As much as I loved Up
Cats: culture|There’s a petition going around asking Pixar to make more animated movies with girls who are not princesses.
In a letter to Pixar Linda Holmes points out:
Of the ten movies you’ve released so far, ten of them have central characters who are boys or men, or who are anthropomorphized animals or robots or bugs who are voiced by and imagined as boys or men. These movies feature women and girls to varying degrees — The Incredibles, in particular — but the story is never “a girl and the things that happen to her,” the way it’s “a boy and what happens to him.”
She say that girls also like to see themselves depicted as central characters in the animated blockbusters.
In Up, Ellie was one of those girls. She had the dream for adventure, but Ellie got old and died in the opening montage. She didn’t get to go to Paradise Falls. The movie wasn’t about Ellie. It was about Carl and Russel.
My understanding is that after the summer blockbusters of 2010 and 2011 — Toy Story 3 and Newt– you’re planning The Bear And The Bow, a Christmastime fairy tale rather than a summer adventure. And your first one about a girl — way to go!
The writer has nothing against Pixar flicks and she loved Up.
She’s just asking for more girls.
June 9th, 2009 at 8:41 am
I agree. More girls.
June 9th, 2009 at 9:59 am
You should check out Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline” and his much-lower-budget-but-trippier “Mirrormask” – they both have strong and likeable female protagonists (and vaguely similar plots).
June 9th, 2009 at 11:05 am
I remember the first wave of new Disney movies, starting with “The Little Mermaid”. We loved “Beauty and the Beast” because the heroine was a girl who was a bookworm who got her dad out of trouble.
I have a niece who’s in full-on Disney princess obsession, eagerly encouraged by her parents.
June 9th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Quite right. My sons really liked “The Golden Compass” and “Herbie Fully Loaded” which both had adventuresome female protagonists. And speaking of the latter movie, maybe someone could also petition Disney to occasionally release a movie without a dead mother. I should capitalize that; I refer to them as “Disney Dead Mother Movies”.
June 9th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I could really give a shit. A good movie is a good movie, no matter who it’s about. I’m a girl/woman, and somehow I was still able to relate to crotchety old Carl in “Up.” And maybe a little bit with Dug too. Oh look, a squirrel!!
June 9th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
I wonder if perhaps there just aren’t enough women behind the scenes, and so the males behind the scenes feel most comfortable sticking to male characters?
June 9th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I’ve often thought that the studios were doing a disservice to girls with the whole Princess thing. We mocked it mercilessly in our home. Big shock, I know.
And as soon as I read the opening words, I was hoping that CDP would comment and add the zinger about Dead Mother Movies.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:10 am
I can’t say I give a lot of thought to the sex of the main character. As long as the female characters aren’t princesses, I’m okay.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Shelagh, here here
Andrew, welcome to GT! Saw you at M4Change, no? Will check it out. thankx
Bubs, the princesses die hard in Disney
Cdp, Disney Dead Mother Movies, Brilliant!
June 10th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Becks, were you a princess as a kid. Are you a princess as an adult?
Deepti, you mean behind every blockbuster animated male adventure is a bunch of overworked and underpaid women?
Lisa, CDPs comment is the zinger of the week
Barbara, I’ve gone through the deconstruction phase, been angry, demanded better, then got tired. Still it’s worth a mention and a little rant
June 10th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
…or someone who wants to be a girl?…Loretta?
I never really noticed before. Maybe it’s because most of the male characters are stupid, and women aren’t thought of that way?