"Brave" creator/director furious that Disney sexed up the character for a toy line

I know something about sexualized cartoons, and that illustration does not strike me as a sexualized cartoon.

Still disappointed due to...

Alessandra Kelley said:

The new Merida for the Disney Princess toy line is tiny-waisted, heavily made up, and wearing that very same tight dress she hated in the movie -- only its neckline has been lowered down below her shoulders and scooped out over her brand-new breasts.
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This is a matter of taking a princess deliberately created to break that mold and throwing out everything unique about her to force her to conform to a single ideal of beauty before allowing her to be marketed to little girls.

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...this.

Alessandra Kelley said:

The new Merida for the Disney Princess toy line is tiny-waisted, heavily made up, and wearing that very same tight dress she hated in the movie -- only its neckline has been lowered down below her shoulders and scooped out over her brand-new breasts.

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Doubly upsetting, since the impression is that Merida is a young teen, not a nearly grown young woman, and the body type isn't fitting given her age. Merida was a kid.

It's really, really disgusting.

This pisses me off. She spent the whole movie refusing to be forced into that dress, and the arranged marriage that went along with it. The message is: it doesn't matter if she was brave; pretty is more important.

Irritating, but not unexpected. I bought my daughter a Disney princesses coloring book (it's what she's into, what can I say?) and was kinda ticked to see that every story, in its shortened form, was very blatantly the same pattern: life sucked until the girl found her man, then she lived happily ever after, and whatever other stuff she was into didn't matter anymore. There's a very specific message being marketed to young girls, here, and it's not about being "brave."

Alessandra Kelley said:

They also covered her hated dress all over with glitter and sparkles and huge fancy gold trim, and they took away her bow and arrows.

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Maybe these are changes they haven't implemented yet, but I'm not seeing this on Disney's website:

http://www.disneystore.com/disney-princess/brave/mn/1010606/

Most everything with Merida on it, she has her bow and arrows. The fact that they left them off a single illustration doesn't mean they plan to do that across all merchandise.

Cyia, as far as Merida being a teen, Ariel's stated age in The Little Mermaid is 16. Sleeping Beauty is also 16. Jasmine was supposed to be 16 originally and then they left her age unstated. (My source for that is this book, though I don't have it in front of me to quote the page.) I'm not saying that's a good thing, but the fault is with the entire Disney Princess line-up, not simply Merida.

All the Disney Princesses have had their images readjusted so they look like they belong in the same group. If you have CG Merida up against hand-drawn, 2D Jasmine, it's going to look weird. You can argue that they went too far, but the fact that they did a redesign at all shouldn't be a surprise.

Personally, as a mom to a little girl who isn't quite old enough for this stuff (but will be before I know it), the Bratz dolls and their like bother me way more than this.

kuwisdelu said:

I know something about sexualized cartoons, and that illustration does not strike me as a sexualized cartoon.

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And yet, in my mind, this is part of what makes it so pernicious. Young girls are not going to look at the new (subtly sexualized) depiction and see adult proportions. THey are just going to see she is a sparkly princess, and every girl should want to look like that.

vsrenard said:

And yet, in my mind, this is part of what makes it so pernicious. Young girls are not going to look at the new (subtly sexualized) depiction and see adult proportions. THey are just going to see she is a sparkly princess, and every girl should want to look like that.

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This is what happens when a company like Disney owns Pixar.

Merida was never supposed to be a Disney Princess in the first place.

True enough.

kuwisdelu said:

This is what happens when a company like Disney owns Pixar.

Merida was never supposed to be a Disney Princess in the first place.

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Tinker Bell was never supposed to be an engineer either, but that's essentially what they made her in the Disney Fairy movies.

Also, I don't buy that Merida was the first Disney princess that was a "strong, confident, self-rescuing princess ready to set off on her next adventure." I'd argue that the only princesses in the lineup that don't fit that description are the ones from films made over 50 years ago. (Again, we can argue that they're not presented that way on the merchandise, and that's a problem, but no way was Tiana just sitting around waiting for romance.)

To be honest, I was disappointed with Brave because the first time Pixar had a female protagonist, they had to center the main problem of the movie around the fact that she's female. It was cliche to me. I do like the fact that she's not paired up with any of the guys by the end of the film, but that's about the only thing I found commendable about it. Merida was kind of a brat, and she decided that poisoning her family with a mysterious potion from a total stranger was a better solution than working things out. I'd hardly call her a good role model.

I agree that the make over is completely contrary to the particular virtues this character is meant to embody. They also aged her out of the target market. The Disney theme park actress for her "inauguration" is jarringly different from the film character.

I saw the movie with my kids and it was enjoyable. The new toy's 'sexed up' form doesn't surprise me at all. It's a marketing decision--a dumb one, IMO--in order to make more money. The Barbie doll also got more sexed up over the years--bigger breasts, tinier waists...etc. GI Joe got more muscular as time went by in order to appeal to little boys who wanted big muscles. It's all marketing, and original character design is pretty much an afterthought these days.

