Short
report on Disney's Movie - 'Brave'
vineoflife
www.incpu.org/
So, welcome to this short analysis of
Disney's movie 'Brave'. This is the third of these reports on disney movies, and I hope (by God's grace) to do quite a few
more, as well as a short video explaining why I'm doing these short
studies/reports. I'm getting some little feedback that some people out there have
no idea why I'm doing these little studies, or why (in their opinion) I'm
honing in on disney. I expect to answer just a few of
those questions in a soon coming video (Lord-willing) ~ If you'd like me to
email you when I finish that coming video, you can email me so I can send it to
you when it's up ~ Steven.H3@gmail.com. ^_^ ~ Now, to the
movie report.
After studying this movie from a
variety of angles, I don't personally know what those at Disney's Pixar mean by
using the word 'brave', unless they mean brave in rebellion against God... but,
I think you'll see why I'm confused as we go along.
So, as usual, let's first look at the
short form of the story's plot, then analyze and look at other concerning
patterns in 'Brave.' Please note that this movie 'Brave' is not meant for kids
or anyone else, as far as I'm concerned. And my suggestion is that parents will
want to read this report *before* they share this report with their children,
because of some concerning content it exposes from the movie. As you read this
report and the concerning patterns, I think you'll understand why I say this :)
~ So, first, let's look at the story-plot of this film.
>> The story of 'Brave' (the
plot or storyline)
>>> A clarification: Please be aware that I watch as little of
these disney movies as I have to. I don't want all the
junk in my head and try to only spend the minimal amount of time to understand
the story, so that I can explain it and then analyze it from a Biblical
perspective. So, if I get a detail wrong here and there - I apologize, and now
you know why.
'Once
upon a time, in a far away land...' This one: Scotland. There lived a king,
queen, and their 4 children - 1 daughter and 3 sons. Now at this time in disney's Scotland, there were 3 warring factions - and they
insulted each other and beat-up on each other whenever they felt like it - for
'fun'. The king (Fergus) and queen (Elinor) ruled the land pretty well and kept
the fighting down to a dull roar.
In
the woods, there dwelt a fearsome black bear (named Mordu) who
was known for his destruction and murders - even against the fiercest of
warriors. When Fergus and Elinor had only a young daughter, they had a birthday
celebration for her (Merida) on the top of a mountain with a nice view. The
small party went well, but got a little more interesting when Fergus decided to
give his daughter her very own bow. So, with the queen's quiet disapproval,
they let little Merida practice with her new bow, and one arrow went over the
target and into the woods. So, Elinor sent little Merida to go find it. Merida
found it and made her way out of the woods, thanks to the help of 'will-o'-the-wisps' [more on
that later.] But, just barely out of the forest, little Merida hears
something behind her - it is none other than Mordu. The queen and daughter
barely escape by horseback, but the king stays to fight, and in the process
loses part of his leg and yet somehow escapes.
Skipping
many years later, when Merida is in her mid-teens to upper-teens. The family
now has the 3 little boys [triplets who are energetic trouble-makers in
mini-size], and all seems well and happy. That is until, the queen gets an
idea. The queen really loves her daughter and wants her to find a good husband
and 'live happily ever after'. So, Elinor arranges for the 3 warring tribes to
come for a competition: the oldest sons should compete in a series of games,
and the winner who wins the games and charms Merida will be invited for a fancy
dinner to move toward marriage. Elinor wants Merida to settle down and get
married and since Merida isn't moving quickly to do that, the queen decides to 'help'.
That doesn't go so well. The tribes arrive and the competition begins in the
morning. The first-contest - the 3 first-born sons of the tribe chiefs will
compete in archery. The first 2 completely miss the bull's eye, but the last
guy hits the bull's eye - none of them are quality guys, with any amount of
character. So, Merida decides to completely rebel against her Mom and goes out
and shoots at each of the 3 targets - hitting the bull's eye each time
(including slicing one competing arrow), defeating all 3 of these sons. So,
Merida's winning didn't go well later on in the conversation with her Mom.
Elinor
and Merida get in a big argument where they both trade insults. Elinor throws Merida's
bow in the fire. Merida tries to hold back her tears and runs away. Elinor
quickly retrieves the bow from the flames with little damage and begins to cry.
