Braves (Dreamworks Movie)

Braves is a 3D animated fantasy action film Produced by Dreamworks Animation in asaociation whit Aries Creative, Pearl studio and BigCat Studio and Distribuited By Universal Pictures. The film is directed by Pendleton Ward (creator of the Adventure Time series) and produced by Yang Tzu Ting in association with Pendleton Ward, Rebecca Sugar, Ben Bocelet and Fred Seibert. The film is based on the Taiwanese comic book series of the same name by Yellow Book and serves as Pendleton's directorial debut. The film stars Jaeden Matel, Ron Perlman, Hailee Stenfield, Richard Steve Hortiz, Zazie Bets, Jacob Hopkins, Mark Whalberg and Jennifer Laurence and tells the story of a boy who decides to stop the king of demons and his entourages, but when faced with They realize that they are not what everyone thinks and that their group is not on the true side of justice.

Braves was released on September 7, 2024 in the United States and Taiwan by Universal Pictures. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics, praising its story animation and characters considering the film as "A Great Leap For Ward".

Sinopsis
A Brave Youth named Arthur who lives in a fantasy RPG world decides to join the Braves to stop the threat of Morewant the king of demons along with his retinues, but after coming face to face with him he discovers that Morwant is not as evil as he seems to be and that demons are not evil entities, so he must stop King Gabriel while he unravels the origins of demons.

Plot
A long time ago there were three races: Humans, Demons and Dragons which lived in organized war between The Brave and The Demons led by their king "Morewant", Some three brave called Alon (Fair Brave) Fideus (Loyal Brave) and Morpheis (Brave black) decide to go to the Morewant Tower to defeat him where on the way they get the sad news that the king was killed by an unknown assassin, Fideus blames Alon for letting the king die fighting him when they meet with goblins that were protecting the place by hitting Fielus in the right eye, in another place Alon meets Morewant and discovers that he is not as evil as he believes and that demons are like humans, in that Morpheis arrives and faces Face to face with Alon, he is badly injured so when Morpheis launches an energy sphere towards him, Morewant decides to sacrifice himself to stop him, in that Alon awakens his Heart of Darkness battling to count Morpheis and defeating him.

When he tries to help the demons Morpheis decides to stab him with his sword and blame Alon for his murder calling him the new Morewant before dying, causing Alon a huge sense of guilt.

20 years later the war ended and a new king was elected, this being Gabriel Artemis Morling III, on the day of the election of a new brave Arthur, a young peasant who is a nobody for society, decides to enlist for the brave and thus be able to defeat Morewant.

Arthur decides to go to the castle to meet his new companions, among them this other rookie who arrived before him, Dracaris, a hybrid between a human and a dragon who was separated from her parents, Arthur introduces himself with her and says that it is his first day as Brave, Dracaris doesn't seem to care, when they arrive at the castle they meet other brave ones, these being Robert, a self-centered Brave who thinks he's famous, and Katranis, a feline swordswoman who is very good with Dracaris.

In that Fideus arrives and asks the brave to do some chores to receive experience, Robert had to face some giant mosquitoes, Katranis had to guard the borders of the city and Arthur along with Dracaris will have to kill goblins, Arthur doubts if the government is really doing the right thing and if it is really on the side of justice, so fideus will give him twice the experience, thus convincing Arthur while Dracaris sees in the background and thinks that Arthur is quite naive.

On the way Arthur tells Dracaris more about his life, saying that he never knew his parents because they died in an attack by demons, so he spent his entire childhood in an orphanage, when he turned 18 years old managed to get a home of his own even though he was quite alone without anyone bothering him, talking to him or making him pancakes for breakfast.

Dracaris also tells about her past saying that she is the daughter of Venatorus in brave dragon slayer who retired years ago after falling in love with a blue dragon named Halerris, she was born thanks to a forbidden magic made by her parents, when the King found her home he asked her to join the brave, however she did not want to, so the king threatened to end her family if she did not join them, so without any other option she decided to join the brave so as not to see their parents die.

Along the way they run into a brave man with a somewhat peculiar appearance, although Arthur is surprised by his appearance, in the end he does not care and they continue on their way.

When they arrive at the goblins' village they decide to prepare to attack them. But a Goblin named Marlix along with his slime partner named Baba and an elf named Mobs, Arthur without thinking twice decides to finish them off in a battle while the brave one they ran into before They watch them while they fight. When he manages to knock them out, the Brave wounds himself to sacrifice himself and explode.

When they are taken out of combat they decide to leave, the brave man who was still alive thanks to his resurrection ring decides to go to his home in the Morewant Tower, taking off his helmet revealing that it is nobody else than Morewant himself when he decides to rest, Aquaris arrives the second in command of Morwant and his love interest, when she sees Morewant's wounds, she asks him in alarm what happened to him, so he tells her that he was only doing brave things, she reproaches Morewant that he cannot I was sure of this since the demon people can no longer bear to see their loved ones die.

