Trama

Determined to make her own path in life, Princess Merida defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, Merida must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse.

Set in Scotland in a rugged and mythical time, this movie features Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald), an aspiring archer and impetuous daughter of Queen Elinor (Dame Emma Thompson). Merida makes a reckless choice that unleashes unintended peril and forces her to spring into action to set things right.—Walt Disney Pictures

Princess Merida, the impetuous, but courageous, daughter of Scottish King Fergus and Queen Elinor, is a skilled archer who wants to carve out her own path in life. Her defiance of an age-old tradition angers the Highland Lords and leads to chaos in the kingdom. Merida seeks help from an eccentric witch, who grants her an ill-fated wish. Now, Merida must discover the true meaning of courage and undo a beastly curse before it's too late.—Jwelch5742

Medieval Highland Scotland. Merida, an atypical young princess, would rather perfect her archery skills than accept the burden of royal obligations to become a queen. After all, love seldom blesses arranged marriages. As a result, rebellious Merida flees the castle in a fit of pique, only to enter the enchanted dark forest, the home of a powerful local witch. While looking for a way out of her predicament, Merida unwisely uses a potent magical incantation. However, to change your destiny, you must first transform from within. Will Merida face the grievous consequences of her decision and take responsibility for her actions?—Nick Riganas

In Scotland, King Fergus (Billy Connolly) of Clan Dunbroch presents his young daughter Merida (Kelly Macdonald) with a bow for her birthday. The family was out on a camping trip in the forest. Queen Elinor is not happy with the gift as she believes that Merida has to grow up to be a lady. While practicing, Merida shoots an arrow deep into the forest and goes to retrieve it. Merida encounters a will-of-the-wisp in the forest and starts following its trail. Elinor says that a wisp leads a person to their fate. Soon afterwards, Mor'Du, a giant demon bear, attacks the family. Merida escapes along with her mother Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) while Fergus fights off the bear at the cost of his left leg.

Years later, Merida has become a free-spirited 16-year-old teenager and an older sister of identical triplets: Hamish, Harris and Hubert. Maudie (Sally Kinghorn and Eilidh Fraser) is the bumbling and cowardly castle maid who is in charge of managing the triplets. Merida believes that her triplet brothers get away with murder, but she has too many restrictions put on her. Merida is the princess, and she has duties, responsibilities and expectations. Her whole life has been planned out to the day she becomes exactly like her mother. Elinor trains Merida to be a future Queen.

Merida loves riding her horse Angus into the forest and is an expert at arrows. She hits her targets perfectly even while riding a horse at full gallop. These are the moments that Merida lives for, the freedom to do and be anything. Merida's spirit is as wild and free as her fiercely red hair.

Merida's mother informs her that she is to be betrothed to one of her father's allied clans. Each of the 3 clans will present a suitor who will compete in a tournament and the winner will get Merida's hand in marriage. Reminding Merida of a legend about a prince who ruined his own kingdom because he was unhappy with splitting the kingdom with his 3 brothers as decided by his dying father. The eldest prince decided to follow his own path, and waged war to wrest the kingdom which led to its ruin. Elinor warns her that failure to marry could harm Dunbroch, but Merida is dissatisfied with the arrangement.

Elinor is frustrated that Merida does not listen to her advise. Elinor calms herself by working on a tapestry. Elinor believes that Merida is being unreasonable as refusing to get betrothed to one of the clans would mean that they would declare war on clan Dunbroch. Elinor argues that one cannot run away from whom they are. Merida doesn't want her life to be over so soon and wants her freedom. Merida is determined not to let this happen.

The clans of Macintosh (Craig Ferguson), MacGuffin (Kevin McKidd) and Dingwall (Robbie Coltrane) arrive with their first-born sons (Young Macintosh (Steven Cree), Wee Dingwall (Callum O'Neill) and Young MacGuffin (Kevin McKidd)) to compete in Highland Games for Merida's hand. The clans spend more time fighting each other for bragging rights as each of the suitors is unworthy of Merida's hand and had made exaggerated claims of bravery and competence, which were disputed by the others. It is only Elinor's intervention that brings the situation under control.

