With ‘Brave,’ Pixar Gives a Girl the Lead

I’ve been waiting anxiously all day on the trailer for Brave, Pixar’s first movie with a female lead, and it’s finally here. And it looks dandy:

More representation for strong girls and women in pop culture is always a good thing, but for Pixar, it’s particularly important. The company’s earned its outstanding track record by putting out movies that beautifully encapsulate universal human values and experience: loneliness, aging, love, ambition. And until now, the person who has always been the vehicle for those universal and powerful human conditions, for that powerful audience response, has been a man or a boy. It’s long overdue to have a woman take on that role. Having her embody courage makes up for that lag a little bit.