Disneyland’s Newest Princess

With Pixar making their first attempt at a princess movie with Brave (and it going so-so), you knew that there would be a new cast member in the colorful assortment of characters that roam their theme parks.

I’m guessing to find their real life Merida, they had a casting call for redheads, but soon learned that no one on earth could match the young girl’s assortment of crazy, fiery, curly hair. The girl above has to be wearing a wig, but still, her face is a pretty good match for a grown up version of the arching princess. And hey, at least she doesn’t have to wear a giant suit all day.

Does she have to speak with a Scottish accent too?

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15 Comments

  1. Always <3 the redheads. Sadly yeah that's gotta be a wig, judging from the eyebrows she's probably a brunette. And the "cast members" tend to be silent by design.

  2. Actually, there’s a video on youtube (or there was at least) of one of the Merida cast members talking. the Scottish accent was pretty bad and even though she was cute i had to stop the video cause i wanted her to shut up.

  3. Not sure why people weren’t feeling Brave. Pixar fans be dumb as shit. I think in many ways, the film shows Pixar’s growth as animators and storytellers. The lighting was beyond anything I’ve ever seen in animation, and I was very impressed with the fact that they made the queen more likable as a freakin’ bear than she was as a human by boiling her down to the wordless base emotions she felt for her daughter once freed from the burden of propriety, not to mention the amusing allegory of her trying to act like a human queen when that was not was she was. The humor of a bear trying to act like a queen and looking ridiculous paralleled Merida’s awkwardness as a tomboy being forced to be a proper lady. Funny and socially relevant. It can be done. Was it the complete lack of people/animals/vehicles/toys talking in idiotic voices that turned people off? I found it refreshing.

  4. Wait so-so? Why do comments like that make me think they are tied to “but she didn’t marry a prince!!!!” The things I loved about this Disney Princess is that she was the first one to have “I am as good as any man” ideas and actually believe them.

    Instead of “I am not a prize to be won but totally you wowed me so I am yours”

    As for the accents. I have heard real Scottish people referred to as “having bad accents” because they weren’t thick enough. People seem to think it’s not a real accent if it is understandable.

    This is the best Disney princess because she is the only one my daughter can look up to as a woman that isn’t afraid to be the equal of any man and save herself instead of waiting for someone else to save her.

  5. Trashcanman, I don’t know what complaints you’re referring to, so maybe I’m way off base here. For me, I just thought the film was too predictable (the bear thing aside), and that the awesome awesome characters they created were underutilized.

    For instance, we were shown repeatedly how good an archer Merida was, but then that trait was never actually used in the film’s climax. (Yes, she fired a few arrows but they were ineffectual.) What was the point? With a setup like that, I expected a bit more action in the film.

    The male characters were also reduced to caricatures and comic relief, which I thought was under-utilization. And I thought the queen’s change of heart toward her daughter’s future was not well explained.

    It’s a great film — don’t get me wrong. But I felt like there was something missing, something that a true visionary storyteller (like Walt Disney) would have added to pull everything together.

  6. @Jack Faire-
    What about Mulan? I can’t compare her to Merida as I haven’t seen Brave yet but Mulan’s pretty kickass. She doesn’t let the fact that she’s a girl hold her back, takes on massive responsibility to protect the ones she loves, proves everyone wrong and then not only saves herself but everyone else as well. What is there to not look up to?

  7. All Disney Character Cast Members are required to wear wigs. They NEVER us their own hair. This is because of the humidity and general abuse their likely to get during their working hours. Wigs are much easier to manage. So, please don’t be so bummed about the wig. You’ll NEVER see a Disney Princess actually using her own hair. It just doesn’t happen.

    They’re also required to be completely in character. So yes, the Scottish accent would also be required. Any actresses they hire for Marida would either have to actually be Scottish or able to preform one hell of an accent, simply because they need to be able to convince the children who come to the parks.

    I applied for a job at Disney, so that’s my source.

  8. Powers explained it much better than I could and completely touched every reason why I found the movie less than stellar. I did enjoy watching it, and didn’t think it was horrible, but I thought Merida was going to be much more than what appeared to me as a whiny teenager.
    Standing up for herself at the archery competition was awesome, and I loved that scene, but the rest was just her blaming everyone else but herself for her problems, only coming to realize that she should take responsibility in the last five minutes or so.

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