Merida runs deep into the forest on her horse. But, suddenly the horse stops -
throwing Merida to the ground just inside a circle of tall standing stone
columns [much like 'stonehedge' - more on that
later]. Merida's horse refuses to enter the stone circle or to follow
Merida into the forest further. But, Merida sees some 'will-o-the-wisps' [spirit-guides] and decides that
following them may lead her to something 'magical' or helpful... and they lead
her right to the house of a witch who pretends to just be a wood-carver. And,
after some coaxing, Merida convinces the witch to give her a spell that will
change Merida's fate and her Mom somehow - in exchange for a silver medallion. So,
after a ceremony and the almost-real life ritual and adding of ingredients to
the cauldron - out of one of the bubbles comes a small cake. The witch assures
Merida that this cake needs to be given to her Mom and then will change Elinor,
and Merida's fate.
So,
with cake in hand, Merida hops on her horse and races back to the castle. Elinor greets Merida warmly
and glad she's safe... and then proceeds to try to restart the ceremony that
will supposedly help pick a marriage partner for Merida. But, Merida has
another idea. Using some deceptive wording, Merida gives the cake to her Mom,
who after eating a tasty bite, then feels odd, then feels ill, and asks to be
helped back to her room to lie down. Minutes later - to the surprise of both
Merida and Elinor, Merida's Mom turns into a bear. Merida quickly realizes the
witch has tricked her and that if anyone sees Elinor as a bear, they will think
she is Mordu and kill her. So, they hastily escape the
castle, and run back to - yep, you guessed it: the witch's lodge... but. the witches house isn't there. So they hunt around till they
do find it. They hurry in to find it empty (the witch has left for a convention
of wood-carvers). The only thing they find is a message for Merida on how to
reverse the spell/incantation. The message says: ' Fate be changed, look inside.
Mend the bond torn by pride.'
- Clever rhyme, right? No... but, the witch's message further
explains that the curse can be reversed if everything is righted before the
second sunrise. Elinor and Merida quickly realize that they need to get back to
the castle to call off the games to find a marriage partner and mend the
tapestry Merida sliced in the argument. So, they run back and do just that, and
everything seems just fine - until they are trying to leave the castle and Fergus
sees Elinor (in the form of a bear) and thinks that he's seeing Mordu in the
castle. Fergus tries to kill the bear but Merida stops him and Elinor escapes
and runs from the castle... back to the stone circle.
Elinor
(in the form of a bear) is captured and they're about to kill her, when Mordu
shows up. Fergus leads the 3 warring tribes to attack Mordu immediately, but
Mordu smacks them out of the way easily. Then Merida tries to intervene, and
Mordu pounces on her and is about to kill Merida, when her Mom (Elinor in the
form of a bear) breaks free from the ropes and intervenes. The two bears fight
it out. Elinor gets hurt in the process, but does manage to kill Mordu by
slamming him into one of the standing stone columns, which breaks and crashes
down on Mordu just as Mordu is just about to destroy Elinor and Merida with one
swift blow. Now with Mordu dead, they all sigh in relief... and a spirit rises
from the Mordu's dead body and bows briefly to thank both Elinor and Merida for
break the curse, then vanishes [more on that later].
Merida
is able to help everyone realize that Elinor has been changed by the spell of
the witch, and so they all realize not to kill Elinor, and so - what can they
do? They sit around and chat and together they all wait and hope the
curse/incantation will be reversed by the second sunrise - according to the
witches 'prophecy'. Merida sobs a seemingly-sincere apology just as the sun is
rising over them. And, 'magically, Elinor is changed back to herself again [more
on this later].
Everyone cheers, and everyone 'lives happily ever after'... uh, sure... but,
that's how disney's lies go... Anyway ~ there's the
storyline. A crazy tale, huh? Let's look at some specific
details and you'll see: it gets weirder.
***
Okay,
concerns... Oh, where to start? Let's start with the column of standing stones
and 'will-o-the-wisps'.
Many of you reading this report have probably heard of a circle of aged stone
columns called 'stonehedge'. That is in England and it is a place where
sorcery, incantations and vile witchcraft rituals have taken place for many
years (including ritual rapes of young
women and the murder of babies as sacrifices and other wicked things like this)-
of course most of those evil deeds happen after dark. In disney's
'Brave', the place that Merida runs to - that circle of stone columns, it seems
to have some similarities to stonehedge to me. That's a *great* thing to teach
kids - right? Show reverence for the *magical* circle of stones... all of these
little inferences just get a child to become used to evil, desensitized by it,
instead of teaching the child to identify evil and learn to run from it (as God
teaches). "Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear
the LORD and depart from evil." (Proverbs
3:7)
Now, let's look at the 'will-o-the-wisps'.
