NPR on The Cultural Capital of Princesses
Brave producer Katherine Sarafian:”We tried making her the blacksmith’s daughter and the milkmaid in various things,” she says. “There [are] no stakes in the story for us that way. We wanted to show real stakes in the story where, you know, the peace of the kingdom and the traditions are all at stake.”
Now, you’d think someone could find stakes in the story of a blacksmith’s daughter or milkmaid, but apparently not Pixar (which is owned, of course, by Disney). Still, Pixar didn’t seem to have the same problem with ordinary civilian boy heroes in movies such as Up.
When it comes to the problem of broadening princesses’ appeal, Hollywood has resorted to giving them weapons. Warrior princesses are the new norm in movies like Brave, Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Hunstman. But unlike their girl-power predecessor Xena, of the 1990s TV show, none of today’s onscreen princesses have female friends — and the bad guys are often older women.
(Source: NPR)
