Pixar's Identity In Brave

Brave, Home and Scotland Welcome to Scotland! In the movie, Brave by Pixar, the story of a mother and daughter’s struggling to communicate is infused with Scottish influences. Striving to preserving many Scottish tradition, Pixar showcases Scotland’s great symbol the kilt and masters the art of the great kilt. Magic an intricate part of Scotland, Pixar uses to enhance their story and add some enchantment. Capturing some of the essence of Scotland’s culture, Brave allows us a peek into a Scotland of a time past. Following the tale of a mother and daughter that struggle to see eye to eye, Pixar uses a story line that crosses every culture boundary. In brave, the daughter Merida is a strong willed young girl, determined to make it on her …show more content…
The Clan Dun Broch (Merida’s Family) wears a tartan in the pattern of a blue background with a red square highlighted by a yellow cross in the middle of each square. Clan Macintosh’s tartan is a red background and green lines that are outlined in yellow. Clan MacGuffin’s is a green background with red strips that make the squares. It is the opposite of the Macintoshes. The last clan, Clan Dingwall tartan is light yellow with squares of green and red. Under the tartans the men either wore a shirt or not. In most clans, the women wore the tartan as part of their dresses as either a shawl or tied in a fashion around their waist. Unfortunately, the few women presented in the movie do not hold up to this tradition maybe because of their royal …show more content…
The witch gives out spells and helps the characters to see past their differences. Witches in medieval times were persecuted and burned at the stacks. Scotland alone has around 4,000 cases of witches being burned documented. This may explain why Pixar chose to have the witch hiding as a wood carver. The Will O Wisp aid the Merida (main character) in finding her way to the witch. There are “various explanations for the Will o' the Wisps, the most general being that they are malevolent spirits either of the dead or non-human intelligence. They have a mischievous and often malevolent nature, luring unwary travelers into dangerous situations.” (Parkinson). The queen states in the movie that they lead you to your fate. Will o Wisp play a small but impactful part of the movie. Following the Wisp in a different scene Merida encounters a stone circle. Littering the Scotland landscape stone circles are believed to have been used for ancient ritual and to hold magical powers at certain times of the year. In Brave, the stone circle is shown as being mystical and enchanted and deserving of the respect of a more power being and they are used to help break a magical spell. Magic is powerful and is an instrument many people believe in. By using it in the film, Pixar was able to bring the mystical power to the big Screen. Scotland may be a long way away but it can be visited briefly in