49 Fun Facts About Brave Trivia (Pixar)

Which Scottish actress voices Merida in Brave?

Kelly Macdonald got her break by chance: she was working as a barmaid when she saw a flyer for an open audition, and it won her a first film role in Trainspotting.

Which actress was originally cast as the voice of Merida in Brave but left before its release?

Reese Witherspoon worked hard on the accent before leaving, officially because other films were lining up. She later admitted she once quit a film because her Scottish accent was so bad.

What was Brave's working title when Pixar first announced it in April 2008?

Brenda Chapman drew the story from her relationship with her own daughter and became Pixar's first female feature director.

What did Brave co-director Mark Andrews wear on stage to collect the film's Academy Award?

A kilt was no surprise: asked months before, Andrews said he would be in trouble if he went to the Oscars without one. He shared the award with Brenda Chapman, whom he had replaced as director in 2010.

Brave was the first Pixar film to have what kind of lead character?

A female protagonist arrived only with Pixar's thirteenth feature. The twelve before it were led by toys, bugs, monsters, a fish, superheroes, cars, a rat, a robot and an old man.

Which sound format made its debut with Brave's theatrical release?

Dolby Atmos put speakers on the cinema ceiling so that sound could pass overhead. Brave was its test film, and only a handful of theaters were equipped to play it that way.

Which Scottish composer wrote the score for Brave?

Patrick Doyle was only the fourth composer to score a Pixar feature, and the first to get into one as well: he has a small voice part in the film.

What blue spirits lead Merida through the forest in Brave?

Wisps, or will-o'-the-wisps, are marsh lights that in old folklore lure travellers astray, so a will-o'-the-wisp also means anything misleading. The film flips it: its wisps lead you to your fate.

Merida's powerful black horse, with a white muzzle and fetlocks, belongs to which breed?

Clydesdale horses take their name from the valley of the River Clyde in Lanarkshire, where the heavy draft breed began, so Merida's mount is as Scottish as she is.

Which Pixar short played in cinemas before Brave?

La Luna came from director Enrico Casarosa's own boyhood: he grew up with his father and grandfather, and the short's boy is torn between what each of them expects of him.

What is the name of Merida's clan and kingdom?

DunBroch is an invented clan with a real tartan: Pixar entered the royal family's pattern in the official Scottish Register of Tartans, dated to the very day the film opened.

What gift does Fergus give young Merida on her birthday, to Queen Elinor's dismay?

A bow and arrow set the pattern for the family: Fergus passed on his passion for the bow, while Elinor spent the next years drilling their daughter in how a princess should stand, eat, talk and walk.

Which part of his body does Fergus lose fighting the bear Mor'du?

His left leg went to Mor'du, and the grudge made him the kingdom's most renowned bear hunter, with a home full of mounted trophies to prove it.

What do Merida's triplet brothers turn into when the witch's spell catches them too?

Bear cubs is what the mischievous triplets become, and it proves useful: when Fergus locks Merida in the castle, the cubs snatch the key from the maid and set her free.

How does Merida twist the rules of the contest for her hand?

She enters as her own clan's firstborn, since the rules spoke only of first-borns, and easily outshoots the suitors to win her own hand. The lords are enraged and the queen is furious.

During their argument, what does Elinor throw into the fire?

Her daughter's bow goes into the flames in a fit of rage, moments after Merida slashes the family tapestry. As soon as Merida has fled, Elinor pulls it back out in regret.

What is the name of Merida's horse?

Angus is no fearless steed. Balky and faint-hearted, he flatly refuses to follow Merida into the ring of ancient stones.

What trade does the elderly witch practise in her cottage deep in the forest?

Woodcarver is her cover story: she whittles bear trinkets and figurines, and only grudgingly conjures a spell once Merida sees through the guise.

In what form does the witch give Merida the spell?

A cake is what the witch conjures to change the queen, and it does, only not her mind: Elinor takes a bite, turns queasy and becomes a great black bear.

According to the witch's message, what must Merida do to break the spell?

Mend the bond torn by pride is the second half of a riddle that opens 'Fate be changed, look inside'. If Merida cannot work out what it means in time, her mother stays a bear for ever.

What are the names of Merida's mischievous triplet brothers?

Hamish, Hubert and Harris never speak a line between them. The identical redheads plot with sly smiles and glances, and nothing stirs them to mischief faster than sweets.

Who was Mor'du before he became a demonic bear?

He is the prince from Elinor's legend, whose pride and refusal to follow his father's wishes destroyed his kingdom, and his ruined castle is where Merida and Elinor find him.

How does Mor'du finally die?

A falling standing stone crushes him, but only after Elinor, still a bear herself, breaks free of her ropes and hurls herself at him to protect Merida.

What finally turns Elinor back into a human at the second sunrise?

Merida's tearful plea to her mother does what needlework could not: draping the sewn-up tapestry over the bear changes nothing, and the spell lifts only once she breaks down and makes her peace.

What is delivered to the castle gate in Brave's post-credits scene?

A crow with a cart of wooden toys turns up long after the story has ended: it is the order Merida paid for earlier in the film, and the bird wakes a dozing guard to make him sign for it.

How do the triplets end the film Brave?

