The Real Housewives of Magic Kingdom

The Disney Princess product line has been a major cash cow for the Walt Disney Company ever since it was created.  Today, the sorority welcomes its newest member, Princess Merida from Pixar's original fairy tale, Brave.  Disney is pulling out all of the stops in honor of the fiery-haired Scot, including a coronation ceremony at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando.  With her new status also comes a new look so that she can fit in with Snow White, Cinderella, and the rest of the Stepford Princesses

Here is Merida as she appeared in Brave:

And here's the redesign:

Holy HGH, Batman!

Some family and progressive groups have been up in arms over the changes claiming that Merida has been made sexier, more mature, and robbed of her sporty self-reliance. I'm not going to get into the gender politics of the Disney Princess franchise. The issue is a big enough quagmire already and I don't feel like wading in and soiling my good sandals with summer right around the corner.  Plus, it obfuscates the real issue here: the redesign looks AWFUL and adds to the detrimental legacy of the entire Disney Princess concept.

Judging art may be largely subjective, but I really don't feel like this is the same character.  Obviously Merida would have to be redesigned for two dimensions, but there is a right and wrong way to do it.  The red hair and the styling of the dress are the only indicators that this is supposed to be Merida, but even those have been changed to look sleeker and more stylish.  Her hair was a primary symbol of her personality, and to limit that is a crucial mistake in her characterization.  This isn't new though.  Go check out the rest of the Princesses here.  They've even included pictures from their respective movies so you can see just how badly they screwed up when adapting their character models.

My male gonads may be showing here, but I just don't see the Princess line as anything other than a cheap marketing ploy.  I won't deny that there are legions of kids who want to be able to dress up and play with their favorite Disney characters.  That is a fair enough point and there was very likely a market for it prior to its conception.  I'm not even going to fault the company for doing something that is designed to make money. As much as I love prestige pieces and have a strong "ars gratia artis" attitude towards animation as a whole, it is show business.  My beef stems from the fact that these ladies have forced a creative bottleneck in the output of the studio.

As an example: of the current eleven princesses, only three of them are from the classic Disney era (Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora).  The rest were all created after 1989. Nine princesses in the last twenty-four years versus three in the first fifty!  Because of the company's insistence on perpetuating this brand, great original movies like Lilo & Stitch don't get the same level of recognition because they lack a princess.  It's gotten so bad that when I saw the first preview glimpses of Big Hero 6 earlier this week, my first thought was, "this really doesn't feel like a Disney movie."  Me...whose favorite Disney film is Fantasia!  

Disney needs to start experimenting again.  Wreck-It Ralph was fantastic as well as completely different from anything else in the studio's library.  Big Hero 6 is the first Marvel-based animated film since the comic company was purchased outright and also looks refreshingly different.  We need more of these and less princesses.  Go back to the way the studio was in its heyday, and even the few decades afterwards if necessary. Kids will still buy the toys even of they don't pander to the Pretty Pretty Princess crowd.

Breakdown of Pixar's "Brave"

Today wraps up the third weekend that Pixar's Brave has been at the box office, and if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend that you do.  So far it has grossed $131 million dollars, which puts it on par with most of Pixar's recent efforts.


First off, the visuals are simply astounding.  This is easily one of Pixar's best looking movies.  When you have the Scottish Highlands to work with, it's hard for the scenery to miss.  All the characters look great, and all of the features and praise about Merida's hair are well deserved.  Between Merida and Rapunzel from Tangled, Lasseter and his gang know how to make a head of hair look incredible.


I sincerely hope that the movie succeeds in its efforts to expand Pixar's horizons.  I had a lot riding on Brave since I see it as the studio's chance to redeem themselves for the shameless money maker that was Cars 2.  It's an original fairy tale, but you'd never know since the story elements feel right at home with the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen.  This doesn't mean the story is perfect however.  The longer you watch the movie, the more it simplifies until by the end we're left with a stereotypical Disney ending (sans Prince Charming).  The entire first act had me on the edge of my seat, but by the time the magical factor was introduced, especially once it entered Brother Bear meets Freaky Friday territory, I started to wonder, "What happened to the movie I was watching?"


The characters are a mixed bag.  Merida is the first fairy tale protagonist in a long time that actually feels like she is supposed to be a teenager.  She has strength and a lot of potential, but is still enough of a self-obsessed kid to not see the seriousness of her actions, especially when administering an unknown potion to her mother.  The enlightened speech she gave the clans when sneaking her mother into the castle was the last great moment before everything succumbed to cliche resolution.


Merida's father, played by Billy Connolly, is my favorite character and is the real heart of the family, even if he was a bit thick at times.  I also loved every moment of mischief from Harris, Hubert, and Hamish.  It made me want ginger triplets more than I ever thought possible.  Conversely, Merida's mother felt a bit flat, although I was impressed by how well they were able to implant her personality into a bear.  I also would have like to have seen more details about the three visiting clans.  Since the three suitors for Merida suddenly have opinions at the end, some background there would be both helpful and interesting.  More of Mor'du would have been great as well because he was just wonderful looking and reminded me of Glen Keane's bear from The Fox and the Hound.

I can't help but wonder how many of the hiccups in the movie were the result of its production history.  Brenda Chapman's vision shone through early on, but after she was removed from the project, it kind of felt like the boy's club at Pixar just ran with it without understanding the real heart of the narrative.  It could also just be that this is new territory for them.  At several points I even forgot that I was watching a Pixar movie.  It genuinely had more of a classic Disney feel with some occasional Pixar wit.  I hope Brave serves as a good learning opportunity for Lasseter & Co. about how to take what worked and what didn't.  They're at a crossroads right now: they can either turn into just another studio or they can make animated films the likes of which haven't been seen since in decades.