How Pixar's Brave Represents What I Love in Books

Our family watched Pixar's Brave yesterday. It was really good and I recommend it to anyone and everyone. This is not a movie review, though. This is merely a blog post about how Brave represents what I love in books. My mom gave me the idea to write this post and it sounded really fun so I thought I'd do it.

1. No unnecessary romance. This is a big one. For some idiotic reason, everyone thinks that all twelve-year-old girls want to read about romance. I mean why?! I'm just not interested in that stuff. At least not now. I want to be a kid and not worry about that stuff. Sometimes I'll be reading a book and it'll be adventurous, funny, magical, etc. and then the author suddenly throws in "and then the girl looks at the boy and it was love at first sight and they lived happily ever after the end!" That's when I roll my eyes and think, Was that necessary? Did the girl/boy really have to fall in love with the girl/boy to make the story work? Sometimes the answer is yes, that was absolutely necessary. There needed to be romance to make the plot work. And other times it's no, that was not necessary. There was no need for the romance. This movie had no unnecessary romance. Which I LOVED.

2. Merida was my kind of heroine. She was spunky; stubborn; strong; and she had an attitude of I-can-do-it-myself, I-hate-girly-stuff, and I-don't-want-to-be-a-princess/lady/fair maiden. She didn't need anybody to save her, she didn't wait stranded in a tower for her prince charming to ride up on his white horse, she did everything herself. Merida is the kind of heroine I like. Just like Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, Alanna from The Song of the Lioness, Maximum Ride from Maximum Ride, Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, and a bunch of others.

3. Even though Disney collaborated with Pixar on this one, Disney didn't turn Brave into another princess movie like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. Although I love Disney's princess movies, I was glad to see a different kind of princess. One who shot arrows through the air and fought with a sword. One who took charge of everything herself.

4. Brave had the perfect mix of magic, humor, and adventure. There wasn't too much of one or the other. It's the kind of movie that's good for boys and girls and kids and adults.

5. It had funny characters. Every book needs a unique/quirky/funny/clueless character to make the story good. If all the characters are normal or quiet or shy, the story becomes boring. Brave had clueless characters, funny characters, troublemakers, and more. That made the movie funny. Some characters like that are Ron Weasley from Harry Potter, Grover from Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and Seth Sorenson from Fablehaven. Pretty much every main character from Maximum Ride is funny or talkative and they are all sarcastic, and Effie and Haymitch from The Hunger Games made the story more interesting.

Seeing Brave was such a treat and got me thinking about all of the books I love and why I love them. It was funny and adventurous and the princess didn't need a dang prince to save her! Thank you for taking the time to take a peek into my confusing mind.