Go Behind the Scenes of Brave in a New Featurette

The latest in the recent slew of Brave promotional material is a brief, 2-minute behind-the-scenes look at Pixar's latest film. The video (above) acts as a taster for the kind of stuff you can expect to see on the DVD and Blu Ray releases of the film when it hits home media later this year, and features comments about the film's story and characters from co-director Mark Andrews, producer Katherine Sarafian and voice talent including Kelly Macdonald (Merida) and Billy Connolly (King Fergus).

Brave hits US theatres in just under two weeks on 22nd June, and arrives here in the UK on 13th August.

New Brave Image

Courtesy of USA Today, we get a new still from Pixar's next feature film, Brave. Pixar's 13th feature film, and its first to focus on a female protagonist, will slowly get more and more focus now that we've ticked over to 2012.
The newest image (above) shows the fiery young Princess Merida (Kelly MacDonald), with her royal kin, including her father, the grand King Fergus (Billy Connolly), her disapproving looking mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) and her triplet brothers, Harris, Hubert and Hamish.

Brave promises to be utterly brilliant; as is the Pixar norm.

New Brave Images Emerges, New Trailer to Follow

Today, with Cars 2's home release having arrived in America and swiftly approaching here in the UK, Disney and Pixar begin the slew of roll-outs for Brave, starting with the above image, showcasing Merida and her family. The image, shared with the Associated Press over at Yahoo, comes complete with a few words from Brave director, Mark Andrews, on the image, the film and the first full length trailer - which is released tomorrow!

The image shows us Merida's family, who are (from left to right) Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), King Fergus (Billy Connolly), Merida (Kelly Macdonald) and her triplet brothers; Harris, Hubert and Hamish. All of the characters look, as is the norm for Pixar, intricate, amusing and wonderful - rounded off by a brilliant voice cast - I'm sure they will make this brilliant looking film even better.

We also won't have to wait long to get our first proper look at the film, as previously mentioned, the first full length trailer for Brave is set to debut tomorrow. Mark Andrews, the film's director, also offered a few words on the film, it's characters and the trailer:

"She's your anti-princess," said "Brave" co-director Mark Andrews. "She isn't your typical princess. She doesn't wear nice clothes except in a couple of scenes when her strict mom, Queen Elinor, makes her do it for special functions. She's an active and action-oriented person. She wants to get out in the outdoors of the Highlands, escaping from castle life and exploring the woods.""

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"Despite being the first Pixar film to focus on a female heroine, Andrews said "Brave" will be less about girl power and more about the oppositional relationship between mother Elinor and daughter Merida, likening the defiant red-haired princess to a scrutinized teenager who is forced to attend the same high school where her mother serves as the principal."

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In the film's full-length trailer, out Tuesday, Merida's father tells of the 12-foot-tall beast with razor-sharp claws, a face scarred with a dead eye and "hide littered with the weapons of fallen warriors," that chomped off his leg while the rebellious Merida transverses a lush forest, ascends a mountain and lands a bull's eye at a tournament.

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So, we anxiously await the trailer tomorrow and more Brave promotional images and videos to come, as the hype for Pixar's 13th feature film begins to take form.

Via The Pixar Times.

Update

Via The Pixar Blog, we are treated to another couple of images from Brave (above), courtesy of Empire. The image above image shows Merida with the mysterious blue wisps, and the one below that shows the three eccentric lords of the land: Lords MacGuffin, Dingwall and Macintosh.

Kelly Macdonald on Brave

Kelly Macdonald, voice of Merida in the upcoming Pixar film Brave, has been making her round recently, doing interviews concerning her role in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 as Helena Ravenclaw and has broached the subject of her role in Brave as well. Describing her utter elation at working with the animation giants to NBC Connecticut. Macdonald, a star of Boardwalk Empire, said the following of Pixar and Brave:

“I really, really can’t contain myself about ‘Brave,’” she says of playing the adventurous, rebellious archer Merida, the first central female character in a Pixar film. “It was something completely new. I’m not finished yet. I still have some things to do, but it’s just such a different thing, and I didn’t really have very much to go on. They had some animation to show me. I know what she looks like, but it’s nowhere near completion. The animators have been working for years and years on this thing. With all the actors that they’ve brought onboard, that means it’s nearing it’s (sic) vision. I’m just so impressed that I’m getting to work with people who are brilliant. Pixar is the best company, I think.”

Good to see that Macdonald is passionate about the work and I can't wait to see the performance she turns in come 2012.

Courtesy of The Pixar Times

Brave Updates

Yesterday, we got another stunning image from Pixar's next feature film, Brave. The image (above), shows Merida and the Bear, there is a shocking level of detail on both, and the little nuances are fantastically animated. This certainly looks set to be a visually stunning film.

Secondly, we get some insight into the bear in Brave (which was formerly titled The Bear and The Bow); director, Mark Andrews, spoke with the Scottish newspaper, The Daily Record, about the upcoming film and shared some intricate plot points from the film. Be warned, they contain some spoilers:

"It’s all about the relationship between a mother and daughter, and how this young woman has problems with her mother. When she has a problem with her mother over marriage, she gets a magic spell to try to stop her mother bothering her with the suitor business. But it actually changes her mother into a bear."

