BIG SCREEN: Brave 3D Revieux (Rated PG)

From the second it begins, Brave definitely has a different vibe than most Disney princess movies. It’s beautiful and ethereal, but with a slight… darkness and depth, I guess? It’s hard to pinpoint, but there’s a quality about it that makes it feel more akin to centuries-old European fables than to the Americanized cotton candy fairytales of the last several decades. So, off to a good start.

And then, we meet Merida (Kelly Macdonald). She’s a young Scottish princess whose unruly red hair matches her wild, adventurous spirit. Though she’d rather charge through the forest on her trusty steed and practice extreme archery and execute death-defying rock-climbs, her lovely, graceful, almond-eyed mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) desperately tries to instill in her daughter a sense of royal duty and decorum. The two stand in stark contrast to one another, and they are constantly butting heads.

When Merida finds out she is to become betrothed against her will, she makes some reckless choices that put her mother and the entire kingdom in peril. There’s no doubt she’s gutsy, but she’ll now have to rely on her heart and her head to right these terrible wrongs.

One of the things I loved most about this movie is that it didn’t lay out a standard good guys vs. bad guys scenario. No evil stepmother, no pristine heroine, no smarmy prince. All the principal characters were more complicated. They had flaws, made mistakes, faced major challenges, and learned valuable lessons. WOW! Just like in real life. What a concept.

I really, really dug Brave, and am hoping it resonates with kids. It’s got magic and humor and awesome characters -- her burly dad (Billy Connolly) and mischievous and mute triplet brothers are pure delight -- and I think Merida might be my favorite Disney princess ever. Mainly because she is the anti-Disney princess. And the fact that my six-year-old son wanted to discuss the moral of the story and the meaning of the metaphors (my words, not his, but still!) proves that a cartoon can actually be mentally stimulating to kids.

There’s a time and place for schmaltz and mindless silliness, but it sure is nice to get treated to a little smarting up instead of dumbing down in a kids' movie every now and then!