Summary of Brave

As discussed in class:
Princess Merida receives a bow and arrow from her father on her 5th(?) birthday – mother disapproves because it is not ladylike.
Merida sees will o’the wisps when she searches for a lost arrow. Her mother tells her they lead people to their fates. As Merida practises her new skill, the family is attacked by ‘Mordou’, a legendarily large bear. Merida’s father defends them.
Title sequence: Merida talks about her family – her three brothers who are monsters (tricksters) and who get away with anything, and herself who is expected to be a princess. Montage of mother telling Merida everything that is expected of a princess. BUT there is one day when she isn’t expected to be a princess – her birthday.
Montage of Merida riding her horse and climbing a particularly high cliff and drinking from a waterfall. After her return home for dinner, Merida interrupts her father’s story about the bear attack, effectively taking on his role. She tells her mother of her feat. Her father is excited; her mother doesn’t listen.
Same scene – mother forces father to tell Merida that she is expected to choose a husband very soon; to that end, they have invited their allied clans to present suitors.
Merida and her mother have separate conversations about how they feel – Merida to her horse, the mother to her husband. The conversation is cut so it seems like they are talking to each other. It becomes apparent that they want different things: the mother ‘what’s best’ and Merida ‘to be heard’.
The suitors arrive with their clans. Massive displays of masculinity. Merida is told that the first born of every clan may compete for her hand – she realises that she is the first born of her clan. She chooses archery as the deciding competition.
The competition: the boy suitors each take their turn (badly). One manages to hit the centre of the target. Merida announces that she will be competing for her own hand and wins, much to the displeasure of her mother.
Major fight between mother and Merida which ends with Merida slicing the family tapestry, creating a rent between the picture of her mother and the picture of herself.
Merida goes on a horse ride and sees more will o’the wisps. She follows them to a witch’s cottage and is given a magical pie which will ‘change her fate.’
On returning home, Merida gets her mother to eat the pie as a form of reconciliation. Her mother becomes ill and Merida sneaks her to her bedroom, where the mother turns into a bear.
The pair sneak out of the castle because the father, smelling a bear on the premises, starts a bear hunt. Merida leads her mother to the witch’s cottage to find it empty, but with a message – the bond broken by pride must be mended within two sunrises or the spell will be permanent.
Merida and her mother bond while catching fish. They bond further when they stumble into the lair of Mordou, and Merida realises that Mordou is a legendary prince who used the same spell to gain strength to defeat his brothers. A broken tablet of the four brothers gives Merida the clue that she must repair the tapestry to fix the spell.
The two sneak back into the castle. To cover her bear-mother’s ascension up the stairs, Merida gives a speech to the warring clans, saying she is willing to marry one of the suitors. Midway through her speech she sees a signal from her mother that all of the children of the clans should be free to follow their hearts, fall in love naturally and decide when they are grown who her husband will be.
As they are fetching the tapestry, Merida’s mother momentarily turns into a real bear, forgetting her human self. This attracts the attention of the father, who assumes the bear has eaten his wife. Bear-mum (now back to being a human inside a bear) is horrified at what she’s done and flees the castle.
Merida tells her father that the bear is her mum but the father doesn’t believe her and locks her in her room. With the help of Merida’s three brothers – now little bears because the greedy buggers ate the rest of the pie – Merida escapes with the tapestry and her brothers and chases the group now hunting her mum.
During the chase, Merida sees more will o’the wisps and follows them on a short cut. In the meantime, Mum has been captured and tied with ropes. Dad is about to give her a stabbing when Merida arrives and fights him off.
Then Mordou arrives. Mum fights Mordou, who has focussed on Merida. The mum uses her wits to get Mordou crushed by a falling standing stone. As he dies, the legendary prince’s ghost appears and turns into a will o’the wisp.
Merida places the repaired tapestry around her mum as the sunrise occurs, but she remains a bear – losing her human personality. Merida, in tears, tells her mum that she’s sorry and she wishes she could undo what she’s done, and that she knows her mum was always there for her (somehow avoiding being eviscerated by what is now a confused wild bear). Mum transforms back. Comedy about nakedness ensues.
Final scenes: the suitors are going home, the family is whole again, and Merida and her mum go on an adventurous wild horse ride again.