Andrews seems enthralled by the beauty of Scotland (when it's not raining ALL the time), saying:

"To set it in Scotland was a no-brainer. It's a place full of stories and full of powerful myths and magic, so what better place to set our story? I love the place. My family came over from Scotland about five centuries ago and my wife and I honeymooned in Scotland."



The record, likewise, seemed impressed with the film, and with Pixar.

I honestly can't wait to see Brave, it sounds fantastic.

Brave Characters

Although I declared yesterday, that I was not going to post the 4 leaked images of the characters from Brave, since then a great deal of websites have posted them all across the Internet, and Pixar seem to be allowing it. So, I thought I would share the character images with you, which look amazing.

Princess Merida, the main character, voiced by Kelly Macdonald

Queen Elinor, voiced by Emma Thompson

The Wise Woman

Lord Macintosh, voiced by Craig Ferguson

They certainly all look stunning, Brave looks set to be one of the most visually stunning Pixar films. As Cars 2 is now out in America, be sure to see the teaser trailer with 3D showings and wait for the inevitable character roll out.

Why Brave is my Most Anticipated Animated Film

There's a huge slab of animated films due out over the next few years, whilst it's debatable as to whether any of them are going to be worth your time, there's some that I simply cannot wait to see. The pinnacle of this anticipation is Pixar's Brave. The fantastic poster has got me even more psyched for Pixar's first fairy tale, but there's five reasons in particular that Brave is my most anticipated animated film - and one of my most anticipated films in general, behind The Dark Knight Rises of course.

These five reasons are as follows - in no particular order:

1. It's an original film, not a sequel, not to say that I have anything in particular against sequels, in fact my two favourite films of all time are sequels (Toy Story 2 and The Dark Knight). However, I love the feeling of uncovering a new world and new characters. Furthermore, I'm curious to see how Pixar handles their first fairytale.
2. The artwork we've seen so far looks utterly breathtaking, the visual style looks stunning. You can see just how much of a beautiful film Brave promises to be from the poster (above).
3. The brilliant Scottish feel should translate fantastically to create an authentic feel to the film. This is reinforced by the film's voice cast (lead by Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald and starring Scottish comedian, Billy Connolly - who recently provided the voiceover for Scottish Disney Short Film, The Ballad of Nessie) and the fact that the score is being composed by Scot, Patrick Doyle (who scored Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire).
4. It's (probably) going to be prefaced by the equally amazing and beautiful looking short film, La Luna, which I can't wait to see.
5. Furthermore, it will also (probably) have the trailer for Monsters University attached. I can't wait to get a glimpse at Pixar's first prequel, and I have waited nearly 10 years for a Monsters, Inc. follow up.

Brave looks, and sounds, utterly amazing in every way, shape and form; it seems like a much darker film and a bold new step by Pixar.

Thoughts? Agree? Disagree? SOUND OFF.

First Look at Brave

Dutch blog, Animatie, (that a while back started the rumours that Monsters, Inc. 2 was in fact a prequel) gives us our first still (above) from Pixar's upcoming 2012 fairytale, Brave. The still looks to be the fully rendered version of the concept art we saw a while back.

Also, it is likely that this still will feature somewhere or other in the upcoming teaser trailer, to be attached to Cars 2.

Brave Concept Art Poster

Following on from the newt poster I made from all of the concept art yesterday, I decided to make one for Pixar's next release following Cars 2, Brave, using all the concept art released so far.

Since this most recent concept art has surfaced, I have been super psyched for Brave, it looks brilliantly original and I'm hyped to see Pixar's first fairytale.

Fortunately this one didn't take as long as the newt one did!

New Brave Details Emerge, New Artwork

After months of silence on Pixar's 13th feature film, and its first attempt at a fairytale, we finally get something more substantial to do with Brave. When I got home this afternoon and checked my Twitter feed, I was greeted by an interesting tweet by Pixar animator Chris Chua, announcing new Brave concept art.

What I found on The Pixar Times and Entertainment Weekly was perhaps even more interesting, shedding new light on the plot, cast and director.

First of all, we have some fantastic new concept art, it's eerily beautiful, yet also a bit darker and grittier than we may have expected from Pixar, very brave (if you'll pardon the pun). You can see all of this concept art above, however Entertainment Weekly has a great article about the piece including updated plot points, a new description and new information on the voice cast and director.

These points are that, Reese Witherspoon will no longer be voicing Merida - the main character - due to scheduling issues, instead, Scottish actress, Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire) will voice her. This, to be honest, will fit better, using an actual Scottish actress to play a Scottish Princess.

The other main point is that, whilst Mark Andrews (One Man Band) has replaced Brenda Chapman as director, they will both be credited as the film's director. This is an interesting development to say the least. You can read the full article with all the entailing information on Entertainment Weekly's website.

These pictures and this information has got me incredibly psyched for Brave, which I previously could make head nor tail of. Brave is to hit theatres in June 2012.