She even shows girl that it’s ok to be a little silly. All she wants is to ride her horse and shoot arrows. Here is a vivacious young girl filled with energy and spunk. She seemed less imaginative, less spunky, less interested in the world.” Merida broke this mold completely. She sat on the front step quietly – waiting, she said, for her prince. One mother, when speaking about the negative effect of the Disney princesses on her daughter, said, “The toddler had stopped running and jumping, and insisted on wearing only dresses. Parents like this new princess, she shows girls how to be independent and strong. Not only does Merida break the princess norm of her story revolving around her family and not her prince, but Merida offers up an empowering character. Actually Merida is the first princess we see ride off SOLO at the end of the movie, that’s right there is no prince involved. Merida’s story was more focused on her self-development and less on her love interests. Parents were happy that a true role model for little girls was finally offered up.

Instead they’d be like, ‘Yeah, you go girl!’”Īnd parents reacted to the release of Brave with approval. So why did Disney make this shift? Brenda Chapman, the writer and co-director of Brave offers up her reasons, “Because of marketing, little girls gravitate toward princess products, so my goal was to offer up a different kind of princess - a stronger princess that both mothers and daughters could relate to, so mothers wouldn’t be pulling their hair out when their little girls were trying to dress or act like this princess. Merida offers young girls the role model we’ve been waiting for. She is a strong, independent, confident, and spunky tom-boy a princess that is far from perfect and offers young girls an image of a “real girl”. No longer are Disney princesses restricted to ball gowns, glass slippers, and waiting for prince charming to come and sweep them off their feet. However in 2012 Disney and Pixar shocked the world with a new princess. Disney princesses have been the picture of elegance, beauty, and poise for years,

Merida brave riding horse