Brave
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: June 22, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 21, 2012
Brave has a manic, almost daffy energy and sense of humor. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 21, 2012
A rousing, gorgeously animated good time. Read full review
85
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJun 25, 2012
My heart belongs to Bear Elinor, whose movements and mannerisms are a tender echo of Human Elinor's – her character is designed and drawn just that carefully. Read full review
80
EmpireIan NathanAug 12, 2012
No less lovely than former films, in many ways lovelier, but Brave is boutique Pixar: less ambitious, more succinct, excellence at a lower ebb. Read full review
80
The GuardianBen ChildJun 25, 2012
For the animation studio's debut foray into fairytale, Pixar has delivered a rousing family melodrama. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJun 22, 2012
The magic is back at Pixar. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensJun 21, 2012
It's a rollicking children's entertainment, gorgeously animated and wittily cast, and also an unusually astute exploration of the complex bond between mothers and daughters, a relationship that's often either elided or sentimentalized in children's literature and film. Read full review
80
TimeRichard CorlissJun 21, 2012
Visually the most ravishing and complex Pixar movie, Brave evokes memories of Walt Disney's early experiments with the multiplane camera, but with the more persuasive intricacies available to CGI artists. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonJun 19, 2012
The animation studio's first film with a female protagonist, a defiant lass who acts as a much-welcome corrective to retrograde Disney heroines of the past and the company's unstoppable pink-princess merchandising. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 18, 2012
In addition to being fast, funny, and unpretentious, Brave is a happy antidote to all the recent films in which women triumph by besting men at their own macho games. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJun 12, 2012
Brave offers a tougher, more self-reliant heroine for an era in which princes aren't so charming, set in a sumptuously detailed Scottish environment where her spirit blazes bright as her fiery red hair. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 22, 2012
No envelopes are pushed in Brave, which was directed by Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews, and no genres are subverted. It's a safe experience; but safe, in this case, is better than sorry. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJun 22, 2012
Just misses living up to its name. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigJun 21, 2012
It's a lively, psychologically astute tale filled with humanity, wit and charming performances. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJun 21, 2012
Satisfying and spirited and laced with humor. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 21, 2012
At this point in Pixar's history, the studio contends with nearly impossible expectations itself. This is what happens when you turn out some bona fide masterworks. Brave isn't that; it's simply a bona fide eyeful. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonJun 20, 2012
At its best, Brave accesses all the complicated feelings involved between a parent and a rebellious adolescent: the mutual frustration, the lack of communication, the way conflicting desires can mask love without weakening it. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJun 20, 2012
This is a great-looking movie, much enlivened by the inspiration of giving Merida three small brothers, little redheaded triplets. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumJun 20, 2012
Merida may be a headstrong heroine, a feisty animated hybrid who calls to mind Katniss Everdeen, Bella Swan, and the neo-fairy-tale protagonist who faces off against her evil stepmother in "Snow White and the Huntsman." But she is also, for safety's sake, a nice girl in a pretty green dress who loves her family and believes in dynasty. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJun 21, 2012
Brave simply doesn't feel as much like the Pixar movies we've come to expect. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisJun 21, 2012
The tussling between Elinor and Merida is familiar, but while the mother-daughter clashes may make the story "relatable," they drain it of its mythopoetic potential, turning what could have been a cool postmodern fairy tale into another family melodrama. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 20, 2012
You won't find a lot of jaw-dropping elements in Brave. But what you will find is really well-done. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirJun 19, 2012
Moms and girls everywhere deserve this movie, absolutely, and I hope they have a great time. But they also deserve much more, and much better. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJun 12, 2012
Visually stunning and strongly voiced, but doesn't take any real risks. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovJun 20, 2012
The core family relationships ring pleasingly true, and the rebellious Merida is, alongside Katniss Everdeen, an intelligent, capable, and empathetic proto-riot grrrl with stupifyingly kickass hair and even better aim. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 22, 2012
The end result is something that feels like it was put together from a jumble of Disney clichés tacked onto the skeleton of "Beauty and the Beast." Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJun 21, 2012
Brave feels like a merely good-enough children's movie. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 21, 2012
The conflicts, magic spells, chase sequences and reconciliations feel strangely by-the-book for a studio so well known for throwing the book out entirely. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 21, 2012
Eventually it straightens out into a fast, funny, emotionally resonant story about mothers and daughters, but it takes a while to get there and it's never less than weird. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 21, 2012
This is less a film in the lustrous Pixar tradition than a Disney fairy tale told with Pixar's virtuosity. As such, it's enjoyable, consistently beautiful, fairly conventional, occasionally surprising and ultimately disappointing. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJun 21, 2012
Gorgeously animated and featuring a tapestry of real-looking wonders, Brave is certainly a thing of beauty. But its emotional layers don't yield the same depth. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn LevyJun 21, 2012
Tepid, boilerplate production. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartJun 22, 2012
You can't help wishing they'd thought a little further outside the box. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 21, 2012
In terms of story and emotional power, Brave comes up short. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazineDavid EhrlichJun 15, 2012
There's no denying the film's refrain that legends are lessons, but Brave is sadly remedial. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineRichard LarsonJun 15, 2012
Pixar's latest ultimately offers nothing more than a caricature of a well-worn conceit. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichJun 19, 2012
This isn't the NASCAR-fellating cash grab that is the Cars franchise, but it's still Pixar on preachy autopilot. Read full review
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