Things In Brave That Only Adults Seem To Notice

2022 marks the 10th anniversary of the Disney/Pixar film "Brave," a stunningly beautiful movie set in the highlands of medieval Scotland. The story revolves around Merida, a princess of the Clan DunBroch who is fiercely independent, having become an expert rider and archer instead of a "proper" princess. Merida' parents, Queen Elinor and King Fergus, want her to marry one of the sons of the neighboring clans, but Merida absolutely refuses. Instead, she seeks out a witch that will help change her fate. But the spell isn't what she expects. Instead of changing her mother's mind, it changes her mother into a bear. Merida must find a way to break the spell or lose her mother for good.

"Brave" is a wonderful story of mother-daughter connections, but also a coming-of-age story. The battle between mother and daughter to understand one another is so relatable for many women that "Brave" is one of those movies that mothers may eventually show their daughters in order to help ease the passage of time and the growing pains of adulthood. But watching "Brave" as an adult and even as a parent is quite different than watching it as a kid. Here are some things only adults will notice about "Brave."

It's funny — when you grow up watching animated films with headstrong teenagers, you identify with the plight of the teenage leads. But as you age into adulthood, you develop a little more sympathy for the adults. As a grown-up, you might look a little more critically at Ariel's abandonment of her entire family and setting off to find a solution from a sea witch in "The Little Mermaid." You may also a little more skeptical of any Disney princess who wants to marry someone they just met — hello Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White — and Merida is no exception.

Yes, Merida tried to talk to her mother about the fact that she didn't want to get married and how she didn't want the life Elinor was trying to push on her. But Merida also should have been a little more responsible when it came to seeking out a witch and magic to "change her fate." Turning her mother into a bear, even though she didn't know that would be the outcome, is all a little extreme, and she was definitely pretty wrong for trying to force magic on her own mother, especially when it could have been permanent and she'd have lost her forever.

Someone who could have helped a little more, however, was Fergus, Merida's father and the King... though we all know he wasn't in charge. Fergus does seems like a loving husband, kind man, and good leader, but he's a little checked out when it comes to fatherhood or parenting of any kind. It is an unfortunate stereotype when it comes to dads. Sadly, Fergus fits into the mold of a father who doesn't really get involved. In the big conflict with Merida and Elinor, he just shrugs his shoulders, keeps on with his tasks, and leaves it up to the women to handle. Just imagine if Fergus had actually tried to act as a mediator between Elinor and Merida, the whole bear thing might have been avoided.

Not listening comes into play later on when Fergus doesn't listen to Merida that the bear he was trying to kill was actually his wife. He's so rage bent on killing the bear because of his past traumatic experience with Mor'du that he ignores Merida's pleas and almost kills his greatest love and the mother of his children. Fergus needs to listen better, and he probably also needs therapy to work through his traumatic bear experience. 

Chess nerds may recognize the chess set that Elinor uses to tell a story in "Brave." In the film, Elinor uses a chess set to tell the story of the ancient king and his four sons. She places the chess board on top of four chess pieces, perfectly balancing it, reflecting that the king had divided the kingdom equally among his four sons. But one prince, who we later learn is turned into the bear Mor'du, wanted to rule for himself, and led the kingdom into chaos and ruin. Elinor pulls one chess piece from the base and the whole set goes tumbling onto the floor.

Much like other elements of "Brave," Elinor's chess set or Merida's we can assume since it's in her room, is historically accurate. The set resembles the Lewis Chess Set, which, according to the National Museums of Scotland, "give us fascinating insights into the international connections of western Scotland and the growing popularity of chess in medieval Europe." The set, made from walrus ivory and sperm whale teeth, was found in 1831 on the Scottish island of Lewis and dates back to the 12th Century, giving us more of an idea of when "Brave" takes place. 

Hiring Kelly Macdonald to play Merida was probably wise, giving that Reese Witherspoon couldn't make the Scottish accent happen. And Emma Thompson and Julie Walters, who are English, could also pull one off pretty well too. The rest of the cast are actually Scottish as well, making it pretty easy for the voice cast to portray believable Scottish accents.

But what about wee MacGuffin? A big joke in the film is made about how no one can understand him. Kevin McKidd, a native Scot who voices both Lord MacGuffin and Young MacGuffin, uses a real language in those scenes, not just a made up accent. "It's actually a dialect from Elgin, my hometown," McKidd told The Huffington Post. "My grandfather spoke it fluently. It's called the Doric. It's an old farming dialect from the North East of Scotland, and it's absolutely authentic, even though it seems completely made up. People in the North East of Scotland will be the only people on the planet who understand what Young MacGuffin is saying. I feel very proud that I've managed to get this very unusual, niche dialect that not many people know of into a Disney movie. It's the dialect of my upbringing. I feel pretty chuffed with that."

Adults who follow gender equality in Hollywood may know that Disney/Pixar celebrated a milestone when it hired Brenda Chapman as the studio's first female director. Chapman had made history in 1998 when she became the first female director of an animated film for a major studio with "The Prince of Egypt." Chapman conceived of the story for "Brave" and developed the project, but her involvement didn't cross the finish line. Chapman was fired from the project and replaced with Mark Andrews.  Accusations of sexism were placed on the powers that be at Pixar, and in later years, Chapman spoke of the incident a number of times herself. "I think with what's happened with John Lasseter [reflects] the toxic environment that was Pixar at that time," Chapman told Bustle. "It really was a difficult time.

Whatever happened, Chapman got what she really deserved in the end: she became the first female director to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. 

At the end of the film, when Elinor, while transformed into a bear, defeats the giant Mor'du, one of the ancient stones falls on top of him, killing him. At that moment, the spirit of the ancient prince in the story that Elinor had told Merida appears as a blue, shimmery spirit. He bows his head to them in thanks before his soul transforms into a Will o' the Whisp and disappears into the forest. His spirit finally free of the body of Mor'du, the prince's soul is redeemed. 

Will O' the Whisps appear in a variety of cultures, but in Scottish folklore, they are a small bright little type of spirit, fairy, or ghost that leads a traveler either onto the right path or to their doom. In "Brave," they're set up like little blue flames and the end of the film implies that they are the spirits of people who have died. The idea that Mor'du was once a man and that his soul can be redeemed as a wisp imbues "Brave" with an element of spirituality that adults might appreciate a bit more than kids.