'm just trying to rationalize, maybe just to myself, why Pixar films just don't seem to resonate with me the way they do with everybody else. It's interesting. And maybe it is totally subjective.
February 24, 2012 at 3:08PM ESTThe fact that you don't remember the scene where the kids turn into donkeys in Pinocchio, which I thought was horrifying at the time, and I can't even remember who Coral was in Finding Nemo (the Ellen character?), is telling.
Maybe it's the difference in animation styles? The early Disney films seemed to have an almost photorealistic style, think Snow White was based on and resembled Marilyn Monroe, and the Evil Queen was more haughty but just as sexual. Just their physical appearances alone added a gravitas to the whole proceedings.
With Pixar, the animation style is more blatantly cartoony, and seems more inspired by anime (large eyes, over-exagerrated expressions). Maybe that's why I have more trouble taking the proceedings as seriously as those early Disney films.
Other Scott I think the reason all the dark spots in Pixar are focused in the beginning of their movies is because Pixar doesn't make movies that are about the darkness that is present in the world. It makes movies that are about finding hope in the face of darkness present in the world.
February 24, 2012 at 5:45PM ESTFore example, in Finding Nemo, Marlin has lost his wife and all his potential children and only has one left, which if you extend it, is all he has left of his wife. And then he gets taken from him. That's pretty dark. But the movie doesn't focus on the darkness of the scenario, it focuses on the quest to get him back. That is the innate hope that is present throughout the whole movie. And it manages to be funny and establishes actual characters through the whole process. (Finding Nemo is my favorite animated movie of all time, by the way.)
Up works like that as well. It doesn't focus on the loss, it focuses on the finding what was really important about the old man's life and relationship with his wife. Even the movies that don't go quite as dark like Toy Story still have that issue. Woody is Andy's favorite toy, but he begins to get ignored. So he tries to get rid of him. Once again, darkness, this time in the actions rather than in the situation. But what is the focus? Getting him back.
I think Wall-E symbolizes this the best. We see the Earth become an uninhabitable mess and the people that were on it forced to live in space and become overweight slobs. (You want the finger pointing social commentary in Pixar - there it is.) The situation is dark, I don't think anyone would disagree. But this time we have hope, and it even has its own symbol in the plant. And the movie is about trying to get that plant to its destination, so things can be fixed. The darkness is moved to the background, so the focus can be on the hope.
Other Scott I think the reason all the dark spots in Pixar are focused in the beginning of their movies is because Pixar doesn't make movies that are about the darkness that is present in the world. It makes movies that are about finding hope in the face of darkness present in the world.
February 24, 2012 at 5:45PM ESTFore example, in Finding Nemo, Marlin has lost his wife and all his potential children and only has one left, which if you extend it, is all he has left of his wife. And then he gets taken from him. That's pretty dark. But the movie doesn't focus on the darkness of the scenario, it focuses on the quest to get him back. That is the innate hope that is present throughout the whole movie. And it manages to be funny and establishes actual characters through the whole process. (Finding Nemo is my favorite animated movie of all time, by the way.)
Up works like that as well. It doesn't focus on the loss, it focuses on the finding what was really important about the old man's life and relationship with his wife. Even the movies that don't go quite as dark like Toy Story still have that issue. Woody is Andy's favorite toy, but he begins to get ignored. So he tries to get rid of him. Once again, darkness, this time in the actions rather than in the situation. But what is the focus? Getting him back.
I think Wall-E symbolizes this the best. We see the Earth become an uninhabitable mess and the people that were on it forced to live in space and become overweight slobs. (You want the finger pointing social commentary in Pixar - there it is.) The situation is dark, I don't think anyone would disagree. But this time we have hope, and it even has its own symbol in the plant. And the movie is about trying to get that plant to its destination, so things can be fixed. The darkness is moved to the background, so the focus can be on the hope.
Sean Those are all great examples that really back up your theory, Other Scott, of the Pixar films primary theme being hope. But I'm wondering if it isn't hope, mixed with a bit of naivete.
February 24, 2012 at 6:18PM ESTThe Pixar films tend to be more gentle and kind than the earlier Disney films. I don't know if this is the product of progressive social norms, or by design.
Pixar films feel like comedies with a touch of drama, rather than dramas with a touch of comedy. Even if you look at the Disney films from a couple of decades ago: The Lion King, Tarzan, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, etc. They come across as dramas with lighter fare thrown in for comic relief. There's quite a few dark moments in those films including the death of parents, and villains being killed through hanging or impalement.
A good example of Pixar films being primarily comedies is Finding Nemo, where your two principle leads are played by established comediens: Albert Brooks and Ellen Degeneres. I was actually surprised in Up that the Christopher Plummer character was killed. I know they had established that he had been killing other explorers, but his character's death seemed to go against the gentle, comical spirit of the movie.
There's nothing wrong with hope, and I know these movies are for kids. But I think your doing a disservice to kids if you say that things are always going to turn out right in the end. Those early Disney films may have had happy endings but there was always an ambiguous note to them because of how dark some of the subject matter was. This is just a personal preference, but I'd like to see more of that in Pixar.
studioplant
February 23, 2012 at 7:49PM EST Reply to CommentAlso, reminds me of the trailer from Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. They just showed the scene where Johnny chases the Silver Surfer around the planet. I thought the trailer was more effective than the actual movie desverved. Plus, this also shows major cojones on the part of Pixar. They know that they only need to show a scene to draw people in. They have that much faith in their storytelling.
Harry_Knowles_Love_Child
February 24, 2012 at 10:50AM EST Reply to CommentWhat can i say...That made me smile....Can't wait to see it.