Brave – Princess Merida 3D Papercraft
Posted on Jan 12 2013 at 11:33:41 PM in Visual Arts
This paper model was created by Disney Family. Princess Merida is the main protagonist of Disney/Pixar’s 2012 film Brave. She is a Scottish Princess with a love of archery, who unintentionally unleashes trouble on her kingdom, leading her to set out to make things right. She is voiced by Kelly Macdonald. In July of 2013, she will join the Disney Princess line-up making her the eleventh Disney Princess.
Princess Merida is the sixteen year old tomboyish daughter of a queen who rules the kingdom alongside her husband. Queen Elinor’s expectations of her daughter make Merida see Elinor as being distant while also causing friction between the two. Despite Elinor’s desire to see Merida as a proper royal lady, Merida an impetuous girl who wants to take control of her own destiny. Merida has honed her skill in archery, and is one of the most skilled archers ever seen. She is also skilled in sword-fighting and racing across the countryside on her horse, Angus.
Despite her outgoing, forceful personality, Merida does have a softness of heart, particularly when it comes to her triplet brothers.
Merida is first seen as a child playing hide-and-seek with her mother Queen Elinor on her birthday. Then she sees her father’s bow on the table and asks him to shoot an arrow with it. Fergus, her father, presents her with her own bow as a birthday present. She accidentally shoots her first arrow into the forest and goes to get it back until she spots a trail of Will O’ the Wisps that lead her back to her parents. Elinor tells her that the wisps lead you to your fate, but Fergus doesn’t believe it. Suddenly, Mor’du attacks, and Elinor and Merida flee while Fergus stays behind to fight the demon bear.
Years later, Merida is a teenager that Elinor is trying to make her into a proper princess despite Merida’s objection. One day when there are no lessons she goes riding on her horse Angus. She shoots arrows at targets she sets up in the forest, and just explores. She even climbs the Crone’s Tooth and drinks from the Fire Falls in joy. Merida returns home to join her family for dinner. As she enters, Merida listens to Fergus telling her triplet brothers the story of his battle with Mor’du until she interrupts and tells them that their father lost his left leg in the battle, and Mor’du is waiting his chance of revenge. Moments later, Elinor tells Merida that the three Lords are coming to present their suitors to compete for her hand in marriage. Not wanting any of this, Merida angrily storms out of the Great Hall to her bedroom. As she is striking her bedposts with her sword, Elinor enters telling her the story of a king who divided his kingdom for each of his four sons to rule, but the eldest wanted to rule the entire land and so brought chaos and war, and his desire to follow his own path led to the downfall of the kingdom. Merida refuses to listen. Elinor tells her to go through with it but Merida still doesn’t want it. Moments later, Merida is seen in Angus’s stall talking to Angus of what she would say to her mother about her wishes if she would listen. Merida is determined she will not marry whoever wins the games.
Days later, the Lords arrive in DunBroch. Elinor prepares Merida in a tight formal dress and they all gather in the Great Hall for the presentation of the suitors. Each of the Lords present their sons. Merida is not pleased with any of them. A brawl breaks out, at which Elinor and Merida are both disgusted. Elinor proclaims that only the firstborn of the great leaders may compete in the games which gives Merida an idea of how to get out of the marriage: she declares that she chooses archery for the Highland Games.
When the competition begins, Merida sneaks her bow and arrows behind her throne. As the suitors shoot at the targets, she chats with Fergus about each of them until Wee Dingwall wins by accident, striking the bullseye. She sneaks off and appears on the field, declaring she will shoot for her own hand. Ignoring Elinor’s protests, she strikes the bullseye of the first two suitors’ targets. When she shoots an arrow through the full length of Wee Dingwall’s arrow and through the target, she smiles … until she sees her furious mother.
Elinor drags and throws Merida into the tapestry room as they have a heated arguement with each other about Merida’s actions, with Elinor calling her a child and Merida calling her a beast for trying to ruin her life. Merida then slices the family tapestry between the pictures of herself and Elinor, and Elinor throws Merida’s bow into the fire. Merida tearfully runs away from the castle as Elinor quickly fishes the bow from the fire, feeling horribly guilty and starts weeping.
Merida is weeping as she rides Angus heedlessly through the forest until they come across the Ring of Stones and a trail of will o’ the wisps leading them to a woodcarver’s cottage. Noticing a broom that sweeps by itself and a talking crow, Merida discovers that this old woodcarver is actually a witch, and demands a spell. The witch tells her to get out, threatening her with floating knives, until Merida offers to buy all her carvings with her pendant in exchange for a spell that will change her fate. The witch begrudgingly gives in and conjures up a cursed tart, which she says that she did for a prince who wanted the strength of ten men and got what he wanted. Merida takes the tart and heads back to DunBroch.
She sneaks back into the kitchen to making the tart presentable, as Elinor enters the room, relieved to find her daughter home. Merida gives her the tart on a false peace offering and Elinor eats a piece, then suddenly starts feeling sick. Merida escorts Elinor to her chambers and puts her in bed. Suddenly Elinor starts transforming into a bear. Merida is horrified at the spell’s effect and with her brothers’ help gets Elinor out of the castle. They journey back to the Witch’s cottage but they find her gone. Then they find the witch’s cauldron with a ghostly image of the Witch in the potion-controlled automated voice message telling Merida that she has until the second sunrise to break the spell or her mother will remain a bear forever. The Witch tells Merida the way to do it was to remember the riddle “Fate be changed, look inside, mend the bond torn by pride.” Baffled, Merida accidentally sabotages the cottage, so Merida and Elinor take shelter in the remains of the cottage for the night. Merida has a dream about a memory of her as a child with Elinor as they are both are singing “Noble Maiden Fair (A Mhaighdean Bhan Uasal)” together.
