The Legend of Mor'du (2012 Video) User Reviews

A Fine Supplement For The Golden Globe Nominated BRAVE!

[nairtejas · 7/10 · 15 December 2012]

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

well made fitting fable

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 22 January 2017]

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.

Unneeded-Makes Brave weaker

[CubsandCulture · 5/10 · 8 January 2021]

This short fleshes out the legend that is central to Brave's story and that is problem. On its own it fits too comfortably in as legend trodding over a well known path. But its bigger sin is the legend in Brave *didn't* need to be fatten up like this. The big beats of the story are perfectly clear from Brave's text. To see the fat is to rob the little mystery in Brave to keep it just a bit more legendary.

A good story sometimes only has suggestion and implication. This trend to tell every single thing in the 2010's in a series of connected media annoys me on that front.

Not sure what it is supposed to add – the film gave you this already

[bob the moo · 15 November 2013]

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.

A little pointless

[freemantle_uk · 6/10 · 22 January 2021]

The Legend of Mor'du retold the story Elinor told Merida in Brave and that was the big issue with the short - it was a redundant. It didn't tell a fun side story like other short such as Jack-Jack Attacks and Burn-E. I liked the picture book art-style but the short would have fitted better in the feature film.

A legend that could have had more magic

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 25 June 2019]

Saw 'The Legend of Mor'du' for many reasons. Love animation, and always have done as a child, will be forever grateful towards it for helping me relax when very much needed. Love Pixar and a vast majority of their films. Really like to love their theatrical short films and the feature-related shorts are fun enough though don't put them on the same level personally. Will admit that 'Brave' is not one of my favourite feature films of theirs, consider it one of their lesser films while not disliking it anywhere near as much as some (still liked it actually).

'The Legend of Mor'du' is one of their feature related films and is an interesting and well made one in its own right, did like the visuals and how it focused on the witch. If comparing 'The Legend of 'Mor'du' to 'Brave', it is to me inferior, inevitable as it is not a feature film and didn't have as much time and budget to make, and one can be forgiven if they questioned the point of it. From reading my review summary, one would understandably think that it seems like my thoughts on 'The Legend of Mor'du' were negative. Not so, have already said it was interesting and well made, but it could have done with more magic.

In terms of the story, 'The Legend of Mor'du' is slight and generic and the pace could have been tighter.

Do agree that the character design and movements for Dingwell were blocky and suggestive of time and budget starting to run out.

Otherwise, the animation is very good. Very stylish and atmospheric, simple but effective and the purposefully rough look at times didn't look cheap. Loved the sweeping camera movements and the first segment was imaginatively animated. Also loved the dark use of colour that added to the creepiness and the meticulously detailed backgrounds.

The opening credits are cleverly done. The music at times brought chills down my spine and not just adds to the atmosphere and action but enhances it. The witch is an interesting character and it was great to have some focus on her as she had enough to her to warrant more focus. Julie Walters does a great job voicing her. The other characters aren't as strong but far from bland. Headed by Walters, the voice acting is well done.

Altogether, not bad at all. 7/10

The Legend of Mor'du supplies one-dimensional grizzly lore through two-dimensional simplicity.

[TheMovieDiorama · 4/10 · 18 June 2020]

'Brave', one of Pixar's most underrated features, hosts a villainous prince consumed by greed whom is transformed into a monstrous bear by an eccentric witch, voiced enthusiastically by Walters. Mor'du garnered surface level characterisation in the animated film, merely supplying functional antagonism to a story that did not really require such menace. Consequently, this storyboard of what is clearly a deleted scene was projected to be its own companion piece to 'Brave', offering in-depth background to Mor'du himself. The problem being that Larsen's onslaught of originating information and simplistic illustrations forced this short to be forgettable as soon as the minimal credits rolled.

The witch retells the tale, commencing with three-dimensional CGI before withering to hand-drawn stills, with an abundance of energy. Four brothers, three of which equipped with mental "gifts" whilst the eventual Mor'du facilitating the only physical "gift" of strength, all wanting a piece of the kingdom. It then proceeds to imitate 'Brave's' narrative with the will-o'-the-wisps guiding the eldest son to the witch's cottage and, oh, turned into a great black bear. A foundational layer of repetitive storytelling with predictability applied on top. Regardless, the bulk of the short is the retelling of Mor'du's origins, and it's excessive information to say the least. Considering the promising start and final attempt at forced humour, one was hoping for originality.

Whilst the traditionally drawn darkly fantastical stills looked beautiful and exuded fluidity, they are unable to masquerade the overall uninspired "deleted scene" structure that made the previous short 'George and AJ' just as forgettable.

It didn't impress me...

[MK_Movie_Reviews · 1/10 · 24 August 2021]

I couldn't enjoy watching it just like the movie "Brave".

A dark short that complements Brave pretty well

[Stompgal_87 · 8/10 · 26 January 2014]

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.

Mediocre tale and not really Brave anymore

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 23 November 2015]

Brian Larsen's only directorial effort so far, "The Legend of Mor'du", is a 7-minute animated short film that features the Witch from Pixar's "Brave". She tells us, her crow and a customer a story about a power-hungry heir to the throne. I must say this was really random. First of all, it would have been nice to have the protagonist from 2Brave" in here, even if I have not yet seen that movie. It's not 100% necessary, but if they do without her, at least they should have made this story all around the witch. Instead we get a metaphoric tale that is fairly generic in terms of the story and has absolutely nothing to do with the "real" movie, so that, with the exception of brief scenes at the beginning and end, this is basically a short film that stands alone. I wasn't impressed. Not really worth the watch, not even for great fans of "Brave".

It's almost like watching a CGI slideshow.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 17 November 2021]

"The Legend of Mor'du" is a Pixar short that is a spin-off from "Brave", though it apparently was made first....so I guess 'spin-off' isn't exactly the right word...especially since the characters are from the "Brave" universe but not ones from the movie "Brave".

The story was visually a big disappointment. While the witch who tells the story is rendered using traditional CGI, the story itself is like a slideshow...which is bound to disappoint most viewers. It tells a story about four brothers...and the selfishness of the eldest following their father's death.

The story is mildly interesting and the only part that really interested me was the guy's reaction to the witch at the end of the story. Otherwise, a big disappointment.

This short film explains Mordu, one of the characters in 'Brave.'

[TxMike · 26 February 2013]

We watched 'Brave" on DVD. In that film one of the characters gets turned into a bear when a witches spell goes wrong. During that spell is an encounter with a very large, evil bear and the audience is told it is Mordu, but we really know nothing else about it.

This short, 'The Legend of Mor'du', is one of two film shorts included in the extras of the DVD version of the feature length, Oscar-winning movie 'Brave'. In it we find that a king had 4 sons, each wanting to be the heir, and through a process Mordu had the spell placed upon him, in his greed to have it all for himself. This spell had turned him into the bear.

SPOILERS follow. In Brave we see the battle between the bear that was the queen under a spell, and Mordu. When a large stone monument (think Stonehenge) fractures and falls on him, we see the ghost of Mordu rising from the remains, finally upon his death released from the spell.