You may remember that as Merida was running away, the horse stopped and threw
her into the circle of stone columns. Merida then proceeded to follow the 'will-o-the-wisps'
to the witches cottage. Let's next look at what these 'will-o-the-wisps'
are. An online definition or two gave me the general definition that
these mini-'magical' spirits have legends about leading people away from danger
to safety, or leading people to their doom, or leading people to where they'll
find information about their destiny. In Brave, disney
used them to lead Merida to safety on a few occasions, and to the witches
cottage where Merida could change her destiny (or fate) a couple of times. If
you look deeply enough, you'll see that disney always
pretends that those who can practice witchcraft have some extra ability to see
into the future and/or can use the helpful guide of their spirits to protect,
or warn a person concerning future things. So, now that we've looked a disney's confusion - what does the Bible say.
What
the 'will-o-the-wisps',
in reality, are is another way disney replaces angels
and demons (just like disney replaces God, angels and demons with fairies, or ghosts, or aliens,
etc). The Bible calls demons 'familiar spirits' for a reason. Almost always
demons present themselves as smarter, caring and able to help us, yet the only
ways they are trying to 'help' us is to stop following the 'heavy and
constrictive' holy ways of the Lord. That's not helping - that's trying to lead
people to their destruction, and trying to turn people (whom God created) to
become enemies of the Creator by each of us fighting for our own individual
selfish wants and desires and plans for our life, engaging in and enjoying sin,
and excusing and covering it up. Angels and demons are as real as you and me -
but they're invisible. Angels still serve the Creator and are careful to follow
the holy ways of the Lord and would never tempt anyone to do evil. However,
demons are always trying to get people to do what is wrong - knowing that the
sin will destroy them, and demons are often looking for people to join them in
their foolish and un-winnable fight against God. You may remember that when satan decided to become evil, he thought he could murder God
and take God's Throne by mutiny. Jesus explained this in detail when He was
rebuking some Jewish people who wanted to murder Him because of His teaching
content. "You are of your father the devil, and
the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the
father of it." (John 8:44) The devil, satan, in his scheme to take on God, also convinced
one-third of the angels to turn evil and join him in trying to overthrow their Creator.
In Revelation 12, God explains this fall and mutual joining of forces for a
mutiny: "The
dragon's tail drew a third of the stars [fallen angels/demons] of
heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who
was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born."
(Revelation 12:4) ~ Revelation 12 uses symbols to briefly remind us other clear
passages of God's Word that explain the history. That verse shows satan's fall
and mutiny with the demons and satan and the demons getting kicked out of God's
dwelling place - before Creation and the fall of man, then Revelation 12 skips
to the Messiah coming out of the people of Israel who has won the victory over
sin and satan, and will (shortly) bring satan's rebellion to an end. This is
the same dragon that spoke to Eve in the beautiful Garden of Eden (in the form of a serpent),
craftily asking: "Has God indeed said...?" (Genesis 3:1),
and then after planting the seeds of doubt in Eve's mind with his deceptive
question, satan then gave his next lie: "You will
not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
(Genesis 3:4-5) -- the age old lie: you can become
like God. But, of course satan didn't become like God
- neither can we.
This
serpent of old is the same one Jesus spoke of in John 10: "The thief comes only to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I [Jesus/Messiah] have come that they may have life,
and that they may have it more abundantly."
(John 10:10) God warns us many times in His Word not to seek advice from
demons, of seek to know the future by seeking a witch or by practicing
astrology or witchcraft (which includes the horoscope and the ouija
board). God even made it clear to flee witches or those who
practice magic. "You shall not eat anything with the
blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying."
(Leviticus 19:26) God set this boundary clear for the people of Israel: "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or
his daughter pass through the fire [burned child
sacrifice], or one who practices witchcraft,
or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who
conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For
all who do these things are an abomination [completely
repulsive and utterly despised, wicked, vile] to the
LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives the pagan
nations out from before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God."
(Deuteronomy 18:10-13)
The
devil indeed is very crafty. So, what are we supposed to do? "Be sober, be vigilant; because your
adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may
devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith [holding
firm to obedience to God's Word], knowing that the same sufferings
are experienced by your brotherhood in the world."
(1st Peter 5:8-9) And we are commanded to flee from idol worship - or idolatry.
Those are two different words for the same thing. When we seek to gain wisdom
from satan and demons in some way, that's idolatry against
God. We are commanded in Scripture to turn and run from that. "Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry."
