Wednesday 15 August 2012

Braver than Brave? It's a pretty bold move if you want my opinion.

Whilst browsing the selection of new DVDs at my local retail establishment, I couldn't help but notice a rather familiar looking DVD on the shelf.

Hmmm. Maybe it's just me, but for some strange reason I thought Braver bore a slight resemblance to the new Disney/Pixar film Brave. I'm not quite sure where I got that idea from, but maybe it was the font, the red hair, the rocks, the title...

Using all of the journalistic resources I had at my disposal (ahem, Google), I did a little bit of digging and have uncovered what I'm choosing to call THE TRUTH. Drumroll please...

Directed by Tim Tyler, Braver was known as A Fairytale Christmas on its original straight to DVD release in 2005. Rather than featuring a redhead as the lead character, they've opted for a more traditional blonde princess, along with a cast of cute critters to keep her company on her adventures. Not shying away from the Disney influence, the lead character of A Fairytale Christmas, Princess Angela, enjoys a little sing song every now and then, including this ditty about the joys of Christmas.



 Of course, this is not the first film to try and cash in on a big Disney release, to the point where it's becoming commonplace to see the warning NOT DISNEY attached to a number of family films for sale on Amazon. But in the case of A Fairytale Christmas, the distributors have gone impressively out of their way to re-package the existing film into something that is designed to appeal to very young children and/or grandparents with extremely poor eyesight.

 A cheap little distraction that only lasts for 45 minutes, I'm not going to badmouth A Fairytale Christmas; not because it looks good, but because I doubt the filmmakers had much of a say in what has happened to it now. I'm honestly surprised that this practice has been allowed to go on for so long, because if there's someone I would not want to get on the wrong side of, it's the legal team of a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate like The Walt Disney Company.

 But then, I suppose it depends on how you judge what bravery is.

Posted by Colin Oakley
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous19 August 2012 at 23:34

    I saw this in Tesco the other day, and it's certainly not the first of it's kind. During the release of Dreamworks' "Puss in Boots" a similarly titled "Puss'n'Boots" was released with a near identical cover, as was one similar to Harry Potter (although I forget the name of that one).

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  2. Anonymous20 August 2012 at 23:41

    Tappy Feet, Puss'n'Boots, Tangled Up... Now Braver.
    How on earth are they getting away with this?
    And thank you for continuing to bring it to my attention as it both amuses and outrages me.

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  3. Anonymous29 August 2012 at 19:12

    The re-release company is Scottish. There was an article in the Scottish Sunday Mail about it, including an interview where the distributors were absolutely astonished by the suggestion that anyone could mistake their film for Brave. They didn't mention it was a repackaging of a film that *actually* wouldn't be mistaken for Brave, of course...

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