So you want to be a LEGO MASTER BUILDER?

I kinda wish I could start this post by letting you assume that I got the job and became a LEGO MASTER BUILDER, but I didn't…However I don't think that means you shouldn't keep reading…


If you dream to be a LEGO MASTER BUILDER or if you want to know all about the whole process and how it felt, then keep reading! I know before I went, I wanted to know all I could about the whole process...

So to be a Lego Master Builder you compete in a Lego Brick Factor Competition.
It typically starts with a build that they tell you about the theme in advance, then they narrow it down, and then once again and pick the winner from that last group.

So build one…
I'm nervous.
  
When I arrived there had already been a build, and the next section was starting…
Round one was broken up into about 5 different groups of about 15-20 people… we started with 79 people. I was in build 3. It was kinda nice to see what people had already built and watch people build, to get a feel for how it was going to go.

My goal? To make it to the 2nd round. I just wanted to make it past the first round…
They told us that the first build was your favourite Animal.
They also told us a big part of the selection process was how we interacted with the crowd… which I was a bit bummed that my wife and child couldn't come, but I was going to interact with the crowd I didn't know as best as I could…

My time finally came up, and did I mention I was nervous?
We got 30 mins and when I started my hands were shaking a bit…
You see I had planned and practiced to build an Orca. I had built it with a lot of small bricks from my collection… but what I came to realize was that there was no small Lego Bricks!
Furthermore each colour had only 2-3 types of bricks. So when I went to use the black, that I wanted for my Orca, I found that there was only 2x 8 and 1x6 thin… I actually almost didn't go with building the orca…
but…

I went for it, and boy am I glad I did… everyone loved it…
10mins in I wasn't shaking and was having fun building my orca, talking with the crowd and the judges.
I finished the orca and knew it needed something more than just a whale sitting on a table for everyone to see, so I started building the water base…


Yeah so see the blue pieces that it's leaning on?
In the last 30seconds I attached them and made the orca balance on it. I had shaky hands again…

But I was so glad I went for it and got it to display properly… Display after all is almost more important than what you built…





Well After my round finished I ate lunch and then came back to watch the final section of round 1 build.
Also we had name tags on, so I regularly got asked, 'what did you build' To which I would say the 'orca' or 'killer whale', to which everyone replied, really? I was just saying how that was my favourite build!' or something to that affect… really I don't joke everyone mentioned that they loved my whale…
They had all of our builds displayed throughout the whole process for the growing crowds to see.

The final section finished the judges had deliberated and it was time to pick 30 of us to move on to the next round…

I was so nervous, this was the moment I found out if I achieved my goal…
They were going to have 2 sections of the 2nd build so they announced it in 2 sections.
After the first 15 people were announced, I was starting to tell myself things like, well maybe you're in the 2nd round, or maybe you didn't make it, and that's okay right? you had fun right?

14 more people announced and I was, as one of the judges mentioned to me later, (in a British accent), 'you were literally having a heart attack'…
And the last name is… Michael Jennys! I MADE IT! I'm in the next round!!! OH I made it!!! YAY!
The next rounds theme was then announced:
Your Favourite Vacation Spot.
-Well that's gonna be hard…
But I'm in the 2nd heat so I have 30+ mins to think about what I wanted to build…
Did I mention that at this point people were just standing taking pictures of my Orca? This one girl probably maxed our her phone's memory… I had a fan following!

Soon it was my time, this time I wasn't nervous, I had made my goal, I was golden!
I had also decided on building Yellowstone, which I have to say is hard to explain to people who haven't been there… but I did, and I did it a lot…

I planned on building Old faithful, and a generic thermal feature with a board walk.


Not as good as my orca, but I think it looked pretty good, and there were a few people that had been to yellowstone and totally recognized what I had built, which is always the dream… it's bad when you build something and they're like, 'uhh it's some legos?'
Which I should take a moment and say, officially there is no such thing as 'legos' it's Lego Bricks.
They informed us of this fact so that we wouldn't say anything silly on the radio interviews and such…

have you ever taken a selfi across a table with lego bricks?

