Meet Pixar’s First Female Protagonist: ‘Brave’s Princess Merida – Video

From the Toy Story trilogy, to Finding Nemo, to Up, the female representation in the twelve mega-hit Pixar film’s has been consistently and noticeably low.

With the introduction of Pixar’s first ever-female protagonist in Brave, has the animated features boy’s club finally turned a corner?

New York Magazine’s Vulture blog reports:

Almost every year, a blog or cultural pundit will pose the same question: Does Pixar have a woman problem? Sure, the animation studio has given us Jessie from Toy Story and Dory from Finding Nemo, but the male characters vastly outnumber the ladies in Pixar's oeuvre, and in twelve movies, no female character has served as the sole protagonist. Next year's Brave will finally change that. Set in the Scottish highlands, it's the story of Princess Merida (voiced by Boardwalk Empire's Kelly MacDonald), a headstrong redhead who's keen with a bow and arrow, though her action-seeking ways place the kingdom in peril.

We’ve got a girl power on our side in the premise, but as some bloggers have already pointed out, it’s set in a fairy tale world with a princess in peril at the core, not exactly groundbreaking feminist animation territory.

See the preview below and decide for yourself: is Brave a big step in the right direction towards diversity and female representation in film?

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