Delayed Thoughts on “Brave”

On the subject of the portrayal of women in Pixar movies, I differ in opinion from many of my feminist friends. I’ve never really had a problem with the lack of female protagonists in Pixar films. While I would have liked to see the company put forth a woman- or girl-centered movie, they still gave me characters like Princess Atta and Dot in A Bug’s Life, Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl in Toy Story 2, Dory in Finding Nemo, Helen and Violet Parr in The Incredibles, and EVE in WALL-E. Yes, their stories were of secondary importance to the stories of their male protagonist counterparts, but they all still had goals, motivations, desires, and personalities – and in the case of Dory, she stole the movie from both the protagonist AND the title character (though one could argue that she’s a bit of a Manic Pixie Dream Fish).

Still, I was happy to hear that Pixar was releasing their first movie with a female protagonist. I was excited when I heard that the title was The Bear and the Bow and about a girl who was a hunter. I was less excited when I heard that the main character was a princess, because, really? The first female protagonist in a Pixar movie and it’s a princess? We don’t have enough of those movies with Disney?

Then I heard that the story was about a girl who struggles against traditional gender roles to be a warrior, and I groaned, and for the first time actively dreaded seeing a Pixar movie but still felt obligated to see it. I felt no such obligation with Cars or its sequel (and still haven’t seen either), but I didn’t want Brave to fail at the box office and give sexist producers another excuse for claiming that “movies about women don’t sell.” (Yeah, tell that to The Hunger Games, why don’t you.)

The truth is, I’m a little tired of movies about women fighting against sexism and traditional gender roles. Those movies have their place and I appreciate them, but I want to see more films about women just living their lives, where dealing with sexism is an everyday issue, but not an issue that defines them or their story.

After watching Brave, though, I now see that the marketing for the film was misleading. Brave isn’t about a princess who doesn’t want to be a princess. Brave is about a young woman and her mother learning to understand each other.

Brave is different from most Disney princess movies in that Merida’s mother is actually alive and present. That’s surprising enough in of itself, but what’s even more surprising is that Queen Elinor is the second-most important character of the story. The movie is about Elinor and Merida butting heads while still loving each other, each believing that the other isn’t listening, and they both have a point. Neither woman is portrayed as completely right or completely wrong. Elinor doesn’t have much respect for Merida’s archery skills and rejection of social norms, and Merida doesn’t have respect for Elinor’s more traditionally feminine skills in diplomacy and sewing.

At the end of the film, Elinor and Merida have learned to understand each other, and both see how the other’s skills are important and valuable. The queen sees how Merida’s hunting and archery skills have practical use even for women, but Merida also gains respect for Elinor’s ability to use words and patience to calm down a volatile group of clan leaders. In the last sequence of the film, Elinor and Merida sew a tapestry together, and then go for an adventurous horse ride into the woods.

It’s a lovely movie. But it didn’t feel like a Pixar movie. It felt like a very good Disney movie.

That’s to be expected, I guess. Pixar said from the beginning that Brave was their first traditional fairy tale. But I’m still a little disappointed that Pixar’s first movie with a female protagonist was a princess story/fairy tale, instead of a story about the leader of an ant colony rebelling against grasshoppers, or a robot cleaning up a planet, or a rat who wants to become a chef.

At the same time, I feel like it’s unfair to judge Brave for what it isn’t, instead of judging it for what it is. Maybe my expectations of a girl-centered film are a little higher than they would be for a male-centered Pixar film, simply because there are fewer woman-centric films in general.

I do think Brave is a very good movie, but I hope Pixar makes more than one movie with a female protagonist. I’ve heard that their upcoming movie about the inside of a person’s mind stars a girl character, but I don’t know if that has been confirmed. I hope it’s true, and I will continue to look forward to that film (and to Monsters University).