Brave- Finally, a movie that realises that most little girls couldn't care less about boys

When I was a little girl my all time, hands down, favourite Disney Princess was Arial. Not only did her flaming ginger hair give me hope for my own future (“one day, I’ll be a beautiful red-head, fish-lady too!”) but, she was also a fricken MERMAID! Honestly, what would you rather be rocking, a frilly pink dress and glass slippers? Or a TAIL and crazy under-water parties? But this generation has been given a new flaming ginger to look up to, and she is one good kyunt. She fires arrows, rides horses and the boasts the best animated haircut since Yugioh. You won’t catch this chick walking on glass feet and sitting in silence for no man, and she is looooooooong over due!

As Brave is the first Pixar film to feature a female protagonist, there has been a lot of noise made in feminist and gender aware circles about it. But, as every Disney movie featuring women as the main character demonstrates, having a female lead does not equate to having a positive representation of women on the screen. But Brave defies the trends of children’s animation (and, let’s face it, almost every other main stream movie ever created) and proves that stories can be uplifting, simple, entertaining and explore gender in a positive and mature way.

Finally, we have a kid’s movie with a happy ending that has nothing to do with a kiss and a wedding. The love story trope is abandoned in exchange for a story line that most young girls can actually relate to; the struggle between mothers and daughters. For a story aimed at children, this film explores the intergenerational clash of femininities in a complex and grown up way. Our heroine, Merida, resists her mother’s gendered and classed expectations of how she should behave, and desires the opportunity to forge her own feminine identity, one which involves way more bows, arrows and ass kicking than her mother would like. But, on the flip side, the more traditional femininity represented by her mother, Elinor, is not criticised or shown to be inferior to Merida’s transgressive femininity; in fact, it is Elinor’s tapestry, a powerful symbol of feminine activity and refinement that becomes key to resolving the story. There are also some hilarious moments that involve a very polite and courteous lady-bear with one bodacious booty, so a win from all angles when you think about it. I just wish Merida had been in my Disney Princess VCR collection when I was a young whipper snapper; I may have had quite a different outlook on life from a much earlier age.