On the day of the games, the clan first born line up on an archery range and by sheer luck, Wee Dingwall hits the target, despite being the most incompetent of all the suitors. Merida announces she is eligible to compete for her own hand as the first-born of Clan Dunbroch and defeats each of her suitors in the archery contest, causing a falling out between Merida and Elinor. Merida claims that Elinor wants the marriage that she is never there for what Merida wants and desires.

When Merida slashes the family tapestry (which Elinor had been sewing patiently for weeks and months) and Elinor burns her bow in retaliation, the princess runs into the forest and comes across the will-of-the-wisps. They lead her to the hut of an elderly witch (Julie Walters) posing as a wood carver. The witch has a talking crow (Steve Purcell) who has a mind and opinions of his own.

Merida quickly realizes that the wood carver is a witch. Merida believes that the witch will change her fate and proceeds to tell her about the issues she is having with Elinor. Merida wants a spell to change her mother, which she believes will change her fate. After some bargaining, the witch agrees to give Merida a spell to change her mother, in the form of a cake. In addition to that, Merida also buys all of her wood carvings which the witch promises to deliver to her at her castle and pays for it with a family heirloom hanging around her neck in the form of a necklace.

Merida returns to the castle and gives Elinor the cake, causing her mother to transform into a large black bear. Elinor is now a bear, but she still is a human inside, which Merida can easily see.

With the help of her brothers (Merida tells them the truth and they help confuse and misguide Fergus and the other clans through the castle, as Fergus had got scent of the bear and was hunting for it), Merida and Elinor return to the witch's now deserted cottage where they discover that the spell will be permanent unless undone by the second sunrise. The witch leaves a hologram that says Merida a riddle, mentioning that she must "mend the bond torn by pride." Elinor had only taken a bite of the cake and leaves the rest in the kitchen, where the triplets find it.

Merida and Elinor begin to reconcile their relationship while Merida observes that the spell is slowly becoming permanent, as Elinor often loses control and acts more like a wild bear. Merida hunts in the river to get Elinor some fish to eat. At first Elinor would eat cooked fish, but slowly she starts eating raw fish as well. After encountering the wisps again, the two follow them to ancient ruins and encounter Mor'Du, who they discover was once the prince in Elinor's legend who received the same spell from the witch. Mor'Du was the eldest brother who went to the witch to get the strength of 10 men and got converted into a bear. His actions split the family apart. Mor'Du attacks them in the ruins, but Merida & Elinor escape. Merida promises her mother that she won't become a wild animal like Mor'Du and theorizes that she can reverse the spell by repairing her family tapestry. She believes that this is answer to the witch's riddle of "mend the bond torn by pride".

At the castle, the clans are on the verge of war as they want Fergus to select one of the Clan's first born to marry Merida. Fergus is adamant that none is fit to marry Merida, which brings the clans to the edge of war. The princess quells their fighting. With the encouragement of her mother who uses charades to guide Merida through a speech, the princess declares that the children should be allowed to get married in their own time, to whomever they choose, thus breaking away from tradition. She reminds the lords how they fought alongside each other to forge the Kingdom. While the Lords are against it, the children of the Lords support Merida and demand their own say in their future. Eventually, the Lords also agree to the demands of their children. Merida does this as she needs to distract the crowd enough to allow Elinor to climb the staircase to her chambers, which passes through the royal court.

Merida then sneaks into the tapestry room with Elinor, who is losing control of her human self. Fergus enters the bed chamber and is attacked by Elinor until she regains human consciousness and races out of the castle in desperation. Fergus gives chase. With the help of her brothers, who have transformed into bear cubs by eating the cake, Merida rides after her father while sewing up the tapestry.

The clan members and Fergus capture Elinor, but Merida intervenes just before Mor'Du attacks after he has tracked Merida & Elinor to the castle. Just as Mor'Du is about to swallow Merida whole, Elinor saves her and a Menhir crashes down on Mor'Du, flattening the monster, releasing the prince's spirit.

When Merida places the tapestry over Elinor, nothing happens. After Merida tearfully reconciles with Elinor (the true meaning of the riddle from earlier), the queen is transformed back, along with the triplets, and the family is reunited.

A few days later, the clans depart for their respective lands and Merida and Elinor ride their horses together, their bond finally restored. In a post-credits scene, the witch's crow asks a castle guard to sign for a delivery of wooden carvings that Merida bought simultaneously with the spell.