Brave (2012)
Change your fate.
In the mystical Scottish Highlands, Merida is the princess of a kingdom ruled by King Fergus and Queen Elinor. An unruly daughter and an accomplished archer, Merida one day defies a sacred custom of the land and inadvertently brings turmoil to the kingdom. In an attempt to set things right, Merida seeks out an eccentric old Wise Woman and is granted an ill-fated wish. Also figuring into Merida's quest — and serving as comic relief — are the kingdom's three lords: the enormous Lord MacGuffin, the surly Lord Macintosh, and the disagreeable Lord Dingwall.
In Brave, consciousness is carried by animals — a plane of “highland clan myth”. The story fights on E8/E9/E10 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing tradition, family, identity, authority, choice.
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Noelle (2019)E8/E9/E10 · authority, family
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)E8/E9 · authority, identity
Tarzan II (2005)E8/E9 · family, identity
Look Who's Talking Now! (1993)E8/E9 · authority, family
Bambi II (2006)E8/E9 · family, identity
Brother Bear 2 (2006)E8/E9 · family, identitySame subject, different rung
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
Also hides consciousness here
Other films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.
The Lion King (1994)consciousness in animals · savanna monarchy
Hop (2011)consciousness in animals · bunny Easter kingdom
The Lion King (2019)consciousness in animals · pride kingdom
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)consciousness in animals · anthropomorphic savanna
Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas (2011)consciousness in animals · mammoth holiday
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998)consciousness in animals · lion kingdomSame subject, different mask
The same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000)consciousness in monsters · authority, family
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)consciousness in objects · authority, family
Nimona (2023)consciousness in monsters · authority, identity
Lilo & Stitch (2025)consciousness in aliens · authority, family
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)consciousness in objects · family, identity
Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005)consciousness in aliens · family, identity
