Thursday 9 May 2013

I Do Not Want To See 'Brave' Turned Into 'Babe'. LEAVE MERIDA ALONE


Before and after: Merida, Brave's feisty heroine who will officially be crowned Disney's 11th princess on Saturday, has undergone a royal make-over which has left mothers furious and frustrated
Before
Before and after: Merida, Brave's feisty heroine who will officially be crowned Disney's 11th princess on Saturday, has undergone a royal make-over which has left mothers furious and frustrated
After























Merida, the 'feisty' archer princess has been disneyified. Her 'make-over' is because She will officially be crowned Disney's 11th princess on Saturday, She's lost her hard wearing gown, grown breasts, and  lost her bow. Her hair has also changed dramatically, as a curly haired lass my self, sing it sister, I know that that kind of curl is simply not possible living in the Scottish Highlands, never has a truer word been said, Merida's original curl however, completely plausible. In fact she was a completely plausible character, now, not so much. I admit that the fact that it has being converted into 2-D may have something to do with the curl factor, but the waist? And the lack of bow? She's lost character. What was refreshing about this new breed of princess has been destroyed. And yes, I know that it's simply a cartoon, but Disney princess representation really affected me when I was little. It set up infeasible expectations, as does this new Merida. They don't want to portray role models, they want glamorous princesses. 


Other Views
Glamour.com beauty writer, Petra Guglielmetti.
'Having a curly-haired daughter has changed my feelings about hair texture in this world. More specifically, I wish there were more celebration of natural curls in our popular culture,' wrote the mother-of-two.
'So you can imagine how I feel about the news that Disney has given a keratin treatment to its heroine Merida. Yeah, those curls have definitely been smoothed a bit. They’re more like Victoria’s Secret model waves now.'

Merida, lauded for her refreshing representation of an authentic teenager, was originally created to offer little girls a 'different kind of princess,' according to Brave writer and co-director, Brenda Chapman.
Ms Chapman envisaged Merida as '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,' she said. 'Instead they’d be like, "Yeah, you go girl!"'

Peggy Orenstein, the author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter, which looks at how princess culture affects young girls, is also against the redesign.
The writer, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her daughter, Daisy, said: 'In the end, it wasn’t about being brave after all. It was about being pretty.'

The petition to change Merida back to her original form is here

I've just noticed that Mulan lost her sword in her Disney princess picture.... She was my favourite! Fuming. And they've given Rapunzal her locks back, guess a bob isn't princessy enough...
Disney's princesses: Merida will join the likes of Cinderella, Snow White, and Pocahontas to become Disney's 11th princess on Saturday




1 comment:

  1. I agree. This was a good post. I wrote something similar on my blog and included some thoughts on character dieting when it comes to marketing as opposed to storytelling. Also, I redesigned Batman in a similar fashion. http://bit.ly/13QQ4KA

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