20 facts you might not know about 'Brave'

Disney has a history of “princesses” in its films. Brave was the first time Pixar provided a new addition to the list of Disney Princesses. Merida is the first female protagonist of a Pixar movie.

Brenda Chapman was brought on as a writer and the director for Brave. Chapman made history by becoming the first female director of a Pixar movie.

Chapman wanted to make Brave a true, classic fairytale. She was inspired by the works of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. On top of that, Chapman took inspiration from her own experience with her daughter.

Prior to being called Brave, Pixar announced the movie with a different title. Initially, the film was announced as “The Bear and the Bow.” Ultimately, Brave is probably a better title.

Animation takes a while. Brave was announced in 2008, and then in 2010, there was news. Namely, Chapman was being removed as the director. Reportedly, she had creative differences with the then head of Pixar John Lasseter. Chapman was replaced by Mark Andrews, though both got credit for the final film.

Once Andrews took over, he made some tweaks to the film. Though he said the “bones” of the movie were fine, he also said the “focuses” and “balances” were “out of whack.” Andrews decided to focus more on Merida’s relationship with her mother and removed many magical fairytale elements.

Brave is set in Scotland, and the cast is littered with Scottish and English actors. For Merida, they hired…Reese Witherspoon. Witherspoon is a huge name, but she isn’t Scottish. Still, actors do accents all the time. We never got to hear Witherspoon as Merida, though. She left the project. Witherspoon was replaced by Kelly MacDonald, who is Scottish. However, in 2017, Witherspoon admitted she had to leave Brave because she couldn’t do an adequate Scottish accent.

Tartan patterns are synonymous with Scotland and with Scottish clans. For Brave, Pixar created three tartans for three clans while using the real Clan Mackintosh tartan for the Macintoshes in the movie. Pixar registered the DunBroch tartan with the official Scottish Register of Tartans. It wasn’t the first time. Apparently, in the 1940s, Disney registered the tartan for…Clan McDuck.

Since the beginning of Pixar, they had been using the same animation system. Before Brave, they gave things a revamp. The company completely rewrote its animating system for the first time in 25 years for the movie. This led to the creation of Pixar’s proprietary animation system Presto, which debuted with Brave.

Patrick Doyle, a Scottish film composer, helmed the score for Brave. Boyle used a lot of traditional Celtic instruments for the score. Yes, that included bagpipes but also harps and bodhrans, a drum of Irish origins. Additionally, Doyle went to the Hebrides to study Gaelic psalm singing.

Brave had a troubled, lengthy production. Ultimately, the movie turned out just fine. While the budget was $185 million, it earned $237.3 million domestically and $540.4 million worldwide. That made it the 13th-highest-grossing movie of 2012.

Brave was nominated for only one Oscar. It was for Best Animated Feature, and the movie won the award. This led to an awkward situation, though. Chapman and Andrews accepted the Oscar, and both attempted to give a speech.

As with the other Disney Princesses, Merida appears in Ralph Breaks the Internet. On top of that, the Scottish warrior princess appeared in live-action form. Merida was a recurring character in the fifth season of ABC’s Once Upon a Time. Amy Manson played her.

Steve Jobs is most associated with Apple, but he also played a key part in Pixar's history. For a time, Jobs was the chairman of Pixar. He died in October 2011, and Brave was released in June 2012. The end credits featured a tribute to Jobs.

Andrews was asked about the potential of a Brave sequel. He was open to the idea but said there were no plans for it. 

Kevin McKidd voices both Lord MacGuffin and the Young MacGuffin. Young MacGuffin speaks a dialect that nobody can comprehend. It’s not gibberish. It’s Doric, which is spoken in Northeastern Scotland. One of the places it is spoken is Elgin, which happens to be McKidd’s hometown.

No, we aren’t talking about John Ratzenberger, though the Pixar staple does indeed do a voice in Brave. We’re talking about the Pizza Planet truck, which is from Toy Story and is a staple of cameos in Pixar films. You can spot it in the witch’s hut. Even though, you know, cars weren’t invented yet in the world of Brave.

Merida’s critical relationship in Brave is with her mother. To that point, Merida is the first Disney Princess not to have a love interest. They had storyboarded a scene of Merida's interest in Young MacGuffin, but they decided to nix it.

Merida says, “Jings, crivvens, and help ma boab.” Now, that may not be anything to you, but it probably rang a bell to people from Scotland. It’s the catchphrase of “Oor Wullie,” a comic strip in Scotland that has been around since the 1940s.

Two animated shorts were included in the home release of Brave. One is “La Luna,” the short that Pixar paired with Brave to air before it in theaters. “La Luna” was nominated for Best Animated Short at the Oscars but did not win. The other was new. “The Legend of Mor’du” is a short about the villain of Brave and is told from the perspective of The Witch.