The next morning, Elinor brings some berries and water for breakfast. Merida explains that the berries are poisonous nightshade berries and the water has worms in it. They go to a creek, where Merida teaches her mother to catch fish, and they both start bonding. Then Elinor heads into the forest and Merida follows her; but Elinor is not herself, and starts attacking her daugher until she returns to herself. Mérida is confused until they see a trail of will o’ the wisps and follow them to the ruins of a castle. Mérida falls through the floor into a throne room and realizes it was the kingdom from the story Elinor was telling her about. Mérida sees a stone with three figures and a split stone with the fourth figure and realizes that the curse has happened before, when the prince seeked to change his fate, resulting in his kingdom’s downfall and his transformation to Mor’du. Then she sees Mor’du and he attacks her until she barely escapes with Elinor’s help and they flee back to the Ring of Stones. Mérida realizes that Elinor will become like Mor’du forever unless she sews the tapestry back together to “mend the bond torn by pride” in hopes it will break the spell.
That night they sneak into the castle. Peeking into the Great Hall, they see Fergus and the lords behind barricades, hurling weapons at each other, on the brink of war. Mérida tries to tell Elinor to stop them. But Elinor, in bear form, can’t do any such thing, and it is up to Mérida to stop this madness. Elinor, fearful of being seen and attacked, freezes into a stationary position while Mérida walks into the room and tells them she was in conference with Elinor. The Lords demand to see the queen until Mérida silences them all. She tells them of the story of the selfish prince who brought chaos to the land, and reminds them that legends are lessons and they ring with truths. The clans had been enemies until they were threatened by the Northern Invaders and joined forces to defend their lands. When they won the war, the clans made Fergus their king for bringing them together and made an alliance. Mérida then tells them that they should be free to follow their hearts and find their own love. The Lords’ sons agree with this and confess to their fathers that they didn’t want to fight over a girl who doesn’t want any of it. So they all agree; but Mérida notices a guard staring at Elinor’s frozen pose and distracts everyone by telling them to got to the cellar to celebrate. When everyone is gone, Elinor is proud of her and they both head to the tapestry room.
As Mérida is looking for thread and needles to mend the tapestry, Elinor turns wild again and attacks Mérida. When Fergus enters the room she attacks him, and cuts Mérida’s arm. When Elinor snaps out of it, Mérida tries to calm her, but her mother flees in horror as Mérida tries to tell Fergus that the bear is Elinor, but Fergus refuses to listen. He locks her in the tapestry room for protection and gives the key to the old the servant Maudie while he and the Lords go after Elinor. Mérida starts crying again and calls out until her brothers show up… but they, too, have been turned into bears for eating of the cursed tart. She tells them to get the key. They release Mérida, and all four ride on Angus while Mérida frantically sews up the tapestry. They follow a trail of will o’ the wisps to where Elinor was captured. Mérida fights Fergus to keep him from killing Elinor, until he is convinced when the three bear cubs help stop him, and he realizes they are his sons.
Suddenly Mor’du appears and attacks the soldiers and Fergus. Then he attempts to kill Mérida until Elinor breaks free from the ropes. She saves Mérida just in time and starts fighting Mor’du. After slamming Elinor into one of the stones, he turns to kill Mérida, who is holding up a spear against him, until Elinor pulls him back and smashes him against a cracked menhir, which then crushes him to death. A wisp of something rising from his body reveals the image of the prince, who nods to them as if in acknowledgement and gratitude and then disappears. As the sun starts to come up, Mérida realizes it is the second sunrise; she grabs the tapestry and throws it around Elinor, but realizes nothing’s happening. Thinking she has failed, she tearfully hugs her mother and apologizes for everything and tells her she loves her. Then the tapestry seals itself around her clumsy stitches. She feels a human hand touching her hair and realizes Elinor is human again. Fergus comes and hugs his wife and daughter and kisses Elinor. Mérida reminds her she is naked under the tapestry and Fergus tells the lords not to look as the triplets, now human once again, come running naked and hugging their parents and sister.
Later, Mérida and Elinor are sewing a new tapestry together of Mérida and Elinor as a bear until they are called to the docks to say goodbye to the Lords. Then they both ride on their horses and journey around Scotland making their bond stronger than before.
Brave is a 2012 American computer-animated adventure fantasy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It was written by Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman, and Irene Mecchi, directed by Andrews and Chapman and co-directed by Purcell.
In the film, set in the Scottish Highlands, a skilled archer named Merida defies an age-old custom, causing chaos in her kingdom. After consulting a witch for help, Merida accidentally curses her family and is forced to undo the spell herself before it is too late. Brave premiered on June 10, 2012, at the Seattle International Film Festival, and was released in North America on June 22, 2012, to both positive reviews and box office success. The film was nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, and a Academy Award for Best Animated Film.
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