Merida



Princess Merida  is the protagonist in the film Brave. She has three brothers Harris, Hubert and Hamish. Her parents are King Fergus and Queen Elinor. She is also the first female protagonist in a Pixar film.

Brave
Passionate, beautiful and fiery, Merida is a headstrong teenager of royal upbringing who is struggling to take control of her own destiny. She feels most at home in the outdoors honing her impressive athletic skills as an archer and swordfighter, and racing across the magnificent Highland countryside with her faithful horse, Angus. With a spirit as vibrant as her untamed hair, Merida also has a softness of heart, especially when it comes to her wee triplet brothers. As the daughter of the King and Queen, her life is weighted with responsibilities and expectations, causing her to yearn to preserve her freedom and independence. When Merida blatantly defies an ancient tradition, the consequences of her actions prove disastrous for the kingdom. She must race against time to make right the result of her reckless behavior, her journey compelling her to look inside to discover the meaning of bravery and reveal her true fate.

Trivia

 * Merida has more than 1500 individually sculpted, curly red strands that generate about 111,700 total hairs. Brenda Chapman insisted upon Merida having such curly hair, which was very difficult to create. Claudia Chung, the simulation superviser, said, "We've never seen anything like Merida's curly hair. Technically, that was incredibly hard to achieve." The simulation team had to create a new simulation program to achieve the needed movement, which they named "Taz", after the Tasmanian Devil Looney Tunes character because it was "crazy fast", as Chung said. The results were so pleasing that they used the program to create all the other hair in the film, from Angus's fur to the triplet's hairstyles. It took three years and left them only six months to finish the rest of their work on the film.
 * If Merida’s curls were straightened, her hair would be four feet long and reach the middle of her calf.
 * With five dresses, plus a cloak, quiver, hand wrap and necklace, as well as torn dresses, Merida has a total of 22 different costumes. She also has five different hairstyles.
 * Brenda Chapman came up with the concept of the Merida character as a combination of a daughter and a friend.
 * Reese Witherspoon was originally cast to voice Princess Merida, but was replaced due to scheduling issues.
 * Merida has the strangest preview cameo prior to her film's release of any Pixar character: she and her family were all first seen in public media in automobile form on a tapestry on the wall inside a bar in London, England seen at the end of Cars 2.
 * She joined the Disney Princess line-up on May 11, 2013, making her the 11th Disney Princess in the franchise, and the first ever Disney Princess to not come from the Disney Animated Canon.
 * In fact, she is the first whose film is not a musical, though two of the songs were sung by characters.
 * She is the second Disney Princess with red hair (the first being Ariel from The Little Mermaid) and the third Disney Princess with blue eyes (the first two being Cinderella and Ariel).
 * She is the 2nd computer-animated Disney Princess and the 2nd one with freckles, the first being Rapunzel, followed by Anna and Elsa.
 * She is the second Disney Princess to have her film rated PG after Rapunzel from Tangled.
 * She is the second princess to have biological siblings (Ariel being the first and Anna and Elsa being the third and fourth).
 * Merida is the first (and currently the only) Disney Princess to have siblings of the opposite gender (three triplet brothers to be exact), since the other Disney Princesses have sisters, stepsisters, or are an only child.
 * Merida is also the first Disney Princess to be the first born sibling, followed by Elsa being Anna's older sister.
 * She is the fifth princess to have some form of a "rebellious princess syndrome". Ariel being the first, Jasmine being the second, Pocahontas being the third, and Rapunzel the fourth.
 * She is the third princess to use a weapon (shortbow and arrows) in her feature film. Mulan being the first in using swords and fans, and Rapunzel being the second in using a frying pan (though a frying pan isn't a real weapon; she just uses it for one, making Merida the second to use an actual weapon). Gaston, however, is the first antagonist that matches her skills in archery.
 * She is the second princess to be trained with a bow and arrow, Mulan being the first.
 * She is the second princess to be raised by both of her biological parents for her entire current life, Mulan being the first.
 * She is the only princess who isn't a Spell Card character in Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.
 * She is the third princess to be wearing a cape. Snow White being the first, Aurora being the second, and Anna and Elsa being the third and fourth.
 * She is the fourth princess to have a horse companion. The others being Cinderella, Belle and Mulan.
 * Merida is the fifth to be shown physically as a child in her feature film. Cinderella being the first, Aurora the second, Tiana the third, Rapunzel the fourth, Anna the fifth, and Elsa the sixth.
 * She is the second princess to have a parent physically transformed, Ariel being the first.
 * She is the second princess to be visibly wounded (gets cut on her right arm by Elinor as a bear). The first being Mulan (she was cut on her chest by Shan Yu).
 * She is the first princess in a film in which the villain is killed by a parent.
 * She is the fifth Disney Princess in which she has to deal with an unwanted marriage as a major or minor source of conflict. Aurora is the first (in which she did not know the boy she met was Prince Phillip), Belle is the second (as she has to deal with Gaston's intent to marry her solely out of vanity and to fulfill societal norms), Jasmine is the third (in that her father is trying to marry her off before her next birthday), and Pocahontas is the fourth (in that her father is trying to marry her off to w:c:disney:Kocoum Kocoum). Hers is because, like with Jasmine, one of her parents wants to marry her off.
