Checking In And I Finally Saw Brave

Thank you all for sticking with me while I am on deadline. I'm nearly finished so...Yay! Thanks, too, for all the wonderful comments you left last week on the awesome Girls Kick Ass Says So On the T-Shirt post from my super cool friend Mind of Mine. I appreciate your thoughts very much.

Funny enough, in keeping with that theme, I was taking a chill from my frantic writing/editing pace and had the opportunity to at long last see Brave. Now that all 5 billion of the rest you have, LOL.

Wow, was I ever disappointed. I was so disappointed that I could not concentrate on anything til I got this out. Not disappointed in the animation, that was spectacular. In fact, it blew me away, but just like with Avatar, it was glitter to try and distract me from the utter dreckitude that was the story.

On a side rant, what was with the butt cheeks and the extra bouncy breasts on the housekeeper? Not to mention Bear Cub Brother's swan dive into Cleavage Town... Yikes!

Back to my point. We finally, finally get a girl hero from Pixar and they make it into a stereotypical chick "adventure" and I use that term very loosely. There really was no adventure here. It all comes down to a witch's spell and Merida's bitchy 'tude with her mommy. All because of what essentially amounts to a boy problem. So she didn't want to get married, boo hoo... BFD. She still wore a dress, the central villain is still a witch and her problem is hardly the ultimate destruction of her way of life. Pixar really suckered me in with that "Change your fate" line. Thank God I only paid $1.30 at the Red Box but even so I want my money back.

Mulan had it all over Merida in the bravery department as far as I'm concerned. I wanted, nay expected a girl kicking ass just like the boys, saving her kingdom,  facing dragons, monsters and warlords hellbent on destruction. Not witches and curses. Or God help me, bears. Why is it we women always get to face evil forest creatures? Are you effing kidding me? Next thing you know there'll be a Brave Part Deux with Merida running up against an evil Bambi. Honestly, fellas, we women are your absolute equals in every way so quit giving us such weak stories when it's our turn to grab some glory. They're BORING. As to the women who had a part in this, shame on you for not representing.

I know some of you out there are like "Geez Mel, it's a cartoon, what's with the attitude? Can't you ever just turn off your feminist and enjoy something?" No, I can't. Pixar had an opportunity with Brave to break new ground and they didn't. They trod right over the same tired territory and spent more time making Merida's hair look great than they did on actual plot. I'm not encouraging my friends to buy their daughters a Brave anything from Disney. Merida is really a glass ceiling hero. We'll let you do some badass things like be an expert archer, but you still have to wear the dress and save yourself from a witch. No warlords for you, you're a girl. And of course we must always make sure that the theme of mother daughter relationships is front and center because we all know girls never have relationships with their fathers.

Okay rant over, I'm going to finish my story and enjoy some Bears football. LOL