In that Alverus the brave boss arrives telling Morewant that he must pay the monthly rent for the tower, so Morewant nervously tells him that he had been quite short of budget but tells him that the other week he will pay him, Alverus decides to accept but before Leaving notices that Morewant's resurrection ring was missing, worrying Aquaris and asking Morewant what killed him, without finding an answer from him.

After their first mission Arthur and Dracarys return to the castle to receive their pay, Katranis, knowing that there was nothing wrong while guarding the borders, decided to also receive the pay and for his part Robert returns with too many stings saying that he managed to defeat the giant mosquitoes (when in reality he ended up being pathetically defeated by the insects) to also receive his pay, Fideus, as he is a man of his word, decides to give everyone their pay and tells them to go home, Arthur asks if he too he knows other Braves such as Morpheis, Venatorus or Alon, so Fideus yells at Arthur not to mention Alon's name so he decides to stop talking and go home but when he tries to ask Fideus again he tells him He closes the door in his face, Arthur decides to go home to rest, plans to go to the Morewant tower to finish him off, in this Dracaris decides to follow him home and ask him if he thinks he is going to work to which Arthur tells him if he thinks it will work, so Dracaris also says goodbye to Arthur and leaves.

The next day Arthur decides to prepare to look for a legendary armor of the fierce king, when he arrives at the door to leave, Dracaris who was in front of the door tells him to accompany him so that he does not get hurt, to which Arthur agrees and goes towards the realm of Ignitus to get the armor.

When they arrive at Ignitus's lair, Maliz and Baba arrive to get her first but due to Arthur's Stupidity, he and Maliz fall into a cave where Ignitus is who is talking to Robert to give him the armor because he doesn't want him to the blood reaches the lava, Later Robert breaks his part of the deal and says that who cares about morality. Arthur who was watching this decides to stop Robert but Katranis arrives to beat him up, in the middle of it Maliz puts on the armor to stop them being very powerful and getting Katranis out of the way and saving Arthur, Dracaris together with Mobs decide to stop the Brave that had them surrounded but they are subdued and when they were about to finish off the Mobs Maliz arrives and defeats the guards, Dracaris seeing Arthur badly injured asks Maliz for help to heal him but Ignitus arrives and helps Dracaris to take Arthur to someone who can heal him.

Arthur wakes up in an unknown room and decides to check the place discovers some food and drink, but in it he meets Morewant causing him to panic and try to leave the place, but after a while he meets Dracaris again and she tells him that Morewant will not harm him and discovers that he is not as evil as he thinks.

After helping Arthur with his wounds, Morewant introduces him and Dracaris to his companions: Ignitus the fire demon and Morewant's best friend, Aquaris, the water demon and queen of demons and Kirus, the sick demon. and the youngest member of the group, Arthur, seeing them from the front, realizes that they are not as evil as they seem and realizes that they are peaceful. Arthur, seeing that the demons are not evil entities, doubts if he is really doing the right thing, Dracaris and Mobs talk about what the Brave do to the demons, and also tells him that the brave only take advantage of them to gain experience, Arthur, knowing what the brave really are, decides to go with the demons to the brave kingdom while helping them to give a good image about them, which will not be easy.

Arthur decides to go with Dracaris and the others to the castle to show the king that they are not monsters, Morewant is not sure about it, so Aquaris decides to speak alone with Arthur, She tells him that she doubts if the king is really convinced of that the demons are not evil, to which Arthur tells her that everything will be fine convincing her, so Aquaris said that if they go to the castle they will see the king to convince him.

Hours later on the road they run into a group of braves who were looking for demons to hunt and have experience, in it One runs into Morewant who was hiding in a bush, and just when a brave was about to check Maliz decides to face them in front to the front, to which the group of braves laugh at his height and call him "Little" causing Maliz to get angry and shout "NOBODY CALLS ME LITTLE" and start attacking the brave group with his sword becoming more powerful and throwing them into the Sky, Arthur and the others seeing the power that Maliz has They are impressed and continue on their way, Meanwhile King Gabriel Talks with some brave men to carry out his evil plan, in it comes the group of brave men who were defeated by Maliz and they are told that a Goblin took them out of the way, Malefariz using a spell decides to show the king what happened using the memory of the attacked Braves and discovers that Arthur and Dracarys are together to Morewant, so Gabriel decides that he has to take his troops to stop him and that Arthur doesn't know his plans.

After spending several hours walking in a desert, the group feels quite hot, except for Ignitus, which for him is normal because his body is 56% fire. Maliz thinks that they are wasting time and argues with Arthur since he thinks that they were walking in circles, meanwhile Mobs and Aquaris notice that some things mysteriously disappear and feel that the sand moves, in this Mobs warns Dracaris that something is causing things disappear in the sand and behind him a gigantic sandworm comes out, causing the group to escape, after running from the monster they find a gigantic opening in the earth, because the Worm was approaching, Maliz decided to charge to the group, however the giant worm comes out behind them and when it was about to devour them Maliz gives a boost jump which makes them reach the other side of the abyss and thus manage to survive, after the encounter the group resumes its path.