Well the judges had deliberated and decided on the top 10 finalists that would come back the next day for an interview and a final build.

And…

They called my name!? Whaaa?! ME! I'm in the final 10!? Wow! 

Wait? I actually have a chance now to be a LEGO MASTER BUILDER!!! Also a free t-shirt??

The topic? 

Something that sums me up…

Well what sums me up in Lego Bricks? Transformers and sci-fi? yeah… that.

So the day arrives, this time, people came to see me build!

Also let me take a second to mention, I had not thought I would get this far, so I didn't spend a lot of time on my resume… my guess? Resume is a big part of this final build… we 10 had already demonstrated that we could build, but what else qualified us? 

Well we had an hour to help our resume, and…

They gave us a kid helper… these kids were great, and my kid, Sophia was amazing! 

Welp we had an hour to build this time, I was going to build optimus prime holding an x-wing…

I had a crowd of people that knew me, and a big crowd of kids that loved star wars and transformers…


It was so much fun… I think I could have done better, but I enjoyed myself and build cool things…


I built it and honestly I think it looked like a transformer holding an x wing…

Then after that we switched roles and we helped our helper build something they wanted to build… Sophia wanted to build a grey and white dog… I was like, well would black or brown work? Cause there's no grey…
Brown was fine, and she built a great dog…







Then the judges told us who the winner was...
It wasn't me... I didn't win… The guy that won built a computer… it was a square… but I think he had a great resume…





But it was fun! And a super great experience…Well worth going and doing… and Hey, I made it to the top 10 of 79…
 

X-Men Days of Future Retcon...

So I just so x-men Days of Future Past, and I have mixed feelings. Here are my thoughts...

With a mix of what I thought was Good, and what I thought was bad.

Let us start with the Good...

Mutant Powers:
The new mutants portrayed in the movies were really cool.

Blink's powers were amazing! They did such a good job of showing them, without showcasing them. In case you didn't know she can open portals to other spots. In the comics she's from the Age of Apocalypse Universe check it out here. Sometimes in movies they make a big deal about, 'hey here's the new person, and oh Check out how Cool they are!!!' So it was really nice to see her being there (for the first time) and just using her powers.
Bishop might have been confusing for non-comic-viewers, but again I think they did a good job of, just having him there and using his powers...
Warpath was cool, but being that his powers aren't as 'visible' he may have been perceived as just a token ethnic character... actually all three of these 'new' mutants pulled a bit of the ethnic card... which is nice; since not all mutants in the comics are white, it's good that they are shown in the movies!

And

Quicksilver
no Explanation, but great show of his powers (in a funny and amazing way). Loved it a lot.
Also the line he said, my mom used to see a guy that could move metal, was great! Yay comic book references to Magneto being your dad, without you knowing! Pretty Good job with special effects for his speeding around powers etc...
Though for the big deal everyone made about him being in the movie, he wasn't in it very long... I guess that's the trouble with being a speedster... ;)

Story Line:
okay, not really the same as the comic arc... but I think the gist of it was there... Sentinels get created, they eventually go bad, and they cause the Future of badness...  we gotta send someone back in time to change this future!!
Who cares if they don't seem to like kitty Pryde and didn't want her to be the main character...
Wolverine man, wolverine...
But as a movie, it was good, the story made sense and flowed pretty good... but I think I need to switch to my perceived 'bad parts' of the movie...

