This animated family movie – set in the olden dayes of Scotland – gives us a worrying glimpse of the Disney/Pixar "ideas" fuel gauge, whose needle is twitching further and further leftward towards the "E". Brave is written and directed by Mark Andrews, one-time story supervisor on Ratatouille and The Incredibles, and Brenda Chapman, director of The Prince of Egypt. It looks as if their script has been reworked pretty often, though perhaps not quite often enough. It is eerily bland, with none of the zingingly funny lines and smart self-awareness we've come to expect from Pixar; yet it doesn't obviously appear to be pitched at very young kids, either, and doesn't quite have the necessary unforced simplicity. It feels like a standard issue super-sophisticated Pixar movie with the super-sophistication removed. Even the short film that precedes the feature – traditionally a tiny delicious treat in any Pixar programme – is treacly and dull. Brave has a certain inoffensive charm, sometimes, but it is often bafflingly uninteresting as a story.
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