Brave

Well, Pixar...you've done it again! Brave was so incredible, I absolutely loved it.

It has been too long since I've seen a Disney movie in theaters that has made me happy (please, don't even get me started on Tangled). The music, the animation...everything was spot on. The story was fantastic, to have a movie not focus on the "love story" aspect, but the mother-daughter relationship...specifically the mother-daughter relationship where the mother is trying to change her daughter. It hits a bit close to home, and seems very familiar. (Interesting that my own mother -who was sitting next to me at the movie- didn't pick up on that at all. Go figure.) 

The main character is Merida and despite her mother's insistence that "a lady does not place her weapons on the table," Merida remains a free-spirited Scottish princess who prefers archery over romance, much to her mother's chagrin. 

After Queen Elinor's attempt to marry off her first born goes awry, Merida follows her heart (and a will o' the whisp) in hopes that changing her mother may lead to changing her own fate. The princess procures a spell that ends up changing her mother into a bear. (Just for the record, if my mother got turned into a bear, she would be very mad at me...but probably still love me. I know because I asked.)

One of my favorite things about this movie is that it is set in Scotland. I love Celtic/Gaelic culture (being Ir-ish myself). I love the how whimsical it seems, centered around fairy tales and folk lore. I feel like I'd fit right in with all of that. I can see Princess Merida and I being good friends!