Huh.

Actually, I figured that out from the trailers. Mainly from the part where Merida is leaping and reaching out to the bear. Had to be either her dad or her mom, and since her relationship with her mom was more fraught... yeah.

I need the buffista hivemind for recommendations. Mom wants to add more movies to my nephew's video library library. E will be 4 in August. He's got some Disney stuff, most Pixar, and he likes Backyardigans, Blues Clues, Bob the Builder, and Fireman Sam.

She really wants to find things with very little violence (or, at least, no more than you'd find in Finding Nemo or A Bug's Life, or something), and NO DEATHS. Especially NO PARENTAL deaths.

So, any suggestions? (movies or tv shows)

Wallace & Gromit. Miyazaki (Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Ponyo).

Nightmare Before Christmas, unless "no deaths" eliminates it since the main character is a skeleton...

For TV shows, he probably knows all the PBS Kids stuff already (Dinosaur Train, SuperWHY, Sid the Science Kid, etc). I don't know what's on the other kids networks these days because I'm trying to avoid letting D watch commercials unsupervised.

The Mary Sue saw Brave. No real spoilers: [link]

Thanks for the suggestions! I hadn't thought about Nightmare before Xmas or the Miyazaki, those might be good choices.

Actually I don't know if he knows those PBS shows, they don't want a lot of tv and don't have Netflix. Mostly he just watches dvds he owns or are from the library. I'll have to point her towards those.

E's mother and her fiance died suddenly earlier this year and he's still trying to understand what happened. Mom said she thought he had enough movies where someone dies and it would be nice to have movies where everyone lives.

Huh. I spent the entire screening wishing I was watching the film this review describes.

Merida is a standout, memorable character.

She is?

Elinor is a well-rounded character that has hopes, a past, and dreams for the future.

Elinor was my biggest disappointment of all. She could have been this, but instead they just pulled her off the shelf labeled "Stock characters: Moms" and gave her a Scottish accent.

It is, in its best moments, about complete, flawed women of different ages and mindsets, trying to meet each other in the middle

That is exactly the movie I wanted.

As for "what equality really means," I think it means not giving Pixar bonus points just because their protagonist is a girl. It means demanding that their female lead characters be as memorable and richly developed as their previous male leads and previous female supporting characters. Don't be so thrilled that the princess has a bow and arrow that you ignore the fact that that's all she does. Ellie showed more personality in a 20 minute montage than Merida does in an entire 90 minute film!

(Sorry, apparently I'm really angry about this film being mediocre instead of great.)

Miyazaki (Totoro

Um, if she's looking for no parental deaths, this may be one to skip. The girls' mother doesn't die (IICR), but she is in a hospital. And while I know I have a library full of issues around that sort of thing, I didn't know about that plot point when I first saw Totoro, and it kinda blindsided me.

I concur with Jilli - the mom recovers in the end, but there are a couple of scenes in which both daughters show totally raw, naked terror at the possibility of her death. Ponyo is probably a safer Miyazaki choice.

If the parent is already long dead when the film begins is that OK? If so, Lilo & Stitch.