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".

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.

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.

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