(1st Corinthians 10:14) ~ "Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue
righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure
heart." (2nd Timothy 2:22) ~ And again:
" Little children, [guard against and] keep yourselves from idols. Amen."
(1st John 5:21)
God,
through Paul teaches us this strongly as well in 1st Corinthians: "What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is
offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles
sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to
have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord
and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table
and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to
jealousy? Are we stronger than He? All
things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful
for me, but not all things edify." (1st
Corinthians 10:19-23)
~ And
again, God through Paul says: "... For what
fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?
And what communion has light with
darkness? And what accord has Christ with satan? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God
has said: 'I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their
God, and they shall be My people.' Therefore 'Come out from among them and be separate, says the
Lord. Do not touch [engage in] what is unclean, and I will receive you.' 'I will be a
Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters',
says the LORD Almighty. Therefore, having these promises,
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of [sin from] the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God." (2nd
Corinthians 6:14 - 7:1)
Personally,
what I love to see is when those who love God's Word and follow the teachings
of Jesus, sort through their stuff and throw out the demonic fantasy and
witchcraft-infiltrated books, movies, games, just like the people did in Asia
(Acts 19) - burning their books on magic and sorcery. "Also, many of those who had practiced
magic brought their books together and
burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it
totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the Word of the Lord grew mightily
and prevailed." (Acts 19:19-20)
***
Okay, next topic: legends. Didn't
expect that one, huh? Well, neither did I, but since it's a serious confusion
in this movie, we need to discuss it. In one of the talks Elinor has with her
daughter, Elinor starts to share a legend and Merida calls in an old story, so
Elinor makes this statement - 'It’s
not just a story, Merida. Legends are lessons, and they ring with truths!'. So... in case you didn't catch it, disney is teaching kids that we can learn some truth from
all legends... great stuff to teach kids. It's like saying: 'Kids, find some truth in every lie. They're
all the same anyway, right?...' *sigh* ~ No, not
everything the culture and disney calls a 'story' is the same. The world and
pagan culture around us call God's Word a book of stories, legends and myths.
Yet God is not the liar here - satan and the pagan
culture are. So, what does God say about myths? I'm glad you asked ~ "Oh Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the
profane and idle babblings [myths, legends] and contradictions [against
God's Word] of what is falsely called
knowledge..."
(1st Timothy 6:20) ~ And since we're talking about this legend in 'Brave',
let's also look at one more detail. The
'legend' goes that there was a King who was 'good and kind', and he had four
sons to whom he passed on the rule of the Kingdom. One son wanted to rule all of the kingdom, so he sought to murder his brothers,
etc, etc ~ and it plunged the whole kingdom into chaos and strife, and
apparently led to the destruction of the kingdom and its people.
- In the process of the one son trying to overcome the other sons, he
apparently sought the same witch that Merida talked to and got a spell that
would 'help' him. But, somehow after that, he did something that caused the
witch to curse him - into the form of a bear. That bear is Mordu. Yeah - back full-circle. Strange,
twisted story, huh? I agree... but that's disney.
So, anyway... after Elinor (in the form of a bear) kills Mordu by getting one
of the stone columns to crash down on him - you remember that 'spirit' that
came up from the bear? That 'spirit' was supposedly the 'soul' of the one
son-king who wanted to murder to get all of the
kingdom. And, in disney's story, the reason he bowed
to thank Elinor and Merida was because - though dead, he was finally released from
being trapped inside the body of the bear. ~ Now, what truth were we supposed
to learn from that twisted tale? ... None, except to flee
from witches and old twisted legends.
***
Okay, so that's two of the main
subjects that got my interest. Here's the last one - pushing of indecent and
immoral thoughts and ideas on kids. Here are several examples from 'Brave'.
-- Early on in the story, we watch
Merida defy her Mom and join the games to fight for her own hand (supposedly so
she won't be forced to get married). What I didn't mention there was that
Elinor had picked a very tight (and stifling) dress for Merida, calling it
'beautiful'. The culture pushes tight clothing, but God's Word teaches modesty
and tight-clothing is the opposite of that. Moving forward, though, when Merida
tries to fire the first arrow, she tears her dress in the back and a few places
on both sides. The movie shows nothing indecent, because she has an under-dress
on - but just those suggestions are really evil to give to kids.
-- Another example of this disgusting
undertone was when one of the 3 tribe-chief's sons hit the bull's eye (by
accident), his Dad dances and then lifts up his kilt
for those behind him to see his private area. *shudders* -
also not good material for kids.
