The main problem is that Merida craves adventure but Brave limits her to mother-daughter psychodrama.

| Nov 18, 2013

By the climax, at which all right-thinking viewers will have dissolved in a puddle of warm appreciation, the new Pixar film has earned two cheers and a big bear hug.

| Nov 18, 2013

The story for this revisionist fairy tale, which promotes contemporary attitudes about parenting and gender equality, is less inspired than usual for Pixar, but the movie upholds the studio's high standard of computer animation.

| Nov 18, 2013

No less lovely than former films, in many ways lovelier, but Brave is boutique Pixar: less ambitious, more succinct, excellence at a lower ebb.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 13, 2012

Unsatisfying for all ages.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 9, 2012

Cockamamie folklore from a land too distant for Hollywood digimators to strain themselves over authenticity.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 9, 2012

No, not another Pixar classic, but for full-on family fun it's a brave effort.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2012

Brave is easily the best animated feature of the year so far. But it's not a masterpiece. How dare they? Boo! Boo!

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 3, 2012

The story, with its patchwork of plots (involving feuding clans and disastrous spells), holds together enough to thrill intermittently.

| Jul 2, 2012

Brave is as true as an arrow whistling straight towards the centre of its target.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 29, 2012

Eschews the genre's trademark reliance on facile, saccharine moralism in favour of the robust, no-nonsense and heartfelt nonconformity that runs through all the studio's best efforts.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 25, 2012

Though it falls short of the studio's best in many respects, Brave is ravishing to look at. Merida's carrot corona is alone worth the price of admission.

| Jun 22, 2012

Saying that Brave is entertaining but not astonishing is pretty much admitting your straight-A student got a B.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 22, 2012

It's a safe experience; but safe, in this case, is better than sorry.

| Original Score: B | Jun 22, 2012

If you have kids, you'll want to take them to Brave, and they'll almost certainly have a good time. If you're an animation buff, you may have quibbles with the film, which looks great but isn't up to Pixar's high standards in terms of story.

| Jun 22, 2012

"Brave" is easy to like but hard to love, a feel-good fable with the latest bells and whistles.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 22, 2012

What we get would be fine from another studio, but too safe and familiar for Pixar.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 22, 2012

"Brave" isn't a bull's-eye, but it's close enough.

| Original Score: B | Jun 22, 2012

This Celtic-themed story hews so closely to classic fairy-tale tropes, it's the studio's most Disney-fied production yet.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 22, 2012

Youngsters with a taste for adventure will no doubt overlook the movie's workmanlike outlines and applaud its spirited, self-reliant heroine, who proves to be as appealingly unruly as her tumble of Titian curls.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 22, 2012