La Légende de Mor'du

The Legend of Mor'du retold the story Elinor told Merida in Brave and that was the big issue with the short - it was a redundant. It didn't tell a fun side story like other short such as Jack-Jack Attacks and Burn-E. I liked the picture book art-style but the short would have fitted better in the feature film.

Saw 'The Legend of Mor'du' for many reasons. Love animation, and always have done as a child, will be forever grateful towards it for helping me relax when very much needed. Love Pixar and a vast majority of their films. Really like to love their theatrical short films and the feature-related shorts are fun enough though don't put them on the same level personally. Will admit that 'Brave' is not one of my favourite feature films of theirs, consider it one of their lesser films while not disliking it anywhere near as much as some (still liked it actually).

'The Legend of Mor'du' is one of their feature related films and is an interesting and well made one in its own right, did like the visuals and how it focused on the witch. If comparing 'The Legend of 'Mor'du' to 'Brave', it is to me inferior, inevitable as it is not a feature film and didn't have as much time and budget to make, and one can be forgiven if they questioned the point of it. From reading my review summary, one would understandably think that it seems like my thoughts on 'The Legend of Mor'du' were negative. Not so, have already said it was interesting and well made, but it could have done with more magic.

In terms of the story, 'The Legend of Mor'du' is slight and generic and the pace could have been tighter.

Do agree that the character design and movements for Dingwell were blocky and suggestive of time and budget starting to run out.

Otherwise, the animation is very good. Very stylish and atmospheric, simple but effective and the purposefully rough look at times didn't look cheap. Loved the sweeping camera movements and the first segment was imaginatively animated. Also loved the dark use of colour that added to the creepiness and the meticulously detailed backgrounds.

The opening credits are cleverly done. The music at times brought chills down my spine and not just adds to the atmosphere and action but enhances it. The witch is an interesting character and it was great to have some focus on her as she had enough to her to warrant more focus. Julie Walters does a great job voicing her. The other characters aren't as strong but far from bland. Headed by Walters, the voice acting is well done.

Altogether, not bad at all. 7/10

This short fleshes out the legend that is central to Brave's story and that is problem. On its own it fits too comfortably in as legend trodding over a well known path. But its bigger sin is the legend in Brave *didn't* need to be fatten up like this. The big beats of the story are perfectly clear from Brave's text. To see the fat is to rob the little mystery in Brave to keep it just a bit more legendary.

A good story sometimes only has suggestion and implication. This trend to tell every single thing in the 2010's in a series of connected media annoys me on that front.

The Witch recounts the story of four prince brothers to Wee Dingwall. Their family had ruled an ancient prosperous nearby kingdom. The youngest prince was wise, the second youngest was compassionate, the second oldest was just, and the eldest was strong. When the king died, the kingdom was split among the four brothers hoping a blend of their traits would create the best rule. The eldest expected to be the only king and battled the others to take the entire kingdom. He came to the Witch for magical strength. She offered him tenfold his strength but he's also turned into a black bear. Instead of letting go and make peace, he murdered his brothers destroying what's left of the kingdom.

This is a 7 minute short from the Brave franchise. It tells a fitting fable that teaches something. It also has a fun joke to wrap it up. It's a well made animated short.

Having enjoyed the film Brave I was looking forward to seeing this supporting short, not sure what it would provide. This short focuses on the story of Mor'du, which is a story we already know from the main film since it is the tale that sits behind the path of Merida as a warning to her in the main film. Here we don't have more detail of this story but instead just longer spent telling it. The device of having this delivered by the Witch is reasonably nice as it allows for some humor, but mainly it is a straight telling.

The animation is not the full Pixar computer generated effects of Brave but a more stylish approach with rougher edges. I liked this as a look and felt this helped the short as a story being told – but I did have an issue with the story itself. I was hoping for it to do something I hadn't heard already but it never did, which made me wonder why it had been selected to be the supporting short that Pixar so often produce to accompany the DVD release of their film. There were many good characters in the main film which could have been used to make an interesting or funny short, so I'm not sure why they just repeated in this way.

It still has entertainment value and is well made, but it is covering ground the film did and feels disappointing and unnecessary as a result.