So you think that Disney Consumer Products isn’t “Brave” enough to continue on with its Merida makeover? Think again

Jim Hill

11 years ago

While I was away in San Diego,
The-World’s-No.-1-Brave-Fan sent me this e-mail:

I was wondering what your take was on that whole Merida
makeover controversy which happened back in May. Do you think that it was wise
of Disney Consumer Products to try & turn Pixar’s first princess into one
of their glitzy & glamorous Disney princesses?

What do you mean “try” ?

Look, I know that over a quarter of a million people signed
that Change.org online petition asking Disney to ” … say no to the Merida
makeover, keep our hero ‘Brave’.” And as a direct result of the media
firestorm that followed, the Company did remove some 2D artwork from the Disney
Princess website which showed a glamorized version of this Pixar character and
then replaced that artwork with CG images of Merida
as she originally appeared in Pixar’s 2012 theatrical release.

The current version of the Merida
page over at the Disney Princess website.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved

But if you think that this very public gesture means that
The Walt Disney Company has now abandoned its efforts to sell and/or promote a
more glamorized version of Merida, please
allow me to direct your attention to the July / August 2013 issue of “Disney
Princess” magazine …

… which features a picture story that shows the glamorized
version of this “Brave” character being welcomed into Disney’s royal
court by Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine …

… Mulan, Ariel and Briar Rose.

Not to mention this “Emotions Eleven” Disney
Princess t-shirt
that the online version of the Disney Store currently has available for purchase.

Or the backpack / lunch tote combination on the left in the picture below that’s currently on sale at the Disney Store’s Back to School shop.

… or this rolling luggage case …

… or this Disney Princess pencil box.

Look, to be fair here, the above items were already in
Disney’s distribution channels when the Merida
makeover controversy erupted back in May. But given all of the bad publicity that
Mickey has had to deal with since those images of the glammed-up version of
this “Brave” character first began popping up online, Disney Company
officials could have easily just opted to pulp the entire run of the July /
August 2013 issue of “Disney Princess” magazine and/or removed all of these Disney Princess items from the Disney Store’s online catalog. But
the Mouse didn’t do that.

And why not? Because the Company knows that — in spite of
the Merida makeover controversy
back in May — there is still a very large & incredibly passionate group of
consumers and collectors out there who are eager to get their hands on glammed-up
versions of this “Brave” character.

That’s the part of this story which I think the people who
signed that Change.org petition didn’t entirely understand. That Disney
Consumer Products didn’t create a spanglier, sleeker version of Merida
just because it was looking for ways to annoy female empowerment proponents.
But — rather — because they were looking to create another product for Disney
Princess fans to purchase.

And make no mistake, folks. Given that this particular brand
generates $4 billion in sales annually for The Walt Disney Company, there are an
awful lot of Disney Princess fans out there. And among the products that this
coveted group of consumers responds mostly strongly to are (you guessed it) glammed-up versions of the Disney royals.

Now please keep in mind that it’s only been since 2000 that Disney
Consumer Products has been marketing these beloved Disney heroines as a group.
Or — rather — a set. With the hope that girls and women of all ages will then
(to borrow a line from the Pokémon theme song) ” … gotta catch ’em
all.”

Mind you, in order to now sell the Disney Princesses as an actual set of
characters (rather than a loose grouping of individual princesses), Disney
Consumer Products had to tweak the look of some of the Studio’s earlier
princesses so that their design would then be more consistent with Disney’s
more recent royals (i.e., Ariel, Belle & Jasmine). Which is why the Snow
White of today …

… looks decidedly different from the way that Disney’s first princess was depicted during her debut in 1937.

And Cinderella received a similar sort of makeover out
ahead of last year’s Blu-ray release on this Disney animated feature
. With this
being how Cindy looked back in 1950 …

… and the below image being the way that DCP has
reimagined this Disney Princess for today’s consumers.

