Brave From A Scots Perspective

As you have probably all guessed I am from Scotland and I’m proud of it (as if the blog title and tartan banner didn’t hint at that enough for you). Growing up in the Scottish countryside I felt I had a ‘normal’ upbringing until I went to university and met people from the cities and other parts of the world. Needless to say there have been a few occasions where I have been met with blank stares when I have mentioned things that are perfectly normal for country folk to do that are seen as strange by others e.g. spending our summers working on the berry fields to earn some extra pocket money…

While some people may have been embarrassed to be different I have embraced it, it has made me appreciate what I have a lot more. Growing up on the east coast allowed me to go rock climbing at low tide with my friends and play with the whelks and crabs in rock pools and I had taken this for granted until recently.

After finding this renewed love for Scotland I was really excited to find out that Pixar were bringing out a movie based on Scotland! I of course jumped at the chance to go and see it.

I had some reservations about whether Pixar would put enough research into the Scottish way of life or whether they would create an “American Scotland” as seen in The Little Vampire movie, since when have Scottish primary school kids sat at individual desks, carried their books to school and not worn school uniform (I know some of the island schools don’t have a uniform but 99% of Scottish schools do) grrr…

However, Pixar did an excellent job!

They included Highland Dancing (one of my passions) and managed to put in the correct steps with the proper hand placements, they put in footage of the Highland Games with cabers, bagpipes and kilts galore and they definitely got the lingo! Not to mention they also made sure that the men were ‘true Scots’ when it came to the choice of underwear whilst wearing kilts!

I was also really impressed with the soundtrack, the music was extremely Scottish which was something I wasn’t expecting.  Pixar definitely put a lot of thought into this movie and even hired Patrick Doyle, a Scottish musician, to compose the soundtrack.

One thing I was a little disappointed in was Pixars choice to use a bear as one of the main characters. I can’t speak for the rest of the world but when I picture a Scottish animal I think a stag or maybe at a push the mysterious black panther sightings we get from time to time but never a bear. Don’t get me wrong there were bears in Scotland at the time that Brave is set (roughly 1,000 years ago) but after putting so much research into every other aspect of the film I feel that a bear was a strange choice of animal to represent Scotland. A deer would have made a much better choice for the film as the bear felt a little too similar to Disneys film Brother Bear where a man is transformed into a bear and has to learn to love an orphaned bear cub to become human again.

I have to admit I was very sceptical about going to see Brave due to the disappointment I had from watching The Little Vampire but judging from the laughs from the packed cinema audience I am not the only one to congratulate Pixar on their ability to keep the Scottish traditions factually correct.

The beach where I spent a lot of my childhood.

One of the highlights of the film for me personally was Disneys brave choice (pun intended) to use some Scots slang throughout the movie. Hearing phrases such as ‘help ma boab’ ‘manky’ ‘gammy’ ‘breeks’ ‘ken whit a mean’ ‘och aye’ and ‘jiggery pokery’ really went down  well with the audience. As stereotypical as the language was I have to admit that I have used a lot of these phrases on a daily basis and didn’t even realise that ‘gammy’ was a Scots word!

While I don’t think Brave will be one of Pixars most memorable films for the majority of people twenty years down the line, it really brings a breath of fresh air to the tired princess stories and will certainly be the favourite movie of many Scottish children (and adults) for years to come.

Until next time TTFN x

I'm Back!

Hey everyone I’m back!

I have decided to start blogging again, I feel that the first time round I took on too much too fast and left myself fretting over my blog a lot more than I had originally planned. Since a lot of the TV shows I wanted to review were broadcast in America months before Scotland (we are still working our way through season one of New Girl and Two Broke Girls here), I was having to rely on other recaps of the shows to get an idea of what happened and I felt that I was writing reviews that were not up to the standards I would have liked because of this.

Therefore I have decided to start blogging again but really to take this as an opportunity to document day-to-day happenings and put my spin on things rather than to make a blog that is specifically about reviews. Don’t get me wrong there will still be plenty of reviews but I’m going to put in a few more diary entries as well. I am away to head into my second year at university and I feel that this is a good chance to start my blog again as I am away to finish my summer job and get back to journalism (thank God).

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have looked at my blog, I really can’t believe how many of you have seen it. I know some bloggers get hundreds of thousands of views but I am amazed that even one person managed to find my blog so THANK YOU! I mean 350 views! That’s incredible, I can’t believe that people from the UK, the US, Russia, Germany, Canada, The UAE, Bahrain, Georgia, Japan and the Bahamas have all seen my blog! I am so sorry for neglecting it for so long but I promise this time around I will make sure to try harder and succeed at my blog!

Let’s hope that in the next few weeks I find lots of inspiring things to blog about, I already have a good few ideas so fingers crossed!

Until then please enjoy this photo of me wearing a panda hat…

 

Until next time, TTFN x