The Good, the Bad and the Blu-rays

As we fast approach Christmas, some of the big hits from this summer are making their way onto Blu-ray and DVD. It's not all new releases this week though, and is a particularly good week for fans of Quentin Tarantino.

Braver than Brave? It's a pretty bold move if you want my opinion.

Whilst browsing the selection of new DVDs at my local retail establishment, I couldn't help but notice a rather familiar looking DVD on the shelf.

Hmmm. Maybe it's just me, but for some strange reason I thought Braver bore a slight resemblance to the new Disney/Pixar film Brave. I'm not quite sure where I got that idea from, but maybe it was the font, the red hair, the rocks, the title...

Using all of the journalistic resources I had at my disposal (ahem, Google), I did a little bit of digging and have uncovered what I'm choosing to call THE TRUTH. Drumroll please...

Directed by Tim Tyler, Braver was known as A Fairytale Christmas on its original straight to DVD release in 2005. Rather than featuring a redhead as the lead character, they've opted for a more traditional blonde princess, along with a cast of cute critters to keep her company on her adventures. Not shying away from the Disney influence, the lead character of A Fairytale Christmas, Princess Angela, enjoys a little sing song every now and then, including this ditty about the joys of Christmas.

Of course, this is not the first film to try and cash in on a big Disney release, to the point where it's becoming commonplace to see the warning NOT DISNEY attached to a number of family films for sale on Amazon. But in the case of A Fairytale Christmas, the distributors have gone impressively out of their way to re-package the existing film into something that is designed to appeal to very young children and/or grandparents with extremely poor eyesight.

A cheap little distraction that only lasts for 45 minutes, I'm not going to badmouth A Fairytale Christmas; not because it looks good, but because I doubt the filmmakers had much of a say in what has happened to it now. I'm honestly surprised that this practice has been allowed to go on for so long, because if there's someone I would not want to get on the wrong side of, it's the legal team of a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate like The Walt Disney Company.

But then, I suppose it depends on how you judge what bravery is.