Bad Story line:
A lot of this movie, felt like a push to retcon the other movies.
Where the movies didn't make sense, or where fans complained about something they didn't like (cough x-men 3 cough).
There are very specific scenes that do (old footage) flashbacks (forwards?) to X-men 2,3 and even wolverine origins. (though they did seem to forget that if wolverine origins was cannon to the original story line, logan would have been in vietnam with sabretooth, not in some  bedroom in the united states, oh well)...
To say, hey these happened for real, and we want you to be aware of this. ARE YOU AWARE???
I felt like they were yelling it at times... "HEY DIDN'T YOU KNOW X-MEN 3 WAS REAL." And later "SEE!!! WE RETCONED X-MEN 3 AWAY!!!! AREN'T YOU HAPPY??"
I feel that if there had been less time spent using the established storyline of 'days of future past' to retcon something that you could have just ignored I personally may have felt better about the movie's plotline...

back to good...
Good Story line:

Jennifer Lawrence did a great acting job, I'm still scratching my head about why she's not wearing clothes, the comic book version wore clothes and was 'sexy' but more importantly was cool and BA...
Maybe it's to add more vulnerability? Probably not...
Anyway great acting, very nice with the power portrayal, very good.
If anything, go see this movie so you can see her.

The back and forth between young Magneto and Prof.-X was amazing!
Also the way they kept Magneto as the coolest Mutant that he is, was amazing! (personal bias included). The betrayal, the raw emotion, the awesomeness of his acting was great too!

Really the way the movie let characters act and move through the story (without being forced) was Great!

Bad:
Did anyone really need a whole movie to retcon the other ones?
Was it just so they could say "we've had a movie universe this whole time! See See See!"???

Okay really this is most of the bad feelings I feel towards this movie, why? Because I left the theatre feeling like wow this was an amazing movie, but why do I feel like I didn't like it? Because it worked so hard to tell you it was retconning things!

Oh well, at least halle berry wasn't given a bigger part... she's still a terrible storm.

General musings:
Toad didn't look like that in x-men 1, even though, if this is the same storyline, he should have... but it looks more like the comics, so that's good...

How many guys have been pyro?
































Good acting, weird costumes still... but okay weird, but still leather straps and stuff... Where do you get such nice armour and leather in the Sentinel controlled future?!


This was definitely a movie about Wolverine, Magneto and Professor Xavier...


The end credits scene for age of apocalypse was weird... is it hard to make someone look like the person they look like in the comics? Probably for Fox it is...



Sigh, wish the movie rights would go back to Marvel/Disney, but if that wont happen (it wont) then this movie was probably in line with the 'best we are going to get' category...

Still go see it...

Man of Steel movie review (spoilers) and other superman musings...

Superman. 
I can remember my first comic book that I bought with superman in it... It was in an action comics and I really liked it.
Now I wouldn't call myself a die hard superman fan, (actually loved supergirl more) but I learned all about him watched cartoons movies read books and even learned kryptonian (I even have a kryptonian tattoo)...
So needless to say I get excited when people talk about superman.
Then the new 52 came out and I tried to like it, but really didn't like the character changes...
And I started to hear about Man of steel being made...
In the year or so that pics and trailers eventually came out, I started to grow in apprehension... I really wasn't sure that they were going to make a superman that followed my childhood liking of him, that he was going to be radically different (like his lack of outside underwear)...

However after seeing it today, I can't help but feel like, I really liked Man of Steel...

So on to the review!
We start off on krypton with lara-el and jor-el as she gives birth to baby supes...
Interesting to start off at the very beginning, but with a new twist to the mythos, apparently this is the first natural birth on krypton since, well forever ago... Krypton is full of people born into their professions with the assumption that if you are a scientist you have been genetically created to be a scientist or a soldier (which shows up as a big thing later)...
I found this odd, especially since then my brain says, what about his cousin Kara-zor-el? But with most Nolan superhero movies you just don't worry about shifts in things... like all the batman changes...
Okay moving on...
we see the error of Kryptonian ways as we find out they have all but destroyed their planet by drilling and such (environmentalist message? maybe) again another shift since part of the problem was Kryptons sun, Rao was the reason (partly) for krypton's destruction... which at this point I am bogging my review down with my fan geeky-ness so why don't you just read, "the Last Days of Krypton by kevin J. Anderson, it's a really good book and fills you in on all the stuff that happened on krypton when it died... which brings me back to the movie... I didn't mind having General Zod be all take over krypton for it's greater good, since that happened (sorta) in the book too...

anyway, Kal-el gets sent off Zod and his followers get send into a phantom zone of sorts (weird version) and then we are now off to earth...

