La leggenda di Mor'du

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.

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.

'Brave', one of Pixar's most underrated features, hosts a villainous prince consumed by greed whom is transformed into a monstrous bear by an eccentric witch, voiced enthusiastically by Walters. Mor'du garnered surface level characterisation in the animated film, merely supplying functional antagonism to a story that did not really require such menace. Consequently, this storyboard of what is clearly a deleted scene was projected to be its own companion piece to 'Brave', offering in-depth background to Mor'du himself. The problem being that Larsen's onslaught of originating information and simplistic illustrations forced this short to be forgettable as soon as the minimal credits rolled.

The witch retells the tale, commencing with three-dimensional CGI before withering to hand-drawn stills, with an abundance of energy. Four brothers, three of which equipped with mental "gifts" whilst the eventual Mor'du facilitating the only physical "gift" of strength, all wanting a piece of the kingdom. It then proceeds to imitate 'Brave's' narrative with the will-o'-the-wisps guiding the eldest son to the witch's cottage and, oh, turned into a great black bear. A foundational layer of repetitive storytelling with predictability applied on top. Regardless, the bulk of the short is the retelling of Mor'du's origins, and it's excessive information to say the least. Considering the promising start and final attempt at forced humour, one was hoping for originality.

Whilst the traditionally drawn darkly fantastical stills looked beautiful and exuded fluidity, they are unable to masquerade the overall uninspired "deleted scene" structure that made the previous short 'George and AJ' just as forgettable.

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.

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.