There has recently been a lot of controversy surrounding Disney's makeover of Merida for her coronation as the 11th Disney princess. As you can see above, she has been re-designed to fit Disney's cookie-cutter princesses. Now, as a lover of Disney I have never had problems with their promotion of princesses. Despite many of my more progressive feminist ideals, this is one I've not let go of because of the nostalgia surrounding it and the love for Disney that I have. However, Merida was the first kick-ass princess to be created by Disney. One who could be a real role model for strong girls. One who looked normal, who actually looked like... well, a girl.
And, my favorite thing about Merida, of course, is her curly hair. It took several years for animators to be able to create her hair. And they were spot on with their portrayal of curls- never perfect, always a little frizzy, hard to contain. This new version has glossy, wavy curls as opposed to Merida's 3D wild mane from the movie.
It sounds like Disney has backed down from this new design of Merida, going back to the original. And honestly, I would have no problem with them animating her in a cartoon form for the purpose of coronation, if they hadn't taken that and sexed her up so much, made her look so drastically different (and quite a bit older) than the Merida from Brave. She was just fine the way she was!
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