Discussing Brave

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Scott D. Southard

This discussion/review is filled with spoilers so if you have not seen Brave… Well, go see it, it is great.

I’m not sure whether to compliment the marketing division at Disney or scold them, but Brave is not the movie they were selling to us. Oh, it is a good film, and I really enjoyed the trip, but it’s not the film I felt like we were seeing in the ads.

Yes, there is magic, there is the princess with the bow, there is some adventure in the end, but it is not on a grand magical stage. If anything the film seems smaller than all that, and even seems to decrease in size over the picture, since we keep returning to locations we have seen before, again and again.

Yes, in many ways, Brave is a small and personal film, with only a small cast dealing with an issue that doesn’t affect the entire world but only one country in a minor political way. Kingdoms are not going to fall because of this story. Princess Merida is not fighting to save the world with all of the odds against her; no she is only trying to save one person, her mom. Continue reading →

Pixar: the Film Studio I Would Sell My Soul to Write For

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Scott D. Southard

Being a parent of young children has made me an expert in a few different, new, and exciting fields.

You need to talk about superheroes, I am your man. If you want to discuss which lullaby CDs are best, and more importantly, work, talk to me. Which TV shows for kids might actually educate your child, I’m an e-mail away. Also, if you want to know about Pixar, I have an altar for them in my house.

Well, maybe not a real altar, but it does feel that way sometimes. Of course, can you truly use the word altar to describe a state that seems to have taken over your whole house? From the toys on the ground to the boy dressed like Dash from The Incredibles.

In my house, simply put, we live Pixar films.

Heck, when I discovered I was going to be having a daughter, her first present from me was a talking Jessie doll. Looking back, I think I honestly made the purchase immediately after calling my family members.

Yet, my own personal love for Pixar goes beyond just the joy they give to my children. As a student of film and a writer, I respect them more than most filmmakers working today. I have yet to be disappointed by a Pixar film; and their weakest film is still far and away better than most exhaled from other studios for our children to consume (Alvin and the Chipmunks, how about The Smurfs, Shrek, etc.; I feel dirty just referencing these films in an editorial about the genius that is Pixar).

Here are three reasons why I am a fan, and would, quite honestly, sell my soul to work with them as a writer: Continue reading →

Why Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Kind of Disturbs Me

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Scott D. Southard

I’m a Disney fan.

If I had to make a list of three people I would like to meet alive and/or dead, Walt would be on that list for me, just for the sheer creativity he had in his life. I also had season passes for Disneyland when I lived in Los Angeles. Heck, thanks to an app on my iPhone I can tell you right now that there is a 20 minute wait to get on Space Mountain; and I am in Michigan as I write that fact. So, yeah, I’m a fan.

When it comes to the movies, I lean more towards THE JUNGLE BOOK and the Pixar films (especial WALL-E and THE INCREDIBLES) as compared to the princess movies (We’ll see how that changes when my daughter starts watching things at age 2), however I have seen all of their animated films at one point or another. Yet, of all of the films it is always BEAUTY AND THE BEAST that leaves me scratching my head in confusion. Continue reading →