Pretty Good

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The Witch recounts the story of four prince brothers to Wee Dingwall. Their family had ruled an ancient prosperous nearby kingdom. The youngest prince was wise, the second youngest was compassionate, the second oldest was just, and the eldest was strong. When the king died, the kingdom was split among the four brothers hoping a blend of their traits would create the best rule. The eldest expected to be the only king and battled the others to take the entire kingdom. He came to the Witch for magical strength. She offered him tenfold his strength but he's also turned into a black bear. Instead of letting go and make peace, he murdered his brothers destroying what's left of the kingdom.This is a 7 minute short from the Brave franchise. It tells a fitting fable that teaches something. It also has a fun joke to wrap it up. It's a well made animated short.

I watched this short whilst renting Brave on DVD and while it wasn't the best Pixar short combining 2D and 3D animation (this honour goes to Day and Night), it made me learn more about the back-story of Mor'du the bear.The short opens with a clever title card of megaliths forming Mor'du's name followed by the witch inviting the viewer into her shop. She narrates the story of Mor'du's past and how he became a bear. Like the story in Brave, the story here was a tad complicated but the witch's narration was engaging. The first 3D segment of the witch was smoothly animated but the movements of Wee Dingwall trying to escape from the shop in fear in the last segment are blocky. The main 2D segment was beautifully drawn despite the animation being minimal but there were good uses of camera sweeps nonetheless. Other redeeming qualities are the chilling music being played throughout the short and the more whimsical music playing over the end credits.All in all this feature-related short was worth watching and it is on the same level as Jack- Jack Attack and Dug's Special Mission but slightly preferable to La Luna. 8/10.

Having enjoyed the film Brave I was looking forward to seeing this supporting short, not sure what it would provide. This short focuses on the story of Mor'du, which is a story we already know from the main film since it is the tale that sits behind the path of Merida as a warning to her in the main film. Here we don't have more detail of this story but instead just longer spent telling it. The device of having this delivered by the Witch is reasonably nice as it allows for some humor, but mainly it is a straight telling.The animation is not the full Pixar computer generated effects of Brave but a more stylish approach with rougher edges. I liked this as a look and felt this helped the short as a story being told – but I did have an issue with the story itself. I was hoping for it to do something I hadn't heard already but it never did, which made me wonder why it had been selected to be the supporting short that Pixar so often produce to accompany the DVD release of their film. There were many good characters in the main film which could have been used to make an interesting or funny short, so I'm not sure why they just repeated in this way.It still has entertainment value and is well made, but it is covering ground the film did and feels disappointing and unnecessary as a result.

I don''t understand why Pixar decided to make this one but it surely complements its predecessor BRAVE. Brave had a different story and this one just takes up a point and continues it. The plot is simple and not much of a strainer. Loved it!And it scores some brownie points in the animation which I hear Pixar did by completely changing the animation systems for the first time in 25 years! Well, The Legend Of Mor'du is one of those marvellously created Pixar short films and I enjoyed it.If you haven't watched Brave, then apparently you will not fathom a thing in this 7 minute splendor. Recommended!Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES