Monday 25 June 2012

0 Disney Pixar's Brave heights US box office table

Brave, the latest animated feature from Disney Pixar, has made its debut at number one in the US box office chart, according to early estimates.

The film made $66.7m (£42.8m) in its opening weekend, knocking Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted off the top spot.

Brave, about a princess in medieval Scotland, is the first Disney Pixar animation with a female protagonist.

Action thriller Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was the second highest new entry at number three.

Disney Pixar's Brave tops US box office chart

The film, whose cast includes the British actors Dominic Cooper and Rufus Sewell, took a total of $16.5m (£10.6m) over the weekend.

Brave, which will close the Edinburgh International Film Festival later this week, is the the 13th consecutive Pixar release to open at number one.

"Their track record is just unbelievable," said Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

"The Pixar brand just carries so much weight with the audience. It doesn't matter almost what the story is about if it has the Pixar name."

Brave's heroine, who rebels against her family's plans for her to marry, is voiced by Kelly Macdonald, of Trainspotting and Boardwalk Empire fame.

Keira Knightley's latest film, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, made its debut at number 10.

It's three-day takings of $3.8m (£2.4m) reflected the fact it had a more limited release than the rest of the titles in this week's Top 10.

Woody Allen's Italian romance, To Rome With Love, opened in five cinemas and made $379,371 (£243,905).

That gave the film an average of $75,874 (£48,780) per screen, compared to the $16,028 (£10,307) screen average for Brave.

Review

Brave is a 2012 American 3D computer-animated fantasy adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It was written by Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman and Irene Mecchi, directed by Andrews and Chapman and co-directed by Purcell. The film's voice cast features Kelly Macdonald, Julie Walters, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane and John Ratzenberger. To make the most complex visuals possible, Pixar completely rewrote their animation system for the first time in 25 years. It is also the first movie ever to use the Dolby Atmos sound format.

In Brave, set in the highlands of 10th century Scotland, a skilled archer named Merida defies an age-old custom, causing chaos in her kingdom. After consulting a witch for help, her family becomes cursed and Merida is forced to undo the spell herself before it is too late. Brave premiered on June 10, 2012, at the Seattle International Film Festival, and was released in North America on June 22, 2012, to positive reviews.

Preceding the film is a short film entitled La Luna, directed by Enrico Casarosa.

In the Scottish kingdom of DunBroch, King Fergus presents his young daughter, Merida, with a bow and arrow for her birthday, to the discomfort of Merida's mother, Queen Elinor. During their outing, a giant bear named Mor'du, attacks the family with Fergus fighting off the bear while Elinor and Merida escape, at the cost of his left leg.

Years later, Elinor, who has since given birth to identical triplet boys, teaches Merida in the ways of the court, such as playing an instrument and proper manners. The princess is determined to practice her archery and explore the kingdom on her horse, Angus. The Lords Macintosh, MacGuffin, and Dingwall present their first-born sons to compete for Merida's hand. Merida chooses an archery challenge to determine her suitor, as she knows she is the first born of a great leader, enabling her to compete and she can defeat the others easily. Lord Dingwall's son wins by accident, but Merida enters herself as first-born of DunBroch and shoots the targets over Elinor's objections. The two have a falling out, resulting in Merida destroying a sewn tapestry depicting the family and Elinor throwing her daughter's bow into the fireplace. Only after Merida leaves in tears does Elinor realize her mistake; she tries to save the bow, but it is already damaged, leaving her to cry over it.

Fleeing to the forest, Merida encounters a trail of will-o'-the-wisps that lead her to an elderly witch's hut. The witch disguises herself as a simple whittler of wood, but as Merida notices her broom and talking crow, she sees through her ruse, and bargains with the witch for a spell that will change Elinor, thus changing Merida's fate. The witch conjures a small cake for Merida to give to her mother. In DunBroch, Elinor eats the cake and later transforms into a bear. With the help of the triplets, Merida and Elinor sneak out of the castle past Fergus and the celebrating clans. The pair return to the witch's cottage, where after tripping a Rube Goldberg booby trap they find a potion-controlled automated message left for Merida: the spell will be permanent unless undone by the second sunrise. The witch leaves Merida a riddle, mentioning that a bond must be repaired.

Merida teaches Elinor how to catch fish with her bow, and the two begin to reconcile; however, Elinor, for a brief period, forgets who she is and acts like a real bear, nearly mauling Merida. They are led by more wisps to the ruins of an old castle. In the throne room, Merida finds a damaged stone engraving with three brothers; a fourth brother had been cut off, just like how Merida had cut her mother off of the tapestry. Merida realizes that the curse had happened before, that the wayward brother was transformed into Mor'du, and Elinor will lose all traces of her humanity like Mor'du if they do not break the spell. They travel back to DunBroch to sew the family tapestry back together. To distract Fergus and the lords, who are on the verge of war after impatiently waiting to know which suitor Merida has chosen, Merida brings the four factions back together and with some direction from Elinor, declares that the sons should choose their own brides. Fergus goes to their bedroom and finds Elinor's ripped clothes and broken bed, mistaking his wife for dead. He bursts into the tapestry room where he finds Merida and Elinor as a bear. Elinor, once again reverting to a normal bear, attacks Fergus, and after realizing she has harmed both Merida and Fergus, flees.

Merida tries to convince her father that the bear is Elinor, but Fergus locks her in the room and sets off with the lords to capture and kill the bear. Merida is freed with the help of her brothers who retrieve the key from the maid. They were turned into cubs after eating the same cake, and the four follow wisps to where Fergus has captured Elinor. Merida defends Elinor by confronting Fergus, but he throws her aside and she is restrained by Lord Macintosh. She escapes, but Mor'du attacks the party. When the bear lunges for Merida, Elinor intervenes to protect her daughter and battles Mor'du. Elinor tricks Mor'du into attacking a weakened stone pillar, which eventually collapses onto and kills the demon bear. The group sees a wisp emerge from Mor'du's body, which reveals the human form of the fourth brother, whose spirit is now freed from the curse. He then flies away to join the other wisps. Merida puts the repaired tapestry on top of her wounded mother. But when the sun starts to rise, Elinor begins to permanently become a bear. Merida then bursts into treats and admits that it was all her fault and that she wants her mother back. As she sobs "I love you," the rift is mended, and Elinor and the boys return to human form. The kingdoms, having rekindled their own bonds, go their separate ways, except for young Dingwall who has apparently fallen in love with Merida, as the ships leave, though it is revealed Merida's brothers have stowed away on Macintosh's ship, causing Fergus to go after them and the ship. Merida and Elinor ride their horses through Scotland, both having changed for the better.

In a post-credits scene, one of the guards in front of the castle is awakened by the witch's pet crow asking him to sign for delivery of a large collection of wooden sculptures, which Merida had bought from the witch earlier in the film.
Thanks: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18576493 & Wikipedia

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