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[tvordlj]

Just another manic mondayyyyyy .....
Well it should be less manic than last monday which was rife with mystery and confusion. We know what the problem is now, and we already have a pretty good plan of action. Just need to nail down the details.

Saw Brave yesterday. I'm not sure if i've ever gone to see an animated movie at the theatres before. I must have but if so, it's been a very long time. Of course the place was filled with kids and parents but they were all really good. One or two smaller ones were led out by a comforting hand when the bear in the movie was kind of scary. Some may wonder why kids' movies have scary stuff in them. Have you actually *read* classic fairytales lately? Brutal stuff.

Brave is by Pixar and has the excellence of animation you expect. Lots of fun too. They make the faces on the people and the animals very expressive, in fact i often find the animal faces even more so because you don't expect them to have human-like expressions when they often do in animated movies. Even in real life sometimes. I'd like to know how many times a cat has glanced up at me with that "Seriously????" look.

So yes. Brave. A story about a girl with wild red hair who grows up as a princess and is instructed on the proper behaviour as such by her mother all her life, when all she really wants to do is ride her horse and shoot arrows and be a bit of a tomboy or a warrior if she'd been allowed to be. Her father has survived a legendary battle with a huge bear though lost his leg to it and the bear still survives. He's spent all the intervening years either hunting for it or tediously retelling the tale of the battle. The time has come for a suitor to be picked for his daughter, Merida, and the winner of a competition between the sons of three neighbouring clans will be the one chosen. Not her own decision, mind you and she strenuously objects to that. The only input she gets is what the contest will be and she chooses archery.

One lad is tall, skinny, and vain. Kind of a rock star attitude. Also tempermental. One is a big beefy lad like his father but when he talks, the accent is so strong nobody can understand a word. (must be from Glasgow! ;) The third is a short, weedy, clumsy, goofy looking chinless wonder. But Merida can out shoot them all and does. Her mother is furious with her and in the midst of a gigantic row, Merida slashes a tapestry depicting herself, mother and father and she runs off. She finds a witch in the forest and is given a spell to change her mother so that she won't insist on the marraige. Of course she gets what she asks for but what she gets isn't what she expected. Mama turns into a bear. You can see the complications that can cause.

It all comes out ok in the end of course, with a mighty battle and a change of heart. Billy Connolly voices the king, Kelly MacDonald is Merida and Emma Thompson is the queen, Eleanor (whom i thought was called Helena through most of the movie!)

Also saw a good trailer for an animated movie called Hotel Transylvannia. Definitely one i want to see.