Personally, they should have left the character the way she was. She looked better that way, she was supposed to be a kid and not a teen. But then again, I don't work for Disney or Pixar.

Disney undermining the very same message that they tried to convey in the movie with te toyline? You guys forgot Mulan! I still own the Mulan doll with the wind-up horse and armor that McDonald's gave.

In the "new look" her dress is still ripped the way it was in the movie, to allow her to compete in the archery contest, so I'm not sure what the problem is in that regard.

Merida was supposed to be "realistic"? What? How can anyone look at the original character and say that with a straight face? Her head is a pelvis-shattering orb. She looks like an alien. I consider Barbie's face more "realistic".

Also, Merida's been in the "Disney Princess Toy Line" for ages. Have these people not shopped at Target?
Yes, little girls like buying dolls with sparkly clothes. That doesn't mean they're absorbing sexuality or whatever. It means they like sparkles. Just like when MLP made Princess Celestia pink instead of white, it was because pink sells.

If you've spent any time in the toy aisles, you've probably noticed that these dolls come in a variety of shapes and sizes. My daughter has this one: http://www.disneystore.com/brave-disney-princess-merida-plush-doll-20/mp/1304805/1010606/ (OMG, look at that neckline! That waistline!) Yeah, she chews on it. My only complaint is that the stuffing is coming out so I had to mod a sock to fit over her dress.

Then there's this one: http://www.disneystore.com/brave-disney-princess-toddler-brave-merida-doll-16-h/mp/1304819/1010606/ which is clearly subverting little girls everywhere into coquetry and sexual precociousness.

Honestly, Brave falls into the category of "Movies which would terrify my kids," not "movies whose toys are making my kids run out and get boyfriends." Sigh. I learned my lesson with The Lion King.

little_e said:

Also, Merida's been in the "Disney Princess Toy Line" for ages. Have these people not shopped at Target?
Yes, little girls like buying dolls with sparkly clothes. That doesn't mean they're absorbing sexuality or whatever. It means they like sparkles. Just like when MLP made Princess Celestia pink instead of white, it was because pink sells.

If you've spent any time in the toy aisles, you've probably noticed that these dolls come in a variety of shapes and sizes. My daughter has this one: http://www.disneystore.com/brave-disney-princess-merida-plush-doll-20/mp/1304805/1010606/ (OMG, look at that neckline! That waistline!) Yeah, she chews on it. My only complaint is that the stuffing is coming out so I had to mod a sock to fit over her dress.

Then there's this one: http://www.disneystore.com/brave-disney-princess-toddler-brave-merida-doll-16-h/mp/1304819/1010606/ which is clearly subverting little girls everywhere into coquetry and sexual precociousness.

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Actually, she was only incorporated into the Disney Princess lineup very recently, hence why her redesign is emerging now. Both of the toys you've linked to predate her Princess redesign.

And based on the existence of those toys, evidently Merida was popular enough that people bought toys of her without sparkles, painful-looking skinny waists, or lower neckline.

Not for nothing, as I think what they did to her - the unfrizzed hair, bigger, made-up eyes, sexualized look overall, redoing the dress and TAKING HER BOW, is reprehensible - but the dress isn't the dress she hated.

The dress she hated was in the scene with the white covering for her head, right? That dress was a lighter colour with a big white panel at the bottom. The one they glittered up is the one she's wearing at the end.

The one she hated is on the left, unless I'm mistaken (certainly could be, just saw it once when it was in theatres), the one they Real Housewived up is on the right.

She's being crowned an Offishul Disney Princess[sup]TM REG US PAT OFF[/sup]! She's SUPPOSED to look princessier!

cornflake said:

The one she hated is on the left, unless I'm mistaken (certainly could be, just saw it once when it was in theatres), the one they Real Housewived up is on the right.

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The pictures you've put up are both from the movie are not Disney's princess version. See the difference between new and old here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/13/brave-director-criticises-sexualised-merida-redesign

vsrenard said:

The pictures you've put up are both from the movie are not Disney's princess version. See the difference between new and old here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/13/brave-director-criticises-sexualised-merida-redesign

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I think cornflake was saying in the "new" version, the dress Merida is wearing looks more like the dress on the right from the movie, not the one on the left from the movie, so maybe it's not the one she hated.

kuwisdelu said:

I think cornflake was saying in the "new" version, the dress Merida is wearing looks more like the dress on the right from the movie, not the one on the left from the movie, so maybe it's not the one she hated.

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This, thank you.

vs - Yes, both pics are from the movie. A number of posters in the thread were saying that Disney had glittered up the dress Merida hated. I was trying to show that I don't think they did; I think they glittered up the one she liked, on the right. The one she hated is on the left.

cornflake said:

I think they glittered up the one she liked, on the left. The one she hated is on the right.

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Now you have it backwards.

kuwisdelu said:

Now you have it backwards.

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D'oh! Thanks.

I just said to someone in a crit that I found it hard to believe a four-year-old would be able to instantly follow a 'turn right' direction. Maybe it's me though.

Fixed.