Stowing away on a departing clan boat is their parting prank: as the visiting lords sail for home the boys wave from the deck, and their exasperated father has to row out after them.

Which comedian and actor voices King Fergus in Brave?

Billy Connolly, Scotland's 'Big Yin', came to comedy the long way round: he started out as a welder in Glasgow and then became a folk singer before turning to stand-up.

Who voices Queen Elinor?

Emma Thompson is a Londoner, yet says she feels Scottish: her mother, the actress Phyllida Law, was born in Glasgow, and Thompson reckons she has spent half her life in Scotland.

Which Harry Potter alumna voices the witch in Brave?

Julie Walters, Molly Weasley in the Potter films, plays a witch who is out when she is needed most: Merida returns to find the cottage deserted and only a message waiting in the cauldron.

Which actor voices both Lord MacGuffin and his Doric-speaking son in Brave?

Kevin McKidd grew up in Elgin and gave the son the Doric dialect of his home region. It was left unintelligible on purpose: the running gag is that hardly anyone can follow him.

Which actor, a voice in each of Pixar's first 22 features, plays the castle guard Gordon in Brave?

John Ratzenberger called himself Pixar's lucky charm, a run of voices that began with Hamm the piggy bank in Toy Story. It ended after Onward in 2020: Soul was the first Pixar feature without him.

Which song plays as Merida gallops through the forest firing arrows early in Brave?

Touch the Sky stands in for a song Merida never sings herself: Julie Fowlis, a singer from the island of North Uist, voices the princess's thoughts from off screen.

Which folk-rock band joined singer Birdy on the Brave end-credits song 'Learn Me Right'?

Mumford & Sons wrote, arranged and produced the song but gave the lead vocal away. Marcus Mumford said they liked the idea of an orchestra in the background and a girl like Birdy singing.

Which ensemble recorded the score for Brave?

Doyle wove in bagpipes, a solo fiddle and Celtic harps to give the score its Highland colour.

Merida's 2013 coronation as the eleventh official Disney Princess was held at which resort?

Walt Disney World staged it in front of Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom. The previous newcomer, Rapunzel, had been crowned far from any theme park, at Kensington Palace in London.

What prompted a 2013 petition, signed by over 100,000 people, in defence of Merida?

A glammed-up redesign gave her a slimmer waist and a sparkly dress for her induction as a Disney Princess. Brenda Chapman called it atrocious, and within days the new look had gone from Disney's website.

Which TV series introduced a live-action Merida, played by Amy Manson, in 2015?

Once Upon a Time rewrote her training: in the series it is Mulan, another Disney heroine, who taught Merida everything she knows about being a warrior.

With which 1998 film did Brenda Chapman become the first woman to direct a major-studio animated feature?

The Prince of Egypt was a job she first turned down. Jeffrey Katzenberg told her she was directing until he found somebody else, and she ended up one of the DreamWorks film's three directors.

What does Merida split in two with her final shot at the suitors' contest?

An arrow in the target, split from end to end, became her signature. When a live-action Merida was unveiled for television in 2015, the first teaser introduced her with exactly that shot.

In Brave, how does Fergus come to believe his wife has been killed?

He finds her dress left behind, torn, and decides the demon bear has killed her. So he leads the clans out to hunt the bear that is really his wife, and locks Merida in when she tries to tell him.

Brave won the Academy Award in which category?

Best Animated Feature came as a surprise even to the winners. Disney's own Wreck-It Ralph had taken the top prize at the Annie Awards, and Brenda Chapman said the word in town was that it would win.

Brave was the first Pixar film animated with which new proprietary system?

Presto, named after the studio's 2008 short, retired a system Pixar had relied on since the 1980s. Director Mark Andrews likened the old one to a Model T fitted with new headlights.

Brave's end credits carry a special tribute to which Pixar figure?

Steve Jobs bought George Lucas's computer division and set it up as Pixar. He died in October 2011, and Brave was the studio's first full-length film after his death.

Which feature of Brave's Merida was so hard to animate that Pixar wrote a new simulator for it?

Her curly red hair was too much for Pixar's old simulator, so the team wrote a new one and built the mane from some 1,500 curls placed by hand.

In Brave, what does Merida teach her mother to do once the queen has been turned into a bear?

Catch fish, because the queen who drilled her in manners is helpless in the wild: her idea of breakfast is poisonous nightshade berries and water with worms in it.

Which Harry Potter film actor voices Lord Dingwall in Brave?

Robbie Coltrane, Hagrid in the Potter films, was born Anthony McMillan. He renamed himself on becoming an actor, in honour of the jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.

Brave's lullaby 'Noble Maiden Fair', which Elinor sings with young Merida, has lyrics in which language?

Gaelic words carry this mother-and-daughter lullaby, which was really a father-and-son job: the film's composer wrote it together with his own son.

In Brave, what does Queen Elinor insist a princess does not place on the table?

Her weapons, and the rule outlives the spell: even as a bear who cannot speak, Elinor is still fussing at Merida to get hers off their makeshift dinner table.

Brenda Chapman drew inspiration for Brave's story from her relationship with whom?

Her daughter was about five when the idea came. The girl already challenged her at every turn, which Chapman says she never did to her own mother, so she turned their clashes into a fairy tale.