Pixar’s Brave And Their Bear-Hunting Anti-Princess

This sounds great, will definitely keep an eye on it!

Also, I disagree with your opening statement, I think there’s a lot wrong with princesses obsessed with finding Prince Charming. Disney has a lot to answer for in terms of messing with young girl’s heads. Fiona in Shrek was a good start to break the trend, I hope Brave takes that idea and goes further with it.

Apologies, I was speaking more in terms of “if that’s what you like” rather than “what’s good for children.

Fair enough then :)
*hides torch and pitchfork*

This movie is going to be amazing. Tomorrow can’t come soon enough.

Those are some spectacular character designs in the first pic after the cut.

That said, the description gives me pause, and the reasons are twofold.

1. Must every situation be compared to high school? Surely there are more potent themes endemic to ancient Scottish royalty than “Ugh, school is such a bummer, teens sure have it hard!”

2. This whole mother-daughter conflict. Sure, it’s nice that the film is focusing on a relationship between female characters (Bechdel up in dis!), but must it be such a negative relationship? I think we’ve had enough Disney women who love their daddies and/or hate their mommies. Even in an amicable relationship, like in Mulan, the father is the one she really draws her strength from and emulates (and, I mean, ancient China, so fair enough). They’re in danger of framing female empowerment as rejection of female role models and idolization of males.

But hey, after all, he’s just doing PR here, and “OMG HIGH SCHOOL” is probably what the shareholders want to hear, because that’s a marketable property for their target demographic, according to focus groups. I’ll shut up now until the premiere.

Cannnnnn’t wait… I’m just hoping that I don’t spend 15 minutes crying like I did at the beginning of Up!

“They’re in danger of framing female empowerment as rejection of female role models and idolization of males.”

Exactly. And women see this all the time in our society. Hopefully they’ll end it with mother and daughter empathizing with one another.

I can see the need for her to be a Princess, to break away from the traditional Princess mold. Still, can’t wait to see movies where our strong character heroes who happen to be female don’t have to be royalty.

Other then that, SUPER excited for this movie :)

Dude you hit the nail on the head in point 2, but lets see how they handle it. maybe in the end the mother comes through as a strong role model for her daughter somehow.

 My whole experience with my family has been my mother being the dependable and strong one, I’d like to see that in a disney movie. Here’s hopin’.

Father-child dynamics have always been a popular theme in the male-based film industry. Many of those stories revolve around children trying to understand or reconcile with their estranged father-figures. I see this mother-daughter dynamic as an inversion of the norm. Even if it is initially negative, it is still nice to see the rare perspective of a daughter’s relationship with her mother.

Conflict is present in all forms of entertainment. People love watching characters butt heads. I can’t imagine that this story would be as interesting if the mother and daughter got along with each other and never had any quarrels.

People better name their babies Fergus after this movie. I had a huge crush on a camp counselor named Fergus and I named my Harvest Moon baby Fergus.

That is it. This is my favorite movie already based on having someone named Fergus in it.

I’m excited about this film! But must they use the term “anti-princess”? Ah, well, semantics.  They’re trying to get it right-ish. A- for effort.

nirl.eu/7

Bad news I guess the new trailer is not coming out until Wednesday. I can’t believe we have to wait another day!

Thanks for telling us. I was wondering where it went!

I’m not saying a mother/daughter conflict is inherently bad, just that in the context of Disney’s body of work, it is part of a troubling pattern. There are plenty of conflicts to subject a medieval, iconoclastic heroine to besides her mom being judgmental. But, as I said, it will largely depend on the execution.

Princesses in animated features are usually occupied with royal duties and finding Prince Charming.

Sorry, but this is plain untrue. Even if we just look at Disney. I might grant you Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty (although I haven’t seen any of those in a long time so I won’t swear to it either) and certainly Ariel, but most Disney princesses in the last two decades have very much not been preoccupied with finding Prince Charming. Let alone royal duties; when has any princess in an animated feature ever been preoccupied with that ? Unless by “preoccupied” you mean “pointedly shunning”. Offhand the only straight example I can think of are the Cinderella sequels.

Jasmine : trying very hard to avoid all Prince Charmings. Mulan : preoccupied with saving her father and finding herself. Pocahontas : okay, haven’t seen that one in awhile either but I’ll give her to you. Tiana : preoccupied with opening her restaurant. Rapunzel : preoccupied with getting away from her mother and discovering the world.

I’m sure Brave will be awesome, but let’s not pretend that “rebellious princess” is a fresh brand-new conceit here.

Now, if she doesn’t end up with a Prince Charming, that would break the mold. And the relationship with the mother might also be a break from tradition, given how in that list every single character has a more important relationship with their father than their mother – even when the father is dead. But at least Tiana and Mulan have a relationship with their mothers, so the mother just existing isn’t enough to qualify Brave as “pushing the boundaries” or anything. (Rapunzel is kind of unusual too, because she has an equally nonexistent relationship with both her parents, and her main relationship is with who she thinks is her mother – but it’s really the villain, and evil stepmothers are not a revolutionary concept either)