You see what I’m saying here, right? That it’s not just Merida
who recently received a makeover. That the other Disney Princesses have
been glitzed & glamored up as well. All with the hope that the people who bought the
Ultimate Disney Princess Collection when Tiana joined the royal family back in
2009 …

… and then sprang for a similar set of dolls when Rapunzel
became a Disney Princess back in 2010 …

… would now want to purchase the 2012 version of the
Ultimate Disney Princess Collection. Just so that they could then own a version
of this playset where Merida has a
look & a design that’s consistent with all of the other Disney Princesses.

That — when you get right down to it — is why Disney
Consumer Products really gave Merida
her makeover. They weren’t actually looking for ways to make this Pixar
character seem sleeker or sexier. But — rather — this was really all about DCP
finding ways to make Merida’s look
consistent with all of the other Disney Princesses that were already out there. So that
it would then be easier for Disney Consumer Products to sell these characters
as a set.

Don’t believe me? Okay. Then let’s take another look at the
CG version of Rapunzel from “Tangled.” Back when the artwork
associated with this character was still loaded with plenty of personality.

Now take a look at the official Disney Princess version of
Rapunzel. While this 2D take of this “Tangled” character is now admittedly
looks much more regal & glamorous, it has also lost a lot of the quirky
detail that originally made Rapunzel so appealing.

But for little girls (who — according to DCP’s own market
research — would genuinely prefer to own a set of Disney Princess dolls where
all of these characters have a very consistent look & design), the fact
that the doll versions of Rapunzel or Merida that they’re playing with don’t
actually look all that much like the versions of these characters as they
appeared in their respective CG films ultimately doesn’t matter all that much.
What DOES matter is that — because the dolls in the Ultimate Disney Princess
Collection set are all the same height and share the same design aesthetic …
Well, that then makes it that easier for these children to imagine that these
Disney Princess dolls are actually friends. Which then makes playing with /
owning a set of dolls like this a far more enjoyable / desirable experience.
Which is what then helps to keep sales so high for this particular line of DCP
products.

So in the end, Merida’s
makeover wasn’t really about feminizing and/or glamming up this particular
Pixar character. But — rather — making the newest Disney Princess look more
like all of the Disney Princesses that were already out there. Which then made things far
easier for the folks at Disney Consumer Products when it came time to sell
t-shirts & doll sets which featured this brand / group of characters together
as a set.

Mind you, there are artists out there who have figured out
how to draw / portray the Disney Princesses in such a way that — while they
still have a unifying look & design — these characters retain much of
their individual quirks & personalities. Case in point: Amy Mebberson’s
Pocket Princesses. Which actually manages to mine quite a bit of humor out of
the idea that — were Merida to
ever actually be folded into a grouping of Disney Princesses — this fiery
Scottish lass would then probably have a lot of trouble fitting in.

I mean, check out “Singalong,” this limited
edition piece that Mebberson just created for Acme Archives Direct. Which
clearly shows how Merida probably
wouldn’t be all that enthusiastic when it came to all these Disney Princesses
coming together and singing stuff.

Look, no disrespect to the people who sign that Change.org
petition back in May. They saw that a CG version of Merida
had replaced the 2D glammed up version of this Pixar princess which had
previously appeared on the Disney Princess webpage and figured “We won.”
And they then moved on to the next online controversy.

But as for Disney Consumer Products, once the Merida
makeover PR crisis had passed, it was pretty much back to business as usual in
regards to the Disney Princess brand. If anything, given that
“Frozen” is headed into theaters in late November …

… DCP is already transitioning from marketing a glammed-up
version of Merida to looking for unique
& exciting ways to introduce Disney’s two new princesses — Anna & Elsa
— to the world.

Again, let me stress here that I mean no disrespect to the
251,160 people who (to date) have signed that online petition over Change.org
which asked The Walt Disney Company to ” … keep our hero brave.”
I’m sure that these folks had their hearts in the right place. But that said,
I still don’t think that they entirely understood what DCP was doing with its Merida
makeover. Which was answering the need of a very specific, incredibly
lucrative market segment that actually likes these glammed-up version of the
Disney Princesses.

