Disney Lets Merida Be Merida After All

Did the folks at Disney even watch “Brave?”  One of the great strengths of Pixar’s first movie starring a female character (and its first originally written by a woman, Brenda Chapman, though she was replaced by a male director) was that its feisty heroine, Merida, looked like a real girl and not a wasp-waisted “princess.”  But Disney released art showing that she had been given what she would never have put up with in the film — a makeover.  The drawing on the Disney Princess website had a Merida who was more slender, bustier, and had eye make-up.

After protests by Chapman, bloggers, and a Change.org petition, Disney has backed down and Merida is back to the way we love her.