 * She is the first to not have an American accent, although Tiana has a Southern accent.
 * Merida is the third princess with the least redesign update, the first being Tiana, second being Rapunzel.
 * So far, Merida is the first princess to not have a love interest, boyfriend or true love, followed by Elsa.
 * Merida is the second princess to stop her father from killing a loved one (her mother), the first being Pocahontas stopping her father from killing her love (John Smith), although Fergus did not know that the bear he was trying to kill was Elinor and thought that Elinor was already dead because of the bear.
 * She, so far, is the only Disney Princess that lives in the earliest time period of any Disney Princess (the middle ages).
 * Tia Kratter, responsible for Merida's initial character design, has admitted that Merida was based on British model and actress Lily Cole  and Brenda Chapman came up with the concept of Merida's character as a combination of one of her daughters and a friend.
 * Merida is the third heroine/protagonist to have a talent in a sport. Pocahontas being the first, since she is able to canoe down rapids, and Mulan being the second with martial arts.
 * Reese Witherspoon was originally casted to voice Merida, but due to scheduling conflicts, she was replaced by Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald.
 * The setting location for Merida's story is the 5th specified after Belle (France), Pocahontas (Virginia, USA), Mulan (China) and Tiana (Louisiana, USA). Jasmine is the exception, since though the setting is of Middle Eastern influence and architecture, there is no country name ever mentioned for the location of the Agrabah Kingdom.
 * Merida is the third Pixar Princess after Atta and Dot in 1998 from A Bug's Life. However, she is the first human Pixar Princess.
 * Merida is the second main character to have a talent for archery and compete in archery tournaments, the first being Robin Hood, but the third character to do so, the second being Mulan.
 * Merida has more than 1500 individually sculpted, red strands that generate about 111,700 total hairs.
 * If Merida's curls were straightened, her hair would be four feet long and reach the middle of her calf.
 * With five dresses, plus a cloak, quiver, hand wrap and necklace, as well as torn dresses, Merida has a total of 22 different costumes. She also has five different hairstyles.
 * Merida is the second Disney character to say to someone turned into a bear "I don't speak bear". The 1st being Tanana who says that to Kenai when he is a bear.
 * Merida is one of the few human heroines to not be seen barefoot in any of her media, yet. She shares the likes of this with Snow White, Alice, w:c:disney:Eilonwy Eilonwy and Belle.
 * Apparently, Merida and Young MacGuffin were going to be the "canon" couple, but then the film makers decided it would be better to leave her single. Should there is ever be a sequel to Brave, it is possible that a relationship might be explored.
 * DunBroch is thought to be set near Glencoe, Scotland.
 * Merida is the third main character of a Pixar film not to have a love interest, the first being Sulley, the second being Remy, and the third being Elsa. In addition, after her coronation into the Disney Princess line in May 11, 2013, she is the first princess to be devoid of a love interest, followed by Elsa.
 * Merida is the fourth Disney Princess to choose to run away from home, the first being Snow White, second being Jasmine, third being Mulan, and fifth being Elsa. Ariel and Rapunzel didn't actually run away. They were taking an offer to leave home to fufill their destinies (Flotsam and Jetsam to Ariel, and Flynn Rider to Rapunzel).
 * Merida is the third Disney Princess to be locked in her bedroom by a parental figure, the first being Cinderella and the second being Rapunzel. However, in Merida's case Fergus did this to protect her while Lady Tremaine did it to Cinderella to stop her from marrying the prince.  Some argue that Elsa could be the third, but her parents did not lock her in her bedroom, just made her stay in there for the majority of her childhood.
 * Merida shares her interest in apples with Snow White.
 * Merida's hair is softened in her 2D appearance.
 * Merida will be the first Disney Princess to wield a weapon in merchandise.
 * Merida is the first Disney Princess, since Pocahontas, to be raised as royalty. The others include Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Anna and Elsa.
 * Merida is the first flesh-and-blood Pixar meet-n-greet character in any of the Disney Parks.
 * Merida is the first princess to debut in a redesigned costume rather than a plain design.
 * Merida is the third princess with a controversial redesign, the first two being Pocahontas and Mulan.
 * Merida is the first princess to come from an original story which is considered a fairytale.
 * Merida is currently the third Disney Princess without a sequel, with the first two being Snow White and Tiana.  She is followed by Elsa and Anna but some of these films may have sequels in the future.
 * Merida is the first princess to not sing at all as a teenager, followed by Elsa. However, she did sing a song as a child with her mother, Noble Maiden Faire, which is considered the film's main theme song.
 * Her name means "honorable" in Gaelic.
 * She is the first princess without a love interest, the second being Elsa.
 * She is the first and so far the only Disney Princess made by Pixar.
 * While all six members of the royal DunBroch family were all seen unclothed in certain parts of the film, Merida is the only one seen wearing undergarments (a long, white shift resembling a white version of her normal dress).
 * Merida is the third Pixar protagonist who doesn't have a love interest, after Sulley and Remy. But she did have one in production and rough drafts.