Where superman is now an adult with a beard on a sailing boat... okay... why? well so he can save some people and get nocked unconscious by an oil rig falling on him (what? okay whatever) SO we can have a flash back to him as a kid...
I guess people really like flashbacks cause we have a lot of nice flashbacks that kinda tell why Clark Kent is the way he is...
Well sure I'll go with it (I think the way they did it made the movie longer than it had to be if they had just told that story with out the flash forward, flash back etc... but whatever that's a director's prerogative)...
Moving on he finds an old kryptonian ship under the ice and he gets to talk to dad (who somehow got part of his consciousness uploaded to a key codex thingy not sure how, or when that happened since we saw none of that happen at the beginning but whatever)...

Then at this point the plot happens.
Zod and his army show up in a space ship and threaten earth if they don't give up Kal-el...
Which earth hasn't heard of him yet, but after consulting a priest about faith Kal-el turns himself over to the terrans, we promptly turn him (and lois lane) over to Zod... I think they explain why they take lois in about 1second (it was to find the codex thingy that Jor-el stole which apparently has all of krypton's genetic codes in it, just in case she knew where superman had put it)...
stuff blows up, lois shoots kryptonians with a gun she picks up... superman saves her...
Zod threatens Mrs. Kent...
Superman (while being shot at by the military) starts fighting zod and two of his minions, which destroys most of Smallville...

I'm going to take a second to talk about the kryptonian weakness in this movie...
Can anyone just tell me what superman's only weakness is?
...Kryptonite...
Rocks from his planet...
Well not in this movie...
In this movie the atmosphere of Krypton is his weakness (cause he grew up on earth) and for the other kryptonians the atmosphere of earth is their weakness...
weird... but well okay... maybe... not sure that works, if the idea that they get their superpowers from the red sun why would what they breath take away their powers... for that matter, why would a rock? Okay point made I can deal... wait does this mean that if they make a new movie superman is no longer made weak by anything?

Moving right along...
Zod decides to terra form terra  into krypton (didn't lex luthor want to do that in superman returns??)
Superman says lets open the phantom zone (in the middle of metropolis) to get rid of the kryptonians while he goes and destroys the terraforming device...
Lots of stuff gets smashed and they succeed in that plan.
Zod was elsewhere so he laments to superman that he was born to protect krypton in anyway possible and now superman has taken his soul by stopping his only chance of having krypton again... and of course is now set on destroying everything, but especially superman...

This is a big twist in superman lore...
Cause superman in a epic standstill where Zod is trying to kill innocent bystanders realizes that he has to kill Zod or Zod will keep harming humans...
So he does... He cries and it's very moving... But Superman made a vow never to kill anyone! In the comics at least... maybe not in the new 52...
Not sure how I feel about that...

The movie ends with superman setting up his secret identity as clark kent (even though he told the military he lived in Kansas his entire life, wouldn't be to hard to find out who the kents are at that point I imagine)...
But cool...

Okay what I liked
The emotion of it was was well played...
The reason for the new superman suit was actually explained, instead of just oh here's a new suit...
(it was kinda the underwear for their kryptonian armour, which superman didn't need, so hey just wear the underwear, which since I was bugged about the loss of his red underwear, I'm more okay with it now, since the whole thing is like underwear now...)
The mass destruction when super-beings fight each other in a town or a city made a lot of sense...
If I throw a punch at you and you are almost indestructible then anywhere you land (or fly through) will be smashed on an epic scale... So it really made a lot of sense...
I remember reading the comic/book where superman dies, he's fighting doomsday and he wants to take the battle away from where people are, but the force of the battle prevented that from being possible (which is part of the reason he died, because he was protecting people while fighting)...
I liked that as far as deep Character development there was only one character developed (perry white, lois lane, the kents, Zod, Jor-el really weren't to deep as far as characters go, except where they developed the only character that was important) Which was
...Superman... which when I thought about a movie that is about superman, I decided that was actually kind of cool...
Seeing a Lex corp logo on a bus...

