Sequel to Disney-Pixar’s Brave on the cards

The Oscar-winning director of the film set in the Scottish Highlands signalled a follow-up was likely thanks to the success and marketing campaign which came out of last year’s fantasy adventure.

And Mark Andrews said he would be keen to add a host of new characters and other Scottish actors to the line-up to join the likes of Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson and Kevin McKidd.

However he admitted that much of the humour in the film had been lost on American audiences, who only understand around half of the jokes.

Andrews was speaking during a visit to Glasgow to kick off a two-week mentoring project for students from across Scotland.

He pledged to try to return to Scotland on an annual basis, despite warning of the difficulties in trying to find work in the film industry.

Brave, which was the closing gala at last year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, was at least six years in development, with Andrews and Brenda Chapman, the other writer-director on the film, making two separate recces to the Highlands during the film-making process.

As well as the Oscar for best animated film, it was also honoured at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs.

Andrews said: “If we got the right story it would be fun - to get the gang back together again, add a few more new characters and find out what other Scottish talents are out there that might want to do a animated fun.

“I don’t know if there will be another one. We never make a film at Pixar to have a sequel.

“It is always nice when you do and we kind of have a philosophy that if we find the right story then we will.

“Surely the marketing and success of Brave says that you can have one and they will come. Make it and they will come.

“I am currently working on another film, which is original and is being written and directed by me, but that’s all I can say about that.”

Andrews visit to Glasgow kicked off with a visit to see the work of students at the city’s art school, where he will be based for the next fortnight, followed by a masterclass at the Cineworld cinema complex. He will be making one public appearance during this visit, at the Glasgow Film Theatre on 16 April.

Andrews, who has family roots in the Torridon area of the Highlands going back 500 years, said: “I was in Scotland on my honeymoon in 1998 for a month and we came to visit Glasgow School of Art. My wife and I were big fans of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his whole movement of that time.

“When you get to the front door of the art school it is like ‘I really understand him now.’ I found out they had just started an animated department. I said to them with me being an animator from the United States I could come over and talk about animation and thought it would give me a cheap excuse to come to Scotland more and more.

“Things kind of fell through and it didn’t happen, but when Brave finally told out and I told Fiona Hyslop (Scottish culture secretary) about that adventure to Scotland, she said ‘let’s get you over there’ and then it all happened.

“It would be marvellous to come back again. I’d love to come here to return to the art school and lecture again, and talk to the other schools too that have an animation or film thing too.

“Students need instructors who have actually done the work and also people who are still in the industries to talk them to keep them on the cutting edge of what is happening and current now.

“I would not recommend getting into the film industry or being an artist at all, but you get caught by your passions.

“If you want something that is easy, then don’t do it. I do it because I love it.

“You get beat up every day, you hit the wall and that blank page and fall out of inspiration and fall out with people who are dumb.

“Every pixel in Brave was a fight. But that is just part of the creative process.”

Andrews admitted he had not enjoyed the experience of the Academy Awards ceremony and did not expect Brave to win on the night.

“Going up to get the Oscar was probably one of the scariest things I have ever done. I thought Wreck-It Ralph was going to win so when they said it was Brave I thought ‘Oh no!’.

“It is not a very friendly audience. You have all the actors, who are all charming and beautiful people individually, but they don’t want to be at the Oscars either. They are just staring at you.

“The greatest thing about showing the film in Scotland was all the inside jokes that we have in there that only the Scots would get. They got it all.

“If you had had a laugh track in there, it would’ve been going from beginning to end, while American audiences got about half.”