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. 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….
Later scenes illustrate Elinor’s tendency toward more orthodox gender roles and highlight her more negative “feminine” qualities. 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.
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. 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. 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 Disney/Pixar animated feature Brave (2012) highlights both an extended clan-based vision of family and an unusual parent/child relationship.
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