Agreed 100%! I’m not infuriated, and I love Disney. Bit Disney merchandise on the whole could be more accurate.
rebeccahains.wordpress.com/2013/ … n-experts/
I love this article. It’s hilarious!
EDIT: Disney responds!!! insidethemagic.net/2013/05/e … -use-only/
I’m really glad to see that Disney handled it well. I know that that poor artist who drew that original drawing, as LQ said, must feel awful. The new Merida rendering looks great though! I really have had no problem at all with anything about the Princess-fied Merida. She’s an epic role model, but truly so are the other Princesses for many reasons. I don’t think a touch of glitter makes that big a deal. And this coming from a girl who is half-tomboy and half-girly-girl (Meaning I love glitter and pink and Rapunzel, but I also love blue and Lightning McQueen and Buzz Lightyear). I mean, all the Princesses have something that makes them stand out and be different and strong, so I personally don’t think that, in some ways, Merida’s that drastically different from the others. She just doesn’t like fashion to be painful and doesn’t have a prince. And hey! I can relate to that! 
Oh, and has a bow and arrow. Can’t exactly relate to that yet…
OWP: Who was that artist and how did you know him/her? Just out of curiousity.
Leirin: Yeah, it’s this whole “I’m so clean and pretty, look at me sparkle” thing that gets on my nerves. One of my friends didn’t like Merida’s design cos’ she has, in his words, a football head. Of course, this pal of mine likes to watch anime, where there’s rarely a bad-looking female character, which probably explains his opinion. 
It’s one reason why I love the Tomb Raider video game reboot so much, because Lara doesn’t dress in a skimpy tank top and shorts (okay she still wears the tank top) and leaps from motorcycles onto dinosaurs. The Lara in the reboot makes mistakes, gets battered and bruised, and falls into all sorts of horrid and disgusting things from great heights.
I’m sure fans of Glee and Smash think the same thing too of guys singing in soprano and dancing in leotards, instead of shooting bad guys and spitting wisecracks. I’m all for pandering to audiences every now and then, but it’s fun to see a non-conformist character once in a while, and we need more of that.
IV: Ohmygoodness, can you believe Hasbro is actually gonna do Equestria Girls? I’m trying to keep an open mind, but I wish they had gone for a more grand adventure theme with them as humans instead of a mundane high-school setting. 
That is such an obvious choice! I wanna see Twilight as a scientist-ninja in Victorian times, not sweat over boys and her self-image!
I am certainly struggling to feel optimistic about EG. I’m definitely not excited.
TDIT, I have no idea who the original artist was, I was just thinking about it since, as a Pixar fan artist, I’ve drawn about a zillion Meridas trying to get her to look right, but in my style. So the thing is, whoever drew that Merida is in someone’s style. They weren’t trying to make her look overly feminine I don’t think, just in a particular style. I still can’t really agree with some people’s opinions on this whole mess, but you know, there are more productive things for me to do than to yell at Disney for “making Merida a cookie-cutter princess” (which, btw, was a prototype). And for the record, while I have no idea what it’ll be like, Equestria Girls doesn’t look all that bad to me. It’s not what I would’ve done with the whole “humanizing” thing, but they look really cool in that style, soooo I’m not going to hate on them for it.
Again, what matters most is not whether a main female character is a princess or a football player or a pony or whatever, it’s that she is strong, makes mistakes, but makes the right choices in the long run. And I think Merida takes home that prize for sure.
IV: Well, look on the bright side - at least it stars Rob Schneider! 
OWP: Yeah, I read the Disney reaction (pulling the website banner) and their explanation (as you said, it was a prototype). The thing that confused me was the part where they said it was going to be a “limited-release design”, but at least now it’ll be a “no-release design”. I also thought about it and realised the same thing as you did, that it was someone’s take on it. I think Disney made the mistake of leaking it and people took that one image to mean it represented the entire vision of the company.
Regarding Equestria Girls, here’s a copypasta from FB with some words from my last post repeated:
I’m kinda getting used to the humanised idea (although I still think the design looks terrible). But it’s the squandered potential that gets me. Hasbro could’ve done something along the lines of The Goonies or Hook (live-action), or Tangled or Princess And The Frog (animated), but they had to go with Glee and High School Musical.
