“I think it is atrocious!!!… Since I am no longer with the company, I’m sure they could care less what I think on the matter. But they have betrayed the essence of what we were trying to do with Merida—give young girls and women a better stronger role model. She’s strong inside and out—she’s not just a simpering pretty face waiting around for romance! She was created to turn that whole ideal on it’s [sic] head! Oh yeah… that’s why I created her… they’re just in it for the money… not the integrity. They don’t care what message they send about women, as long as it makes them a buck.” — Brenda Chapman on Disney’s Merida redesign.
I don’t object to anything she says here… but should Disney being in it for the money, as opposed to the artistic integrity, really come as a surprise? Granted, Merida is Chapman’s baby, so she has every right to be angry. But I’d say the problem is less in Merida specifically than in how Disney presents their princesses in general. Regardless of how they appear in the movies, the “official public image” of the characters are all kind of shiny and generic (a “simpering pretty face”), and Merida is but one part of that.
Though she may be a more important part, because Merida was so different from most other Disney princesses to begin with. What do you think?
(via: Boing Boing)
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