The Legend of Mor'du

The Legend of Mor'du
Directed by	Brian Larsen
Produced by	Galyn Susman Mark Andrews (executive) John Lasseter (executive)
Written by	Steve Purcell Brian Larsen
Starring	Julie Walters Steve Purcell Callum O'Neill
Music by	Patrick Doyle
Cinematography	Andrew Jimenez
Edited by	Tim Fox
Production company	Pixar Animation Studios Walt Disney Pictures
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Release dates	November 13, 2012 (2012-11-13) (with Brave DVD)
Running time	7 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Legend of Mor'du is a 2012 Pixar short attached to the Blu-ray and DVD release of Brave. It gives in-depth background about the film's villain, an evil, greedy prince as told by the eccentric witch who transformed him into the monstrous bear he is in the film. The film combines traditional animation and computer animation.

Plot

The short begins with the witch inviting a guest into her cottage. Her crow assumes the guest wants the bear spell, so she tells the story of a man who became the demon bear Mor'du. The man had been the eldest of four sons of a king in an ancient kingdom, each of whom had his own gift. Of the younger three, the youngest was wise, the third was compassionate, and second was just. The king's eldest was strong, but he mistook strength for character. When the king died one autumn, rather than giving the eldest all the inheritance, he divided the rule among all of his sons equally, believing their gifts combined would make the kingdom even greater. However, feeling disgraced and filled with greed and arrogance, the eldest son refused to accept this, proving his point in front of his brothers by using one of his axes to break an image of himself off of a stone tablet that depicted himself and his brothers on it, shattering the bonds of their brotherhood. His words turned to war, changing the kingdom's fate forever.

Even though the prince's army was powerful, the war remained a stalemate. In looking for a way to change his fate, the prince came across a menhir ring within the woods. From there, the will-o'-the-wisps guided him to the edge of a loch, and the witch's cottage far from the shore. Hoping to turn the tide of the war to his favor, the prince persuaded the witch to make a spell to give him the strength of ten men by offering her his signet ring, and she gave him the spell in a drinking horn, but warns him of making a choice: either to fulfill his dark wish or heal the family bonds he had broken. When the prince brought his brothers before him by staging up a false truce, to their protests he drank the spell, which immediately gave him the strength tenfold but to his surprise, in the form of a great black bear. While he could have broken the spell by choosing to "mend the bond torn by pride", the prince instead accepted his new form and brought his brothers down, along with their armies. He then tried to get his army to rule the kingdom, but they saw him as a wild beast and turned against him. Enraged, he attacked his former men, slaying a great many of them. The survivors fled the kingdom in terror, leading to its collapse. Doomed to this bestial form by his desire for power over the bonds of family, the prince's human consciousness and intelligence were, over time, consumed by animalistic bloodlust. Now known by the name Mor'du, he wandered the land aimlessly, a savage beast mentally and physically, killing and instilling terror wherever he roamed.

The witch ends the story here, and she offers the spell in the form of a cake to the guest, who turns out to be Wee Dingwall. He panics, says he only stopped by for water, and runs out of the cottage.

Cast

• Julie Walters as The Witch
• Steve Purcell as The Crow
• Callum O'Neill as Wee Dingwall

External links

• The Legend of Mor'du at IMDb

Preceded by Partysaurus Rex

Pixar Animation Studios short films 2012

Succeeded by The Blue Umbrella