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You are here: Home / Archives for Merida

Merida’s Coming Home Your Home: Brave to Blu-ray 3D & DVD Combo Pack

November 6, 2012 by Momstart 10 Comments

Disney Pixar’s Brave is the movie I’ve seen three times and it’s not even out on DVD yet. Merida is Zoe’s princess, everyone’s princess she’s the princess that really doesn’t need a prince, at least she’s not ready yet. She does need her mom and Brave is the story of finding the path to a solid relationship with her mom. The movie ended up having a completely different story that I hadn’t expected.

clip_image002Disney•Pixar will be releasing BRAVE, the year’s #1 animated movie and Pixar Animation Studio’s 13th consecutive hit, on November 13, 2012. An original and thrilling journey set in the ancient and magical Highlands of Scotland, BRAVE follows the heroic journey of the headstrong, young adventurer Merida.  Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida confronts tradition and defies an age-old custom that inadvertently unleashes chaos, and forces her to discover the true meaning of bravery.

Set in ancient Scotland, Brave is abundantly green and lush and absolutely gorgeous. Pixar left no detail untouched. The land, the mountains, the waterfalls, the people and the hair are all amazing. Merida in particular has the most fiery red curls that are full lush and wild like she is. Yes Princess Merida is wild as any proper teenager should be, she’s not your typical princess. She’s a person that makes mistakes and doesn’t need a prince to come and save her and that’s how Brave differs from most of your princess stories.

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A breathtaking adventure that has entertained audiences of all ages, the stunning Blu-ray release of BRAVE includes hours of all-new bonus material, including extraordinary behind the scenes features, extended & deleted scenes, a mysterious and exciting, new short film, ‘The Legend of Mor’du,” and much more!!!

Like BRAVE on Facebook

Visit the official website

 


Oh and be sure to find the Hidden Mickeys or Gems in Pixar’s Brave

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: brave, Merida, movie, Movie review

Mattel’s Brave Adventures with Princess Merida Toys

July 20, 2012 by Momstart 347 Comments

Mattel was kind enough to send us some really cool Brave dolls. Zoe’s been ecstatic playing with them and the Merida doll actually went to Utah with us and had quite an adventure in the car with us playing with Batman and Ironman. Here’s Zoe as she found out about the dolls

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Brave Princess Merida
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The details about what we received:

Brave Gem Styling Merida doll gives girls the chance to decorate Merida’s signature blue gown or red hair with “gems.” They can even flip her reversible cape to reveal a beautiful sparkly print. $20.99, Age: 3+IMG_2951

Brave Castle & Forest Playset brings Merida’s magical world comes to life. When closed the play set is outdoor “forest” where Merida can venture with Angus. Open the play set to play out Merida’s life within the kingdom. $26.99, Age: 3+

How she plays with them:

Brave Gem Styling Merida is the doll that went to Utah with us. She plays with her all the time. Zoe LOVES jewels and the fact that this Merida doll came with jewels was phenomenal to Zoe. She loves princesses and she loved Merida in Brave. So seeing a princes that has the same interests as her just made her beautiful day.

Now the Brave Castle & Forest Playset has been a great playset for her and her brother. Sometimes Zoe will let Miles be the horse Angus and Merida gets to ride on him and that’s fun for both of them. It’s actually kind of funny when Zoe won’t let him play with Merida but she wants to ride Angus. I haven’t figured out how that’s going to work for them but somehow when the yelling stops they’ve agreed on something. LOL.

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Just this morning she set the whole thing up for me for the perfect set of photos. She gave Merida the bow so Merida would set it on the table just to upset her mom. Yes she actually did. She also said that she lets Belle be Merida’s mom sometimes, but she didn’t want to go upstairs to find Belle. I was ok with that. I’m just glad she was ready for the photo opp!

What kind of play do toys invoke from your children?

This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to the winner, Jennifer R.

 

we received samples

Please see the giveaway rules

Filed Under: giveaway Tagged With: brave, giveaway, Mattel, Merida, Princess Merida

Pixar’s Brave Fun Movie Facts: The Characters

June 17, 2012 by Momstart 19 Comments

Brave Characters

Merida

"BRAVE"   (Pictured) MERIDA. ©2012 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

OH MOTHER – The story of Merida and her relationship with her mother, Queen Elinor, was inspired by director Brenda Chapman’s own relationship with her young daughter.

COSTUME CHANGE – With five dresses, plus a cloak, quiver, hand wrap and necklace, as well as torn dresses, Merida has a total of 22 different costumes. She also has five different hairstyles. Diva? Never.

GOOD HAIR DAY – Merida has more than 1500 individually sculpted, curly red strands that generate about 111,700 total hairs.

BIG STRETCH — If Merida’s curls were straightened, her hair would be four feet long and reach the middle of her calf.

Queen ElinorBRAVE

UNWRAPPED – If Elinor’s hair were unwrapped, it would be about six feet, six inches long.

King Fergus

COMPLICATED KING — Fergus wears nine different simulated garments at the same time—each has its own movement that must be “simulated” by algorithms in the computer. His head hair and mustache are also simulated, as well as his sporran (pocket-like pouch) and scabbard (sheath for a sword). He has arm hair, chest hair, hair lining in his boot, as well as a full bear pelt on his bear-clawed cloak—all of which are simulated in some way.

LOTSA LAYERS — To achieve the mass of Fergus’s kilt, the drape going across his chest has eight layers of cloth folded over and interacting with each other and other garments. The left, right and back sides of the drape have six layers each.

