The Disney/Pixar animated feature Brave (2012) highlights both an extended clan-based vision of family and an unusual parent/child relationship. Although the film begins with a human-centered focus on mother/daughter relationships in an epic Scotland setting, when protagonist, Merida (Kelly Macdonald) asks a witch (Julie Walters) to change her fate, she inadvertently changes her somewhat orthodox mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) into a bear. The journey Merida and Queen Elinor take together to reverse this change, however, demonstrates the need for interdependent rather than hierarchical relationships between mother and daughter and between the human and natural worlds. Ultimately both Merida and Queen Elinor learn from their foray into nature, moving toward a “middle ground” that includes elements of both nature and culture and building a less traditional mother daughter relationship. As Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald suggests, the film “is a thoughtful meditation on parenthood, specifically the often-quarrelsome bond between daughters on the cusp of coming of age and mothers who want to mold their children in their own image, believing it is for the best.” What sets Brave apart from other coming-of-age stories, however, is the message of interdependence between human and nonhuman nature that is central to the Merida and Elinor’s reconciliation, a message all the more powerful because of the film’s dynamic action images and 3D rendering of a natural Scotland.
Before this positive resolution, however, Brave constructs both the mother and the bear in negative ways. The film takes the time to illustrate how Merida’s relationship with her mother, Queen Elinor, deteriorates as Merida begins to mature. Elinor enjoys her playful side during Merida’s early years, joyfully exclaiming, “Where are you? Come out! Come out! Come on out! I'm coming to get you!” when her toddler daughter hides under a table. When Elinor looks under the table after hearing Merida laugh, she exclaims, “Where is my little Birthday girl? I'm going to gobble her up when I find her!” This playful encounter highlights Elinor’s potential as a more tolerant parent. It also may allude to her future transformation from woman to bear. It may also suggest that “bear-like” characteristics may temper the orthodoxy associated with Queen Merida in later scenes.
Later scenes illustrate Elinor’s tendency toward more orthodox gender roles and highlight her more negative “feminine” qualities. After a day of bow hunting and archery practice, Merida sits down to a meal with her bow, and Elinor reproaches her unladylike behavior: “Merida, a princess does not set her weapons on the table…. A princess should not have weapons in my opinion.” Elinor’s portrayal as a conventional source of domesticity reaches its peak when she prepares Merida for a marriage that will strengthen their clan. Elinor literally constrains Merida during the scenes before the marriage contest, tightening her clothing and concealing her hair as she tells Merida, “This is what you’ve been preparing for your whole life.” The negative associations with bears are also demonstrated throughout the film in relation to King Fergus’s battle with Mor’du, a male bear. Both Fergus and Mor’du survived the fight, but Fergus lost his leg and reenacts the battle for family and friends whenever possible. We later learn, however, that Mor’du and Merida share similar desires to change their fates, desires that not only change humans into bears, but also emphasize the need for an interdependent relationship between human and nonhuman nature. This interdependence is represented most powerfully by the inner changes realized by both Merida and her mother Elinor after their foray into wild nature.
Elinor’s experiences as a bear, and Merida’s attempts to save her illustrate the film’s vision of the ideal mother/daughter relationship, a relationship that also illustrates the symbiotic connection humanity shares with the natural world. As Elinor and Merida search for the witch to break the “bear spell,” they gain a new respect for one another that builds a bond strong enough to overcome the pride that previously limited them. Merida saves Queen Elinor from nightshade berries and wormy water, in one scene. Queen Elinor encourages Merida to hunt by pointing to her bow in another. Elinor also catches fish with her paws and protects Merida with her massive bear body that still embodies the queen’s grace. When Merida and Queen Elinor finally find the witch, then, the way has been paved to implement her advice to change their fate by looking inside and mending “the bond torn by pride.” Merida and her mother Elinor reconnect when pride in each becomes tempered by understanding. That reconnection, however, becomes possible only when human and nonhuman nature merge during Elinor’s inner journey as a bear and their mutual journey into wild untamed nature.
The film’s conclusion illustrates well this relaxing of convention associated with their wild journey. After Elinor returns to her human form, she no longer insists on Merida’s marriage. In fact, with her brunette hair flying freely beside her daughter’s red tresses, Elinor gallops beside Merida into an untamed forest, highlighting the changing dynamic of their relationship, a transformation that complicates and eases definitions of family roles, giving us the first Disney Princess to reject marriage and all that it entails.
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