"Dear Pixar, From All The Girls With Band-Aids On Their Knees"

From GITS follower Kate Eberle, who found this article from Linda Holmes, who writes the NPR blog Monkey See:

Dear Pixar,

This is not an angry letter. It is especially not an angry letter about Up, which I adored. I could have sat in the theater and watched it two more times in a row. I cried, but I also laughed so hard in places that it wore me out.

So I'm not complaining; I'm asking. I'm asking because I think so highly of you.

Please make a movie about a girl who is not a princess.

Being a guy evidently dulled my sensibilities because I didn't notice what Holmes did:

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."

Ten Pixar movies. The Protagonists or primary characters are almost exclusively male.

As Holmes notes, Pixar has moved into pre-production on Bear and the Bow which plot is described on IMDBpro.com

Scottish princess, Merida, defies her parents by perusing an interest in archery, but inadvertently jeopardizes her father's kingdom in the process.

Also the director of this project is Brenda Chapman, an animator, writer, and director (The Prince of Egypt), marking the first time Pixar has had a female director on one of its movies. But for Holmes, it's not just about female characters. It's the princess thing:

I have nothing against princesses. I have nothing against movies with princesses. But don't the Disney princesses pretty much have us covered? If we had to wait for your thirteenth movie for you to make one with a girl at the center, couldn't you have chosen something -- something -- for her to be that could compete with plucky robots and adventurous space toys?

Holmes goes on to talk about how great Ellie's character is in Up. And Ellie is absolutely dynamite, one of the most charming and fun characters, animated or otherwise, I've seen in years. But as Holmes writes about Ellie:

She provides the engine for the story, in many ways, but it's an old man and a little boy who actually get to hit the gas.

There is the conventional wisdom in Hwood that girls will go to movies that feature male protagonists, but boys won't go to movie that feature female protagonists. I doubt the filmmakers at Pixar give a hoot about that. Hell, Up features a 70+ year-old Protagonist which also defies Hwood CW. As for Bear and the Bow, here's an interesting bit of business about the project from Wikipedia:

The film, Pixar's first fairy tale, is a combination of director Brenda Chapman's love of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, as well as a reflection on raising her daughter.

Look, I'm a guy and I have two sons, so my comments probably wouldn't be all that insightful or relevant. But I'd certainly be interested to hear what others have to say, especially women -- and not just about Pixar movies, but gender issues in Hwood movies in general.

What are the problems as you see them? What can we as screenwriters do to take on these issues? How conscious of gender are you when it comes for you to decide what story to write, how to develop your characters, etc?

These are legitimate topics for discussion. Because if it's true stories are influenced by culture, it's equally true that stories can influence culture.

For more info on Bear and the Bow, here is the Wikipedia entry.

Finally, h/t to Kate!