What I was less thrilled about:
Top of the list... Superman killing someone... maybe they will say that when he did that he vowed never again... but still!
The weakness I mentioned earlier... What is lex luthor going to do to fight superman? put him in a room that's atmosphere controlled? what about batman?
The kryptonian tech was cooler when it was more crystalline and less bug like(?) It wasn't very pretty, but at the same time that went with the story line (krypton was a harsh planet not like earth, so less pretty, but still)...
No fortress of solitude, that we see... he gets a ship (that was destroyed)... but there is a hint at the end that he has a place...
I thought that Jonathan Kent could have been a better man, he really was more of one in the comics... he wasn't a bad man, but he wasn't what I would call a great man...Martha was pretty great tho...
Also wasn't a fan of seeing kryptonian that wasn't the standard kryptonian symbols but there wasn't much of it so... oh well...

Well that was a lot, and I still missed things... (that way if you like spoilers, you still have to see it)

I Recommend seeing it! Not sure how it's doing but I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about it...
But I really enjoyed it!
MAN OF STEEL!

Skyfall

I know it's been out awhile and most theaters are probably letting it go this week, but...
I just saw Skyfall, and it was pretty good!

 First I have to say, I have enjoyed Daniel Craig as James Bond.
Not quite what I would have picked, but he plays it perfectly!
I love that they portray him as a character that is still kinda awesome, but you're not sure you'd ever want to be him... vs old bonds, you wanted to be. I think this is much better because, after all, he has a license to kill...

Now this movie, why is it awesome?
This movie gives James Bond relevance, for today... What was James Bond? A Cold War spy... But to have him in the current day, why? The Cold War ended... This movie explains why spies are needed...due to the bad guy being just some "guy" (well sorta, gotta watch the movie to find out more)!
I think that they did a great job of giving the series a great boost with skyfall's plotline. Now any 007 movie after this is covered for the "why", there needs to be a James Bond. So that's nice... Though to be sure, I probably would have been fine with just needing James Bond, because he's cool...

I liked the new q/m introductions... again more setting up for the future...

Also another thing that people might tell me, "ugg how can you watch James Bond? All that sex and womanizing?!" Well one of the things I like about Daniel Craigs Bond, is that you know he's doing all of that, but you don't have to watch it... It's nice.
So instead of wasting time with a sex scene, he starts into it, and then it's flashed to the next thing that's happening... SO NICE! If one wants to watch sex, it's easy to find it, if one wants to watch a movie about action and awesomeness, then the new James Bond is it, without the sex you know happens... much better idea!

All in all really nice, so if you missed it, at your theater, then get it on DVD when it comes out and watch it!

The Dark Knight Rises and DC comics...

I saw the Dark Knight Rises a few days ago and I've been pondering it a bit since then. First I will give you an overview of the movie and what I think about it, then I want to talk about DC comics and what they're doing these days...

The Dark Knight Rises is the third and final Batman film with Christopher Nolan as the director.
Everyone you would talk to would say these three movies brought back Batman, and were true to the comics... well mostly at least... but I think in most cases nobody cared where he changed things because he made them awesome; and everyone remembers Batman and robin and cringes... so anything that is done with batman that has a good storyline, and doesn't do stupid things with the characters has to be better... right? So let's talk about the DKR, the story and plot line, and see if that is true of the third installment of the trilogy.
DKR starts off where we left off with Dark Knight, well sorta... there's no talk of the joker (except references to 'the war' before)... but it centers around Harvey Dent and the law that got passed that put many convicts in prison, made Harvey out to be a great man, and Batman out to be a terrible villain. Oh and it's like 8 years later... the city hasn't seen Batman since then, and relatively speaking is at peace...
It all makes sense...
Bruce wayne, has been holed up in his manor for the last eight years as well, not showing his face... and also since he's not going to be batman, he's not been working out at all either...