Can’t blame though, their main aim (like Pixar and Disney) is to make money to fund future projects, and high-school settings seem to be what kids are into nowadays.
Well said!
In regards to Disney’s response, they do point out a reason why I wasnt ‘outraged’. I do understand why Brenda was upset, cuz I probably would be too, but I figured this would just be an image used on packaging or whatever.
On a related note, one thing I really dont understand about the Princesses is why Mulan is included. She married a soldier, not a member of royalty. In my mind, she’s still a commoner, no matter how important Shang might be.
Of course you’re completely right about that, but I can tell you the real reason they include Mulan: misplaced political correctness. They needed an Asian princess, so they had to include her.
Spirit is right. As opposed to making a whole movie about a princess from Eastern Asia, they include Mulan on the standing that Mulan has the heart of a princess. If you ask Mulan in the parks how she’s a princess, she tells you that tghe medal the emperor gave her a royal status as part of the royal family. Personally it doesn’t bother me, as I don’t see how they’re harming anyone. And besides I really like Mulan much more than some actual Princesses like Tiana and Cinderella.
I don’t like the new looks, so i also don’t like Merida’s look… I would like it much better without the glitters and with her bow and arrows.
I’ve talked with other people on another forum who’s opinions are a bit more “progressive” on this issue than I am and seemed to have taken a bit more offense to redesign than I did. I can understand Brenda Chapman’s frustration with not being able to have complete control over the character she’s created, however, I don’t think the redesign is sexist nor do I think it’ll hurt little girls’ self-esteem; kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for and they’re quick to pick up on what’s real and what isn’t. Disney is, foremost, a toy marketing company, which of course they’re going to try to make their products appeal to kids. Besides, I’ve seen worse sexualization in children’s products than this.
Doesn’t anyone care about movie accurateness? Anyone? Hello? 
Believe me, I find it offensive that because Merida is a girl, made for girls, they felt like making her thinner, glitterier, and “prettier”. That kind of hurts my feelings. What’s wrong with looking like Merida from the movie? She’s no Aurora, but she’s cute enough. And who said every princess has to be a pretty supermodel anyway? But to me, it’s even more important that Merida merchandise look like the movie because of it being accurate! I detest inaccurate dolls and figures of anything.
I do dislike the redesign, I’ve said it before.
But what I don’t understand is that people keep saying they made her “prettier” and “sexy”. I find her rather ugly in the redesign. She wasn’t that beautiful in the film either, but she has much better than here.
Her looks are just off. Exactly like all the others in these new versions.
To be honest, I don’t think this
Looks better than this
I can understand why they made the change; Merida wouldn’t have looked better as a 3D model up against a bunch of 2D models (hence why Rapunzel also gets the 2D treatment).
I do think they look better in the first ensemble.
Their new facial features are beyond off, and they hairs seem poorly groomed. If anything looks “prettier” now, it’s their dresses.
I would also make a 2D Merida, but one that looked more like the original. Just for the sake of continuity. Though if it were for me, I’d just kill that absurd franchise and leave each character in their own universe.
I think Merida is odd looking in the new images. Pretty, but awkward somehow. And I do prefer the 3D of Merida AND Rapunzel. To me it’s all about individual look and accuracy. So to me 2D Merida and Punzie look terrible. I think they’re inaccurate and Rapunzel looks awful, while Merida looks like a harlot. I hate all of the new designs.
I agree with both of you. The only reason I don’t hate the design is because I like to pretend it doesn’t exist, only the 3D renderings of Rapunzel and Merida are for real. But putting that into consideration, why even bother? There are already rendered character poses of the characters, just put those on the merchandising. Save the money in making this new design and give the people who they already know. I would rather see the 2D princesses in 2D and the 3D princesses in 3D. It’s just more simple and familiar.
And like I said, I only don’t dislike the design because I pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s only not horrible because it didn’t exist to begin with, I pretend.
Well I say if you don’t like the merchandise, don’t buy it.
I agree totally! I always wondered why they “invested”(wasted) money to make new designs. Originals FTW!
Its to sell merchandise of course.