hehehe this is so cute and so so real. I could totally see Alberto struggling to get up after being unbounded to a schedule for practically his whole life, and I could imagine that could cause a bit of irritation for farmhand + schoolboy Luca. Though, I could also imagine Luca giving in to Alberto’s impulsivity (as he is wont to do) and end up sleeping in right alongside him, especially if he latches on
An excellent Box Office Analysis from Valliant Renegade @ValliantRenegad as he discusses GOAT from Sony has deals with Netflix and has already made a profit while Hoppers from Disney Pixar does everything in house and has yet to break even for Disney b/c of Disney Plus.
Summary: Life at Bonnie’s house is a breath of fresh air to all of Andy’s toys, especially after years of hardship. A cowboy and a spaceman try to adjust to their new home, and their blossoming relationship, very pleasantly… and privately.
Relationship Tag: Prideyear (Buzz X Woody)
Characters: Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the rest of the toy gang.
During 2013, when it was announced that Merida was going to be incorporated into the Disney Princess lineup, she received a redesign to promote her coronation and present her alongside the other princesses. This caused a wave of backlash that Disney did not expect, and much of that drama has since been forgotten in our collective memory. I want to dig it back up because she is my favorite fictional character, and because I think that, as the years have passed, the perspective on the situation has changed a bit, so I want to know what you all think about it.
Before getting into the drama, I’ll first provide some context for the scenario that led to this situation. In the present day, Brave has not had the kind of lasting impact that some other animated films from the early 2010s did, having been overshadowed by titans like Tangled, HTTYD and Frozen, but at the time of its release the film was considered quite successful. In the early 2010s a critique of media aimed at girls began to gain popularity, especially regarding Disney, about how female role models often followed the stereotypical beauty standards and had narratives especially centered around romance. People began to question whether these examples might lead young girls to limit their aspirations to male attention, potentially reproducing patriarchal forms of relationships and family. Today, this perspective is often criticized, but at the time it was considered quite revolutionary within early millennial “girlboss” feminism.
Within this context, Brave was released by Pixar as something of an anti “princess movie”, where several pillars of the genre were broken. The film is not a musical, the protagonist refuses marriage, the story revolves around the mother-daughter relationship, and Merida’s design reflects her athletic interests and skills. Frozen had not yet been released, Elsa didn’t exist, so Merida became the first Disney branded princess without a romantic interest, which resonated strongly with audiences who had begun expecting different things from the brand after Tangled. Her tomboy personality was widely praised, and her skill with the bow resonated with fans of Katniss after the recent popularity of The Hunger Games. Overall, the film was very well received, even winning an Academy Award at the Oscars, so Disney had a strong interest in adding Merida to the official Disney Princess lineup.
Up to that point everything was fine, but Disney then had to find a way to transform this “anti princess” into an ambassador for the brand, which until then had been fairly easy to keep visually homogeneous. Pixar’s art style and Merida’s character traits clashed with the way Disney Princesses were presented commercially, so it was decided to rebrand her before her coronation, that way she would not look as out of place among the group. Immediately, the first design that was released was heavily criticized.
In this version, Merida appears with several noticeable changes. She has a slimmer but more curvy figure that looks less athletic, larger eyes and lips, a shiny dress that is more fitted and lower cut, a different hairstyle, and she appears without her bow and quiver, which until then had always been included in her designs. This rebrand was met with immediate backlash, with fans criticizing Disney for “glamorizing” or “sexualizing” a character who had originally been celebrated for escaping those standards. The petition “Disney: Say No to the Merida Makeover, Keep Our Hero Brave!” on Change.org gathered 258,109 signatures before it closed, and several journalists wrote about the controversy. Brenda Chapman, the original creator of the character and co director of the film (who was let go by the company during production, but that’s a story for another day), also publicly criticized the redesign. Merida had been based on her daughter, and she expressed that this bastardization of the model betrayed the original intention of presenting Merida as a model of independence and strength for girls, and that it pushed the character back toward the same stereotypes the film had actively tried to avoid.
Because of all this, the redesign was interpreted as a symbolic step backward, and Disney temporarily removed the promotional image and stated that the illustration had only been created for the coronation ceremony, and it would later be reverted. Afterwards, other variants were released that, while showing some improvements, still left many fans feeling that their expectations had not been fully met.
After Merida’s coronation and the release of Frozen, the promotional image gradually disappeared as public interest faded, and it was eventually replaced with artwork that was much more faithful to Merida’s original design.
Looking back, the Merida redesign controversy is interesting because it occurred during the beginning of a growing interest in female protagonists without romantic storylines, the first example that later continued with films like Moana, Raya and the Last Dragon, and Wish. Today, the cultural pendulum has shifted somewhat, and audiences often criticize the demonization of romance that has appeared in some films marketed toward female audiences. There has also been renewed interest in well-written romantic storylines, something that became very visible after the disappointment that followed the (maybe) cancellation of the relationship between Asha and the early concept of Starboy in Wish. I’ve also noticed a shift on social media regarding how people interpret the Merida redesign controversy, some now argue that the backlash was actually misogyny disguised as feminism, since many of the criticisms targeted the more feminine aspects of the redesign and framed them negatively, interpreting the controversy as a kind of “pick me” moment.
Personally, when it comes to Merida’s redesign, I think some aspects were probably over-criticized, such as the added sparkle, the absence of the bow, or the styling of her hair. However, most of the complaints that people raised at the time still seem valid to me. It’s definitely not a design I like, and I find several of the changes confusing and unnecessary. When compared with the film’s promotional material, the character seems noticeably different in both physique and attitude, and I am glad Disney was called out at the time, especially since the creator herself also disagreed with the changes. At the same time, I do find it a bit funny that Merida was framed as such a radically countercultural character, It’s not as if her original design didn’t follow conventional beauty standards or if the film itself was explicitly anti-patriarchal (sadly, my girl wasn’t allowed to rebel at her full potential). I’m also not entirely convinced by the slogan “Keep Our Hero Brave”, a curvier body would not necessarily remove the character’s bravery, although the criticism may also have referred to the more “coy” attitude Merida had in some of the promotional images, idk.
I would love to know what you all think about this! If you are interested in learning more about the topic, I recommend the creator Babbity Kate, who has made some videos about it.