Okay so plot is set up in away that makes sense... Then they set up bane, vaguely telling us who he is... and it's actually pretty cool.  Okay so at the risk of telling to much more, let's stop there and I'll just tell you I liked the plot completely.
So lets talk about what felt off or I didn't like...
First it felt like a typical 2nd movie in a trilogy... not the third. I think this had a lot to do with the joker being gone, now they really were short changed because of Heath ledge dying but I think despite that they did a good job moving on and not having the joker in the story line at all. But again I felt that it gave it the feel of a middle movie and not the ending... (though it did wrap up well like a third movie should).
Next.
Batman is awesome right? Who doesn't at least think that? But who thinks that batman stripped of his utility belt and gadgets is as good a batman as a batman with those things? In the movie I believe he only used his utility belt maybe twice... and he mostly tried to fight villains with a straight hand to hand combat... what?! Why?! Batman is great because he's smart enough to be using his supplies to get himself out of situations he's not actually strong enough to fight his way out of... that's part of what's cool about batman, he's smart enough to be better than that...
Well apparently not in this movie...
And next...
Wait nope plot wise that's it... it was wonderful. Well done and the above two things were all I could complain about...
I will mention that I think hans zimmer is better than what he did for the music of this film... the last two were wonderful soundtracks and this one was lacking...

Okay so awesome... so what does this mean for DC comics?

The last three dc comics logos.

Well it means that it's the end of their only successful movie series.

Did I say only? Well okay Christopher Reeves Superman series was pretty successful... until they did a third, and a fourth... and then later a new one (with a new actor) that rarely anyone liked... and we also got a preview for another one with the new 52 style at the DKR...
Which I'm going to throw it out there for a question, Does anyone like the New 52?
I have been trying it and trying it... and I dislike it every time I pick up a comic...
Why does dc feel the need to change everything all the time? Okay well starting over with all the series, marketing (and lets face it who really knew what was going on after all the universe crisis' happened), but what's with the logo change again? I can honestly say, in my lifetime DC has changed their logo three times in my awareness... Why? What's the point? Also we saw the superman logo has changed again too... ummm how many times does superman's logo have to change?
So what do I think this means for DC comics? As sad as this is coming out of my mouth, I think it means yay lot's of money and then a plummet as they seem to not have any idea how to make their characters into movies (green lantern, superman returns etc...) except without Christopher Nolan, who is done directing them and is only producing the man of steel... This makes me sad... I grew up loving DC comics, they were fun, and bright. Now they are gloomy and dark and hardly any good... So though I wish that with the ending of an epic series trilogy that they will put out something better or equal to The Dark Knight trilogy, I can't help but think that this is something they wont be able to do...
So should you see the DARK KNIGHT RISES? YES, Should you pray that DC comics gets it's act together after this success? YES, because if they don't this will be the start of their end...

The amazing Spiderman. Spoilers...

The Amazing Spiderman was amazing... I'm just going to say it; it was many times better than the Spiderman movie with Toby Mcguire in it... why? Here's why...

So this Spiderman movie being a reboot, has bits of it's origin story (though as far as I can tell it's not the whole story yet; the movie has an ending where a shadowy character talks about something that wasn't told...) However whole or not, it's enough. Peter Parker gets powers after bitten by a spider, he has to decide whether or not to be responsible with them, he isn't, his uncle dies and then he is... okay same as the original movie...

Here's where the movie goes from similar in plot and ideas, to awesome...
Andrew Garfield, has the actual ability to act like a smart geek. Okay so everyone's seen the 'smart movie geek'-- nerdy wears glasses and bumbles around... COME ON people has anyone actually seen a geeky person (that is truly genius material) act like that? No, they act all geeky and dumb with real life... not the math, science or whatever they're gifted in... Andrew Garfield plays that. He turns a corner and sees a math equation, and is in his element... sees a girl and cannot talk... This was a much better portrayal of life a real person... not a bumbling idiot...

