We don’t go to the flicks all that often, which is a shame because I do enjoy going out to see a film but there’s hardly ever anything on which I want to see. There was a lovely wee film called La Luna on just before Brave and it was worth dragging myself out just for that one alone.

I wasn’t at all sure about going to see Brave because I thought it might just be a 21st century version of Brigadoon but I must admit that I did enjoy it, and it was such a relief that the Scottish accents were authentic, not the usual phoney ones which grate on the ears of anyone who really knows what a proper Scottish accent should sound like, mind you there are so many different accents within Scotland.

Basically Brave has all the elements of a classic fairy tale or mythology. The king and queen are looking for a suitable husband for their beautiful daughter so the lords of all the various far-flung parts of the kingdom travel to the palace in an attempt to get their eldest sons married to the princess. So far so like the beginning of Song of Achilles in cartoon form. Throw in an old witch with a cauldron and spells for added humour, especially her call menu of potions.

Princess Medira has developed a mind of her own though and she isn’t going to conform just because her parents expect her to marry. She wants ‘freedom’ – is there a rule now that that word has to be used in films set in Scotland, since Braveheart? Brave is about all sorts of things like times changing, things not being as they seem and is all for independent women, particularly princesses with long red hair. What a shame I neglected to be born a princess.

We were told that this film was for children but the film theatre was full of adults, just a few kids, who all behaved themselves after the one who was sitting next to me and wailing all the time was taken out. I don’t think it was anything to do with me! She was just too tired and too young.

Alex Salmond, the First Minister – or in other words ‘the high heid yin’ went out to the US to see the premier of Brave as it is hoped that it will encourage people to visit Scotland. I can’t quite see that myself, it’s not as if there was any real Scottish scenery in it, it is a cartoon after all. It sounds like clutching at straws to me. Surely everyone knows by now that Scotland is a great place to visit, if it doesn’t rain.