I mean, if you folks are really looking for something Disney
Princess-related to get upset about, then please let me draw your attention to
these …

… the Disney Princess
Palace Pals. Which is this all-new
collection of overly-cute kittens, puppies & ponies that DCP has recently
come up with as a way to expand the Disney Princess product line.

I don’t know why it is that something like the Disney
Princess Palace Pals offends me more than a Merida
who’s been deliberately glammed-up. I mean, I get that a redesigned version of this
“Brave” character would then be a better visual fit whenever she’s
grouped with Cinderella, Tiana and the rest of the Disney royals …

… whereas the whole
Disney Princess Palace Pals product line just comes across (to me, anyway) as this naked cash
grab.

More to the point, while I can understand why some folks may
think that this glammed-up version of Merida
undercuts the original message of this Mark Andrews / Brenda Chapman film, here’s the hard reality: Not a single frame of that Pixar film has been
changed. More importantly, the message
of female empowerment that people got when they watched “Brave” after
it first debuted in theaters back in June of 2012 hasn’t been changed either. Nor
will that message change in the decades yet to come whenever people sit down to watch this Academy Award-winner.

These glammed-up Merida
dolls and/or the other products that feature this “Brave” character
folded in with all of the other Disney Princesses actually exist outside of that
movie. So those products’ ability to undermine the overall message of this particular Pixar
production is — at best — minimal.

Long story short: Disney Consumer Products created this
sleeker, glitzier version of Merida
because it was looking for ways to expand its Disney Princess brand. No one at
the Company deliberately went out of their way to try and undermine the “Change
Your Fate / Control Your Destiny” message associated with “Brave.”
What this was really all about was finding new ways to keep that $4-billion-a-year
business going / growing by creating a product that the people who actually
like the Disney Princess line might then want to purchase.

And speaking of keeping the Disney Princess brand going /
growing, if you enjoy that coronation ceremony that DCP held for Princess Tiana
in Manhattan’s Grand Ballroom back
in March of 2010 …

… or the coronation ceremony that Disney Consumer Products
staged for Rapunzel at Kensington Palace
in London in October of 2011 …

… or the regal celebration that DCP put together back in
May of this year where Merida was welcomed into the Disney Princess royal court
in a ceremony that was staged in front of Cinderella Castle at WDW’s Magic
Kingdom …

… just wait ’til you see what Disney Consumer Products has
in the works for Anna & Elsa. I can promise you that — when it comes time
for the two sisters who drive the storyline of Disney’s “Frozen” to
finally officially become Disney Princesses — their induction ceremony is
going to be very, very cool.

Beyond that … My apologies for being off-the-air here at
JHM for the past few days. But between some family obligations as well as that
case of the creeping crud which I picked up out in San Diego last week, I’ve
basically been out of commission since I got back from Comic-Con.

But even so, I’m now making plans to return to Southern
California early next month. Where — out ahead of the D23 EXPO —
Len Testa & I will be heading out to Palm Springs.
Where we’ll then be recording an all-new episode of our “Unofficial Guide
Disney Dish” podcast series that then focuses on the history of Smoke Tree
Ranch.

And while we’re out in the desert, Len & I also plan on
shooting something for the Touring Plans’ YouTube channel. This all-new show
is supposed to be called “Ask Jim Hill.” Where (as you might have
guessed by the title) I’m then going to try and answer Disney & theme
park-related questions that people have sent in.

So if you’d like to be part of the first-but-hopefully-not-last
episode of “Ask Jim Hill,” please head on over to the TouringPlans blog
right now and then submit a question that Len & I can possibly use as part of the premiere of this new YouTube show.

That’s it for now, folks. Again, my apologies for the lack
of stories this week. I’ll get back to sharing all that I saw & heard at
this year’s San Diego Comic-Con shortly. In the meantime, you all take care,
okay?