Next thing to talk about is spiderman as a character... People always ask me, "WHO'S YOUR FAVOURITE AVENGER?" and my response is "SPIDERMAN" why? Because spiderman's hysterical quips in the comic books while they're all fighting is amazing! Now I can honestly say I've not read spiderman much by himself, so maybe he's not silly while he fights then, but in the avengers that I've read spiderman is always joking with everyone while  they're fighting the baddie...
In this movie, spiderman did that... and it was the best!
A car thief pulls out a knife and spiderman kneels and says...

"You found my weakness...small knives..."
These are the silly things that made me love him in the comics and love this movie version...

I also must say, I loved that it was the comic spiderman before he gained the webbing himself... That is to say he had to make his own webbing...
Which led to one of my fav scenes from the movie where he made a spiderweb and sat on it waiting for something to bump into the webbing and let him know where to go, like a spider...
Also really liked the fact that he used his webbing a lot... I don't remember the older spiderman movie using the webbing for much more than web slinging through the air... but this movie he uses it to stick arms to walls, to totally wrap the lizard up... all sorts of things... that are more like the comics I've read...

So all in all...
Loved the special effects, the Lizardman was well done and believable... flying through the air with spiderman was wonderful....
I did like the music, but I couldn't hum you the theme... but James horner is always good...
Loved the acting...
Loved the plot points, like What is wrong with Norman Osborn? And who was that at the end of the movie? Where are they going to go from here?! Either way I know where they go will be epic...
Because this movie was epic...

Brave movie review

Disney-Pixar's new movie Brave is highly anticipated, but does it live up to anticipations?

Let's start with what I liked.
I personally don't know anyone who dislikes scottish accents... They were awesome! I loved listening to them the entire movie! Made me want to be where people speak like that all the time (which I think was part of the point, since this movie was made in part to boost tourism in scotland).

The CGI was wonderful! The sets were gorgeous, and well done. The people were well done, facial expressions, hair, and outfits were stellar. The detail that each character got was wonderful! I especially loved the horses, they looked and acted like real horses, which was nice.

The music was amazing. Patrick Doyle has shown up in a number of movies recently and I have to say I've liked everything he's done! Examples you ask? Thor, Rise of the planet of the Apes, Harry Potter GoF, and many more that I haven't seen... But I'd say brave was one of the best to date.

Now then what I didn't care for.
Pixar (mind you Disney does this all the time), doesn't normally go for the classic simple plot line. They generally go for something more creative. So I went most of the movie expecting it to have a twist that wasn't predictable, and well, it never happened...
Now without giving it away to those that haven't seen it, just think classic Disney fairy tale...
Now is this really bad? Well, I'm going with 'yes'. Why? Because I think it took away a certain amount of depth from the characters. Having to fit into the typical Disney fairy tale formula the characters just weren't as good as they could have been. I feel like Merida was a lot like Mulan, but stripped down to the personality of Ariel...
Depth of story and characters is really important in my book, but if I had kids I'd probably go and see it with them (unless I was sheltering them from witchcraft being cutesy)...
My last dislike, and this is a countercultural thing.
But I really dislike Marriages portrayed the way they did it in the movie. Now I know it's the culture's rising Feminist prose that caused this, and I think it's sad. They made the man, king Fergus, a bumbling fool when it came to talking or doing anything right in a sophisticated way. The queen Elinor, was overbearing and didn't really respect her husband. Now if the point is that, since movies (and culture) have portrayed marriage that other way around (men as the overbearing leader woman just following) then it's time to do it the wrong way the opposite direction then... ooookaay... but why? It's a fairy tale for crying out loud?! Why can't we create a marriage that is a little more desirous? One to strive for? Fairy tales should help bring out the best in us, including marriages... but maybe it's because our culture doesn't know what a good marriage is... but that's a different topic for a different time!

So Brave, would I see it in the theatre again? No... would I watch it if someone said he we're watching it at our house wanna come? Maybe... would I buy it... meh...