Meanwhile, King Gabriel recruits a group of Valeintes to finish off Arthur, being these: Bruter (the general solitude), Asferatu (the King of Blood), Halaris (Female Boss) and San nu, at first they reject the idea but later After the king blackmails them to give them a lot of money for what they accept and join Fideus, Katranis and Robert, the king tells Malefariz that he should not tell him about his plan since it will be executed very soon.

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Menssage
the film is a clear criticism of racial discrimination, totalitarianism and corruption since demons are seen by humans as simple monsters to the point that their villages are attacked is a clear reference to how black people in the 50s was considered as slaves and as white people was racist towards them.

And that King Gabriel does not care about morality or rights because he only cares about money and expanding his territories is a clear reference to how politicians agree to bribe people to win elections unfairly and that politicians totalitarians want to expand until all the land is theirs.

Voice actors
Some of the producers, like Rebecca Sugar and Fred Seibert, did additional voices, other Universal Tales producers like Jason Blum and Jordan Pelee and some actors like Tom Kenny, Internet actors like Michael Kovach, Nola klop, Elsie Lovelock and even the Pendleton himself made voice cameos.
 * Jaeden Matel is Arthur/Main Brave
 * Ron Perlman is Morewant
 * Hailee Stendfield is Dracaris/Dragon Brave
 * Richard Steve Hortiz is Maliz/Goblin of Goblins and Baba/Slime of Slimes
 * Zazie Bets is Mobs/Bunny
 * Jacob Hopkins is Kirus/Sick Demon
 * Mark Whalberg is Ignitus/Fire Demon
 * Jeniffer Laurence is Aquaris/Water demon
 * Liam Nesson is King Gabriel Artemis Morling III
 * Steven Yeun is Robert Lernuis II/Superstar Brave and Asferatu/ Blood Knigth
 * Tara Strong is Katranis/ Sword Brave and Libidy/Desire Queen
 * Bill Harder is Fideus/Loyal Brave
 * Jhon DiMaggio is Morpheis/Black Brave and Bruter/Lonely General
 * James McAvoy is Alverus/Chief Brave
 * Rebecca Sugar is Malefariz/Despair Brave and Halaris/ Female Boss
 * Christian bale is Venatorus/Dragon Slayer Brave
 * Emma Stone is Halerris/Blue Dragon and San Nu
 * Chaning Tatum is Arrakius/ King Of War
 * Mark Hamill is Old Morewant
 * Tom Kenny is Paxerus/ Old King

Production
In 2021 Bigcat Studio Released an animated series based in the yellow book comic called Brave Animated series in Netflix Although the series was well received, it did not have a large audience, causing the series to be quite underrated. on August 20, 2022 Dreamworks announced a new movie for 2024 which confirmed that the director would be Pendleton Ward and that the writer would be Yang Tzu Ting Along with Rebecca Sugar. On November 7, the official cast was announced in a panel on YouTube, in this panel when Pendleton was going to say the title, it was always censored according to Rebeca Sugar herself, she said that the reason why dreamworks censored the title was to keep it secret On April 14, 2023, the first promotional poster was released and the title of the film "Braves" was revealed. That same day it was known that Owen Denis along with Daniel Pembelton and Weifan Chang would make the music. On October 26, the teaser trailer for the tape was officially released with the song "Heroes" by Blaze n Vill from the movie The Lego Ninjago Movie, on February 16, 2024 the official release date of the tape was confirmed. And it was confirmed that the film would be a co-production with Bigcat Studios, Pts, Aries Creative and Pearl Studio, on April 1 as an April Fools' joke they decided to release a badly animated fake trailer with a message from Pembelton saying "Happy Fool's Day fool" on May 2, the trailer was officially released saying in the video description that "It's not a joke in bad taste. I'm serious -Ward". on August 14 the second trailer was released along with a translated version of the intro song of the netflix series "Devil and Brave" along with an original song called "Heart of Warriors" sung by Hailee Stendfield with Kid Kudi

Release
The film premiered on September 5, 2024 in Taiwan and on September 7, 2024 (2 days later) it premiered internationally at the IFC center in NYC.

Reception
The film received mostly positive reviews praising the animation, the story, the character development. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Braves holds an approval rating of 93% based on 346 reviews, with an average rating of 9.15/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "An engaging story, splendid animation, and well-done character development, Braves is for many a great leap for Pendlenton Ward in animation." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, has assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average score of 4 out of 5 stars.

Credits
Braves (Dreamworks Movie)/Credits

Transcript
Braves (Dreamworks Movie)/Transcript