The Lords"BRAVE"

A LITTLE FUZZY – Pixar artists divied up the Lords’ hairier characteristics in unique ways:

· Lord Dingwall has chest hair, arm hair, back hair and ear hair.

· Lord Macintosh and Fergus are the only characters with fur on their boots.

· Lord Macintosh is the only character with fur on his sporran.

TARTAN TIME — For each clan, artists at Pixar created a new, unique tartan design.

TAKING LIBERTIES — The DunBroch tartan pattern is physically impossible to make with traditional tartan weaving methods.

Tertiary Characters

HAIRY SITUATION — There are more than 100 unique hair/facial hair combinations used in “Brave” for human characters and animals.  Each variant can appear in any of nine different colors, creating more than 900 hairstyle/color variants.

Animals

FOUR-LEGGED FUR – Hair was created for 70 different animals—some living, some living forever as taxidermy—including 11 horses, 13 birds 7 bears, 16 other animals and 23 animal pelts.

THE WORLD IS MY INSPIRATION – The demon-bear Mor’du’s skin textures are based on satellite images of scorched earth.

Brave will be in theaters June 22nd.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: brave, Disney, Elinor, Fergus, Merida, movie, Pixar, The Lords

Behind The Pixar Movie Brave With Director Mark Andrews #BraveCarsLandEvent

June 15, 2012 by Momstart 16 Comments

Oh my gosh, before I get started on the behind the Pixar Movie Brave with the Director Mark Andrews I have to tell you…DO NOT READ THE CHILDREN”S BRAVE book unless you want to know the story of Brave. Oh, my daughter’s friend came over and brought her brand new Early Reader Brave story and was showing it to my daughter and telling her everything about the book, and my daughter said, no you’re wrong. You can’t know that. I looked at the pages and thought oh no, I was trying to save myself for the movie. Sigh!

But it’s not like knowing the score of the Super Bowl people, because Brave is still going to be an awesome movie. SO go out and see it Friday June 22 and buy as many Brave books as you want. Your children are sure to enjoy the story, written or through the theater. Director Mark Andrews aims a bow and arrow at  an archery demonstration for Brave Long Lead Press Day on April 3,  2012 at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California. (Photo by Jessica Brandi Lifland/Pixar)

Now meeting Director Mark Andrews was an amazing experience. Everyone at Pixar has so much gumption for what they are doing. So much so that it rubs off on you and you want to get a job there. I mean look at him, he’s up in that picture learning how to shoot a bow and arrow, and I think he said his whole team did because how can you work on a story about a princess that loves to shoot a bow without knowing how to do it yourself? The Brave Long Lead Press Day, including Director Mark Andrews answering press questions, on April 3, 2012 at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. (Photo by Deborah Coleman / Pixar)

Alright, now we can delve into that interview. Mark Andrews has been telling stories for 20 years and has been at Pixar for 10. He worked on The Incredibles and on Ratatouillie.

What is the hardest part of the process in making a film for Pixar?

Well, story, the story process which is the hellfire of all processes, it’s the hardest part of the process to make this sort of work, obviously. ‘Cause that’s where most of the problems come up, of whether the film’s working or not. It all boils down to the story. So I was forged in fire, so I am fine in fire. It doesn’t make any less hard, it’s still the hardest. Uh, it’s still the stuff that makes me sweat the most. I go home going, “AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” and frustrated. But I, I love it, I love that aspect of this giant puzzle that you have to make work.

So all the other departments are just like candy. You know, animation, layout, which is filmmaking for me, which I love. Animation, that’s all the acting. Then you’ve got, you know, lighting, design, sets. I mean, Everybody here is awesome.so fantastic. I get really inspired once that story’s locked. And they know what they’re doing and the assets that they have to create and build and shade and render and animate and stuff like that. But then we could just have fun. Right? So it’s a little overlapping, it[‘s not like story’s done and you go on the next — it’s all happening at the same time. But story’s the hardest.

What about the relationship between Merida and Elinor?

Originally it’s Brenda Chapman and her daughter’s relationship. And early on when the story’s working, they were really snippy, nasty. And it was always an issue going, “I hate Eleanor.” And then it would switch and they’d make her nice, and then you’d go, “Oh, I hate Merida.” So when I got on it, we hated both of them. And I’m going, “OHHHHHHHHH, how do I make these people likeable but still make it that real relationship that  they’re not listening to each other?

I start writing the script and get into that. People ask me about the story process all the time and I just say it’s alchemy.” Nobody knows how to do it. We only know when it’s working once we put up what we see and we go, “That sucks, take it down, figure out why it sucks, work on it some more.” You know, add this, that and the other thing. Put it back up. “Uhhhhh, that’s a little better but this is still weak.” Take it down and do it again. It’s all alchemy. Even John Lasseter, Andrew, the guys who have several Academy Awards littered on their desk. They say “That’s a lot of Academy Awards,” they go, “Yeah, I know but it doesn’t mean squat.” ‘Cause we’re back to zero every time we start a story.

 

So it’s all about the story. EEEEEKKK. I’m geeking out that it’s coming out in one week and I’m going to be seeing it in just a few days. Remember go see it in the theater June 22nd and buy the books for your kids summer reading list!!!!

 

 

Thanks to Disney/Pixar for the interview opportunity, travel and expenses.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: Behind The Pixar Movie Brave With Director Mark Andrews, brave, Disney, Elinor, interview, Merida, movie, Pixar, review

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