Brave Trivia (Pixar)
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This Brave trivia quiz has 49 free questions with answers and covers Pixar's 2012 Scottish fairy tale from every angle: the plot (the archery contest, the woodcarver witch, the spell cake, the second sunrise, the tapestry), the characters (Merida, Elinor, Fergus, the triplets, the three lords and their sons, Angus, Mor'du), and the voice cast of Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Julie Walters and Robbie Coltrane. It also digs into the production: the original title, the director change, the actress originally cast as Merida, the animation system Pixar rebuilt for the film, the sound format it launched, the Gaelic lullaby, and the awards it won. Easy questions suit kids who have watched the film a dozen times; the hard ones will test grown-up Pixar fans. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference and each question carries its citation.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Scottish actress voices Merida in Brave?
Kelly Macdonald
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.
Q 02Which actress was originally cast as the voice of Merida in Brave but left before its release?
Reese Witherspoon
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.
Q 03What was Brave's working title when Pixar first announced it in April 2008?
The Bear and the Bow
Brenda Chapman drew the story from her relationship with her own daughter and became Pixar's first female feature director.
Q 04What did Brave co-director Mark Andrews wear on stage to collect the film's Academy Award?
A kilt
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.
Q 05Brave was the first Pixar film to have what kind of lead character?
A female protagonist
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.
Q 06Which sound format made its debut with Brave's theatrical release?
Dolby Atmos
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.
Q 07Which Scottish composer wrote the score for Brave?
Patrick Doyle
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.
Q 08What blue spirits lead Merida through the forest in Brave?
Wisps
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.
Q 09Merida's powerful black horse, with a white muzzle and fetlocks, belongs to which breed?
Clydesdale
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.
Q 10Which Pixar short played in cinemas before Brave?
La Luna
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.
Q 11What is the name of Merida's clan and kingdom?
DunBroch
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.
Q 12What gift does Fergus give young Merida on her birthday, to Queen Elinor's dismay?
A bow and arrow
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.
Q 13Which part of his body does Fergus lose fighting the bear Mor'du?
His left leg
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.
Q 21What are the names of Merida's mischievous triplet brothers?
Hamish, Hubert and Harris
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.
Q 22Who was Mor'du before he became a demonic bear?
A prince
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.
Q 23How does Mor'du finally die?
A falling standing stone crushes him
Q 14What do Merida's triplet brothers turn into when the witch's spell catches them too?
Bear cubs
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.
Q 15How does Merida twist the rules of the contest for her hand?
She enters as her own clan's firstborn
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.
Q 16During their argument, what does Elinor throw into the fire?
Her daughter's bow
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.
Q 17What is the name of Merida's horse?
Angus
Angus is no fearless steed. Balky and faint-hearted, he flatly refuses to follow Merida into the ring of ancient stones.
Q 18What trade does the elderly witch practise in her cottage deep in the forest?
Woodcarver
Woodcarver is her cover story: she whittles bear trinkets and figurines, and only grudgingly conjures a spell once Merida sees through the guise.
Q 19In what form does the witch give Merida the spell?
A cake
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.
Q 20According to the witch's message, what must Merida do to break the spell?
Mend the bond torn by pride
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.
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.
Q 24What finally turns Elinor back into a human at the second sunrise?
Merida's tearful plea to her mother
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.
Q 25What is delivered to the castle gate in Brave's post-credits scene?
A crow with a cart of wooden toys
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.
Q 26How do the triplets end the film Brave?
Stowing away on a departing clan boat
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.
Q 27Which comedian and actor voices King Fergus in Brave?
Billy Connolly
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.
Q 28Who voices Queen Elinor?
Emma Thompson
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.
Q 29Which Harry Potter alumna voices the witch in Brave?
Julie Walters
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.
Q 30Which actor voices both Lord MacGuffin and his Doric-speaking son in Brave?
Kevin McKidd
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.