1) I LOVE Pixar movies and I LOVE Disney movies, especially ones of the Princess variety and Brave possessed the potential and promise to intertwine the two.
2) Pixar had not done a (full-length) movie with a female lead, EVER!
3) I have always been a proud feminist and have always wanted to see a princess movie marketed to little girls with absolutely no romantic interest whatsoever. Brave definitely fits the bill.
My dreams of seeing Brave in theaters opening weekend (before everyone decides to tell me what they think before I’ve even seen the movie) were nearly shattered when my fiance’s faith in the movie and Pixar began to waver after he checked out a few trailers and the Rotten Tomatoes page. Thankfully I was able to convince him that I needed to see it terra-bad and we went opening day for the matinee.
We had extremely different reactions to the movie at first. We both agreed that the artwork and music worked beautifully together, but that was about it. He argued that, as a movie, it did not live up to Pixar’s standards. He especially noted the cinematic genius of Up!, Wall-E, and Toy Story 3. The character development, he claimed, just wasn’t there, the story moved too quickly, ergo, even with the beautiful marriage of music and art, it just didn’t feel as good as those other Pixar giants. His ultimate opinion upon seeing it was that Brave was an okay movie, but it did not live up to the Pixar brand.
I couldn’t disagree more. Up!, Wall-E, and especially Toy Story 3 were not created for children, but for people like us, people past their teenage years, people looking for movies that make us think, movies that enable us to experience our full range of emotions. Brave is a different kind of Pixar movie in that it was created for children, specifically young girls. Merida is a princess that never falters in her desire and resolve to control her own fate. Merida is a princess that craves her own independence and craves the ability to be known as her own person, independent of anybody else, especially a suitor. She wants the freedom to choose her own husband, and the freedom to choose no husband. Merida is a princess whose creators, directors, and producers allowed to remain her own person, unattached to any romantic interest for the entire duration of the movie, including the scene after the credits, in fact, at the end of the movie Merida is seen joking with the suitors as friends.
Name one movie marketed to the female demographic that has done that because I truly want to see it.
The character development in the beginning of Brave seems fast, especially for a Pixar movie, because it is. This is a movie that has a good screenplay, but it isn’t the greatest screenplay that Pixar has ever done. It didn’t have to be, though. If one were to watch Brave without the dialogue (just the visuals and the music) it would make sense, which is what makes it a brilliant children’s movie. The people at the head of the project wanted to make a different kind of impact with this movie. They wanted to provide young girls with a princess heroine that at no point in the movie ever feels that she needs a husband to make her happy. I looked up some of the people at the helm of Brave and it turns out that Mark Andrews, who co-wrote the screenplay for Brave and directed it has a daughter. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Andrews_(filmmaker)). Two other women credited for the story and screenplay, Brenda Chapman (story, screenplay, and original director) and Irene Mecchi (screenplay) both worked on Disney movies that feature strong female leads. Brenda Chapman worked on the stories for Beauty and the Beast and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Chapman). Irene Mecchi worked as a co-screenwriter for Hercules and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Mecchi). What if one of their main purposes in making Brave was to show their daughters that, like Merida, they do not need a romantic partner to matter? They do not need to measure their worth by whether or not they are in a relationship.
Merida as a character looks very simple (except, of course, for that absolutely gorgeous red hair). This, in effect, allows girls to be able to identify with her more easily (http://blog.visualmotive.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/mccloud-uc-triangle.jpg). One of the reasons Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga is so popular and successful is because Bella (the main character) is so nondescript and simple in her features and personality. Do not misunderstand me, I am not trying to compare the strengths of the two characters. I actually think Merida is a much stronger (read: better) character than Bella, I just mean to point out a possible reason Merida is such a simple-looking character compared to many of Pixar’s past characters (think the witch from Brave, a very realistic character, http://www.deathfall.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=29793&d=1309114141). My fiance pointed out a web comic to me called XKCD, which often features very simple stick figures in situations that resonate with readers. Simplicity allows for us to insert ourselves into the situation, or allow characters to stand in for ideas. A great example of the XKCD characters and a situation is this comic: http://xkcd.com/150/.
In addition to Merida’s physical appearance being identifiable, her situation and personality are also relatable. Merida is a typical fifteen-year-old young woman who feels her parents, especially her mother, are too controlling and do not understand her. The overbearing-parent-teenager theme has been seen in several Disney movies (Freaky Friday, The Little Mermaid, Tangled) so I will not talk about it very much, except to say that it is a common, but very necessary aspect of the movie in order to make Merida as accessible as possible. What I will talk about a little bit is her situation. Merida is a fifteen-year-old that responds to her situation as many other fifteen-year-olds would. When she is told she must do something, she huffs and puffs until she decides whether to obey or not. She makes a rash, hasty decision when she chooses to also participate in the archery contest which ends up creating quite a mess for her parents and herself to clean up, something I’m sure she never foresaw happening. She lives in the moment, she is a free-spirit, she is strong. These are all qualities that people, especially little girls, want to possess. Everybody wants to stand-out for something, everybody wants to be strong enough to stand up for what they believe in and everyone wants to determine their own fate.
What is a remarkable piece of Merida’s characterization is that her creators allowed her to remain feminine and powerful throughout the movie without sexualizing her at all. Merida wears a dress throughout the movie and is a beautiful girl, both examples of her femininity. Her power is especially seen at the end of the movie when she battles her father, the king, for the life of her mother. She knocks the sword out of his hand and absolutely refuses to let this giant, powerful, immensely strong man have his way. And with this beauty and power, Merida is never sexualized. Jasmine and Ariel are arguably powerful and both feminine, but they are definitely sexualized. Merida remains a normal teenage girl struggling with her family, country, and growing up without sexualization ever playing a role. Because Merida’s creators made her accessible, beautiful, feminine, powerful, and non-sexual, the little girls who see this movie have the chance to see and understand that beauty does not come from sexuality, but from being exactly who you are.
As Belle inspired me to read, Cinderella taught me to never give up hope, Mulan taught me to always be true to myself and Ariel to dare to dream against the impossible, it is my hope and prayer that Merida shows little girls today that they are beautiful, worthwhile, amazing people, all on their own, with or without a romantic partner.
A Note: I talk a little about the art and drawing and physical character of Merida, but I am not able to talk about it intelligently very much because I have no background in art, I mostly have a background in literature, sociology, theology, and women’s studies. Please do not hit me too hard on that part of the writing. I am putting a link up here to my fiance’s blog because he does have an art/film background and hopefully he will be able to talk about character design at some point in the near future :)
http://marcdoodles.blogspot.com/
