How does Disney Pixar's animated feature, Brave, reflect Scotland's actual history and the environment of the Scottish Highlands?
I live in Scotland, right in the middle of the landscape you see in Brave. The castle was modelled on Dunottar Castle, near my home. The standing stones were modelled on Callanish in the Western Isles.I love the film. I feel it does capture something real about the Scottish landscape, character and culture. Scotland really is as lush, rugged and beautiful as portrayed. The people are funny and loyal and warm. We like a good time. We love a ceilidh (dance/gathering). Billy Connolly who voices the father is a much loved comedian who's very “"well kent” as we say around here.The son of the clan who’s intentionally almost impossible to understand is actially speaking Doric, which is a dialect of Scots unique to the North East of Scotland. We can understand him, but folks from elsewhere have “nae chance”. So that’s an in joke for us.All credit to those who made the film who clearly made a genuine and uktimately successful effort to convey something essential of the heart and soul of my country.If you like it too, come and visit modern Scotland. I could suggest an itinerary.
What are the best stories of outsmarting the devil?
Pan Twardowski of the polish folklore is the smartest of them all, in my opinion. He sold his soul for three impossible tasks that devil agrees to do. For the third task, he asks the devil to spend one year living with his wife which makes the devil run away.Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan...Jack o'Kent frequently outsmarted the devil in English folklore. Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jac...The Lies of Henry Mawdsley http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lies-Hen...The Devil and Simon Flagg http://www.amazon.com/Devil-Simo...Daniel and the Devil Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan...That Hell-Bound Train Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tha...Though the conductor is never explicitly called the Devil, he fits the bill.The Lesser Key of Soloman http://www.amazon.com/The-Lesser...Irish story: An Cearrbhach Mac Cába (McCabe the Gambler)Chilean story: El roto que engañó al diablo (The poor man who tricked the Devil)John Constantine usually gets the upper hand in his contracts in Hellblazer.Spawn uses the powers given to him by the devil to go up against him.There are versions of the tale Bearskin where the devil loses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bea...The recent TV series Once Upon a Time has good to-and-fro schemes between the Evil Queen and Rumpelstiltskin. Sometime one has the edge, and sometimes the other.If you could look past the crappy movies, Ghost Rider learns how to tackle the devil after losing his dad.Note: I've not listed how they've outsmarted the devil as it'll spoil the stories for you. They are all good reads. The wiki articles I've referred would give you spoilers too, so read at your own risk.
What is the moral of Robin Hood?
In brief: it depends on which Robin Hood you mean.In the original English folktales and ballads, Robin Hood is aligned with classic trickster figures, almost like Anansi and Coyote. This reflects the working-class spread of folkloric materials.By the time he appears in plays in the early English Renaissance, he has turned into a working-class ne’er-do-well, like the titular character in the play Ralph Roister Doister from the same period. This reflects the growing middle class and its interest in creating a roguish figure that tweaks the upper class.When he gets “rebooted” in the contemporary use of the term in Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, he is a more complex figure, who is a rebel, not against the monarchy per se, but against unlawful and un-righteous monarchs like King John. This reflects the profound tension a Scottish author writing for a unified Great Britain feels in supporting a nation’s monarchy that, only a generation before, bloodily suppressed Scottish independence.As Robin Hood has passed into American popularity, his working-class, egalitarian roots have re-emerged in films and television versions.So: Robin Hood has stood for a variety of morals, but he remains a perennial rebel and rogue, and stands for “the folk” first and foremost.