BRAVE ' S PRINCESS MERIDA - THE BEST ROLE MODEL SO FAR?

Princess Merida from Disney / Pixar's latest offering -  BRAVE - is not your typical Disney princess.

Merida  may be beautiful, but she is not sitting around waiting or  in any way dreaming of  Prince Charming to come along.  She is far too busy for that. Instead, the firstborn heir of King Fergus (voiced by Billy Connolly) the Scottish kingdom of DunBroch, would rather practice her archery and defend her homeland than primp herself as a princess and prepare for the eventuality of her becoming Queen.   This is  a refreshing alternative to the usual production line of Disney Princesses.

In fact,  Disney Princesses have come under a lot of criticism and scrutiny for beingnothing more than a group of rather  lovely but rather helpless ladies just sitting around  waiting for princes in shiny armour.  It seems that no matter how lovely, generous, hard working and kind  the likes of Tiana, Cinderella and Snow White are,  they can only become  complete with the help of a man, specifically one carrying a sword.

The glorification of these traditional and some would say,  very outdated, role models has spawned an entire 'anti-princess' movement among many mothers who pledge  not to allow their daughters to watch the Disney Princess films. 

So, if you would like your sons and daughters to know the story of Merida - you can read the story online -  you can do so at this site  http://disney.go.com/brave/story/index.html#/about/ - where you can flick through a Brave storybook and re-live the movie with your child.