-- Another example of this disgusting
undertone is at the very beginning, when Fergus and Elinor are watching little
Merida start to learn how to shoot arrows (at the very beginning of the film),
Merida overshot and Elinor sends her to retrieve the arrow. After
little Merida leaves, Elinor begins to scold Fergus for giving his daughter a
bow when so young. Fergus laughs and then touches some part of Elinor's
backside and Elinor jumps a little with surprise and then they both sort of
laugh about it together, and the scene moves on... again disgusting stuff to
give to kids. That is only meant for the bedroom of a husband and wife behind
closed doors.
-- Another example of this disgusting
undertone is toward the end. Merida has been locked in an
room of the castle while her Dad, Fergus, chases Elinor (in the form of a bear)
while he thinks it's Mordu (the evil black bear). Back to the castle, Merida
tries to get the maid to unlock the door and let her out, but she refuses and
backs away from Merida and the 3 little triplet brothers (who became bears
because they ate the cake too). So, when the maid backs away, Merida tells her
3 little brothers (in the form of a bear) to get the key. The maid then sticks
the key into the top of her dress (implied into her upper underwear) and runs
away. The 3 little brothers chase her and then meet her in another dark room.
The maid is surprised to see them, then counts and sees only 2 of them and
realizes one is missing. The maid then looks for the other one and turns to see
him as he jumps into the top of her low-cut dress and retrieves the key (the getting of the key is off-screen, but
enough has been shown to stir little minds to think about things they shouldn't).
-- Another example of this disgusting
undertone is at the end. When Elinor is first changed into the
a bear, she's shocked, then mutters at Merida, then they both agree to
flee the castle. That's when Elinor realizes that she's not wearing her usual
dress. Elinor freaks but Merida quickly notes that she's covered in bear fur so
she's okay. - Skipping to the end. Everyone (king, queen, warring tribes,
Merida) are all together at the circle of stone columns way out in the woods.
Merida covers Elinor with the tapestry and then gives the sobbing apology right
before the second sunrise. Then Merida is crying and clinging to Elinor (in the
form of a bear), and 'magically', Elinor is changed back to herself and is then
brushing Merida's hair and they hug and hold each other tightly. Then Fergus
comes over and joins the hug. They're all smiling and chatting when Merida
looks at her Mom and realizes that the fur is gone and she doesn't have any
clothes on, except the tapestry. Elinor looks to see what Merida was pointing
to and pulls the tapestry around her better and notes to her husband that she's
n*ked with a few extra words. Fergus then stares at what the camera can't see.
Elinor then tells him to stop staring and do something
- that is tell the men of the tribes to turn around. So Fergus commands them to
turn around - which they do, then peak back to see whatever they want to *sigh*...
and then the 3 little brothers (who
have also changed back to their normal selves and have no fur or clothes on)
run on screen and the king and queen embrace them and the movie wraps up from
there... *shudders again* ~ To kids... Why is disney
giving trash like this - to kids? Children don't yet know what's right and
wrong and more easily play with things that will hurt them, unless taught not
to... *sigh* I think you can see why that stuff just frustrates me. It's
sickening.
Other topics that would need discussing
(among yourselves on in a later study), but I don't have time her would be
arranged marriages [I think never a
good idea]and disney teaching kids to rebel against their parents if
they don't want to do what they Dad and Mom tell them... One last note and
verse - you will find nothing of parents disciplining children here, only
psychology and bribes to get the desired actions/responses. Yet, God says:
"Foolishness is bound up in the heart
of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him." (Proverbs 22:15) ~ And again
"He who spares his rod hates his son, but
he who loves him disciplines him promptly." (Proverbs 13:24) ~ Remember that
the pagan world calls all Biblical 'discipline' abuse and teach
parents to use demonically-inspired psychology instead. Yet, abuse and
discipline are very different. Abuse is the use of force to hurt and take
advantage of a child. Discipline is an act of love, carefully using some form
of correction to keep a child from running to rebellious choices that will hurt
them. Abuse and discipline are two different things - despite the world's lies.
Well, that's all for this report. Thank
you for reading it. Even more importantly - thank you for caring about your
kids (and others) enough to teach them right and wrong. May the Lord bless you
as you grow in following Christ and teaching your children to do the same, love
His Word and spend quality time in it!
~ your
friend/brother, a growing servant/life-slave of Jesus, SH
***
Steven Henry is a Bible
student, Bible teacher and a reporter with the INCPU news team. Steven is
regular contributor on the 'Vine of Life' team of reporters. - http://www.incpu.org
