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It bothers me a little (okay, a lot) that Pixar finally chooses to do a film about a girl main character- and they make her a princess. A princess who is confused about marriage and doesn't want to get married and just wants 'adventure'. Now, where have we heard that before? Every other male character Pixar has made has been something creative an interesting-- a toy, an old man, a monster, a rat, a robot, an ant.....but Merida once again fits the trope of a princess girl who wants more. It's like Pixar is saying girl characters aren't interesting and can't expand beyond fitting into that mold.
And everyone keeps calling Merida 'feminist'....the film isn't that feminist friendly. A true feminist film would defy stereotypes from the start and treat it as normal---- for example Merida doesn't have a love interest and it's never brought up or discussed. The film still centered around marriage, so it's not that feminist for me.

If Pixar has already make characters like a toy, a robot, a monster, etc, like you say, why not a princess? It's not like all Pixar characters are princesses, and Merida is like them. On the contrary, in Pixar line, she's a different kind.

yeah, a non-princess girl would have been better, they could have made it a better movie with a normal girl.
not saying that brave is bad, just watched it again, but it´s really not pixars best and a little flat. you know from the start how it will end. it´s nice that they wanted to show an adventures princess, but that´s SO old news in the animation world by now... with choosing a princess as the main character for a mother-daughter movie the only way they could have done this movie, is how they did in the end. with a normal girl, there would have been so many more ways to make it more interesting.

and yes, i dont get the feminist thing as well...where was that in the movie? i guess i must have wached a different one XD

I completely agree!

It doesn't bother me. I think it is a great movie. Love it. I agree it is not feminist but I don't care. Why does it have to be feminist? I agree with Popcornfan, We have seen a toy, robot, monster, bug, car, and more. Why not a princess. It about more than her being a princess. I think it was smart to add that element in there since the princess theme is hot right now. But the main theme was freedom and personal relationship. The freedom aspect was not just about her freedom but the freedom of all the young people, hence having her be a princess made it so she was in the position to help make that change for freedom for the young people. The family personal relationship is something that I think is need right now and touched home for a lot of people. I liked that it was about a princess. Could they have done a better job by making it about a common person, maybe. Don't know since they didn't do it. Plus now I love the movie and characters so I wouldn't want them to no longer exist now that we have seen them. But it would be interesting to see what they plan to do now. One can always hope for what they didn't get to be in a future production.

Edit: If it seems rantish, Sorry. I don't intend to sound rude or mean. Hope I did not offend. :) Just my opinion.

I agree about it not being much like a feminist AT ALL, but...I still think it's better for her to be a princess than a 'normal girl'. It's been too over-used, with another cinderella story and others. I don't WANT to be taken back to real life when watching a movie, I want castles, a unique yet brat-like princess (we already have Jasmine, who's harsh and mean sometimes but AWESOME) I just don't want a normal girl. I feel like Another CInderella story is being repeated over and over again, but in animation.

I never really thought of it before...

I can see where you're coming from, so I can't say it DOESN'T bother me. But it doesn't really bother me. So I don't really know.

i fail to see, how a story with a normal girl would turn into another cinderella story... when there are no princesses and stuff included...oO

i honestly don't understand your point of view. she's one of the most interesting disney female characters, tbh. so what if she wants adventure or whatever you're saying? Ariel wants the exact same shit, except that she totally forgets about that dream, once she sees a guy. do you see that with Merida? i don't think so. yes, she's a princess but she doesn't even act like one

and yes, this movie is quite feminist, the story was wrote by a woman, in case you didn't know. she was later moved away from this project for some stupid reason(well, probably because she was a woman -__-) but they still used her story. take some time to analyse this movie and you'll see that the main purpose is to show Merida's relationship with her mother AND making men extremely stupid, while the female characters are all smart. you don't call that feminist?

You don't have a concept of feminism, just because the story is written by a woman doesn't make it feminist. I would say the movie is feminist- friendly, but not feminist. I'm not sure it can even pass the Bechdel test.

And I never said that Ariel was feminist, did I? But Ariel was unique and progressive in her time period, which makes a difference. Merida isn't, except for not having a guy in the end and having two female leads who don't fight about a man. Which is nice. I don't think you read anything I wrote, then. Pixar is using the same trope that they could have steered away from.

^Agreed with Disnerdtobe.

This is kinda dumb, sorry. Pixar movies aren't especially creative to begin with - they rehash the same odd couple characters and road trip plot like 90% of the time. Brave is different from their usual what-if formula (what if your toys were sentient, what if your feelings had feelings, what if your house could fly, what if cars were people or whatever the hell Cars was about) but it's not a downgrade.

Also, tbh this is a pretty shallow understanding of feminism. There's nothing less feminist about pushing the boundaries for what women get to do within existing tropes - which is what Brave and Merida do. Yeah, she fits the reluctant princess thing. But she's also allowed to have shitty, gaping flaws that she's actually expected to deal with in canon. She gets to have an actual plot-relevant relationship with another female character. Those are some substantial differences, and frankly they're way more than what Ariel and many other supposedly "more feminist" disney women get; it's arbitrary and weird that these things should count for less.