In fact, folklorist Jack Zipes lauded Brave as “a feminist fairy-tale film” with an empowering departure from the tale of “King Thrushbeard”, a story with a tale type that closely aligns with the plot of Brave (Aarne–Thompson tale type 900) ( Zipes 2015). Even with its coverage of the fraught balance between “masculine” and “feminine” traits in a role model for children, Disney/Pixar won significant acclaim for Brave ( 2020 see the lengthy “Awards” section on Pixar website).

Within its depiction of mother-daughter tension, Disney/Pixar explored a “range of femininities” in which Merida as “mighty maiden” breaks free of the princess mold ( Reilly 2016, p. This desire to control her own fate occurred as she navigated the complexities of mother-daughter dynamics ( Kapurch 2016 Manwell 2016), a long-standing cross-cultural theme in fairy tales and other children’s stories ( Tatar 2020).

Princess Merida, the heroine of the 2012 Disney/Pixar film Brave, received notice for acting as her own narrator (unlike her same-era peer Rapunzel in Tangled), while asserting agency in resolving conflict ( Whelan 2012).

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