Merida

Princess Mérida is the main protagonist of Disney/Pixar's 2012 film Brave. She is a Scottish Princess with a love of archery, who unintentionally unleashes trouble on her kingdom, leading her to set out to make things right. She is voiced by Kelly Macdonald.

Background
Princess Mérida is the sixteen year old tomboyish daughter of a queen who rules the kingdom alongside her husband. Queen Elinor's expectations of her daughter make Mérida see Elinor as being distant while also causing friction between the two. Despite Elinor's desire to see Mérida as a proper royal lady, Mérida an impetuous girl who wants to take control of her own destiny. Mérida has honed her skill in archery, and is one of the most skilled archers ever seen. She is also skilled in sword-fighting and racing across the countryside on her horse, Angus.

Despite her outgoing, forceful personality, Mérida does have a softness of heart, particularly when it comes to her triplet brothers.

Role in Film
Mérida is first seen as a child playing hide-and-seek with her mother Queen Elinor on her birthday. Then she sees her father's bow on the table and asks him to shoot an arrow with it. Fergus, her father, presents her with her own bow as a birthday present. She accidentally shoots her first arrow into the forest and goes to get it back until she spots a trail of Will O' the Wisps that lead her back to her parents. Elinor tells her that the wisps lead you to your fate, but Fergus doesn't believe it. Suddenly, Mor'du attacks, and Elinor and Mérida flee while Fergus stays behind to fight the demon bear.

Years later, Mérida is a teenager that Elinor is trying to make her into a proper princess despite Mérida's objection. One day when there are no lessons she goes riding on her horse Angus. She shoots arrows at targets she sets up in the forest, and just explores. She even climbs the Crone's Tooth and drinks from the Fire Falls in joy. Mérida returns home to join her family for dinner. As she enters, Mérida listens to Fergus telling her triplet brothers the story of his battle with Mor'du until she interrupts and tells them that their father lost his left leg in the battle, and Mor'du is waiting his chance of revenge. Moments later, Elinor tells Mérida that the three Lords are coming to present their suitors to compete for her hand in marriage. Not wanting any of this, Mérida angrily storms out of the Great Hall to her bedroom. As she is striking her bedposts with her sword, Elinor enters telling her the story of a king who divided his kingdom for each of his four sons to rule, but the eldest wanted to rule the entire land and so brought chaos and war, and his desire to follow his own path led to the downfall of the kingdom. Mérida refuses to listen. Elinor tells her to go through with it but Mérida still doesn't want it. Moments later, Mérida is seen in Angus's stall talking to Angus of what she would say to her mother about her wishes if she would listen. Mérida is determined she will not marry whoever wins the games.

Days later, the Lords arrive in DunBroch. Elinor prepares Mérida in a tight formal dress and they all gather in the Great Hall for the presentation of the suitors. Each of the Lords present their sons. Mérida is not pleased with any of them. A brawl breaks out, at which Elinor and Mérida are both disgusted. Elinor proclaims that only the firstborn of the great leaders may compete in the games which gives Mérida an idea of how to get out of the marriage: she declares that she chooses archery for the Highland Games.

When the competition begins, Mérida sneaks her bow and arrows behind her throne. As the suitors shoot at the targets, she chats with Fergus about each of them until Wee Dingwall wins by accident, striking the bullseye. She sneaks off and appears on the field, declaring she will shoot for her own hand. Ignoring Elinor's protests, she strikes the bullseye of the first two suitors' targets. When she shoots an arrow through the full length of Wee Dingwall's arrow and through the target, she smiles ... until she sees her furious mother.

Elinor drags and throws Mérida into the tapestry room as they have a heated arguement with each other about Mérida's actions, with Elinor calling her a child and Mérida calling her a beast for trying to ruin her life. Mérida then slices the family tapestry between the pictures of herself and Elinor, and Elinor throws Mérida's bow into the fire. Mérida tearfully runs away from the castle as Elinor quickly fishes the bow from the fire, feeling horribly guilty and starts weeping.

Mérida is weeping as she rides Angus heedlessly through the forest until they come across the Ring of Stones and a trail of will o' the wisps leading them to A woodcarver's cottage. Noticing a broom that sweeps by itself and a talking crow, Mérida discovers that this old woodcarver is actually a witch, and demands a spell. The witch tells her to get out, threatening her with floating knives, until Mérida offers to buy all her carvings with her pendant in exchange for a spell that will change her fate. The witch begrudgingly gives in and conjures up a cursed tart, which she says that she did for a prince who wanted the strength of ten men and got what he wanted. Mérida takes the tart and heads back to DunBroch.

She sneaks back into the kitchen to making the tart presentable, as Elinor enters the room, relieved to find her daughter home. Mérida gives her the tart and Elinor eats a piece, then suddenly starts feeling sick. Mérida escorts Elinor to her chambers and puts her in bed. Suddenly Elinor starts transforming into a bear. Mérida is horrified at the spell's effect and with her brothers' help gets Elinor out of the castle. They journey back to the Witch's cottage but they find her gone. Then they find the witch's cauldron with a ghostly image of the Witch in the potion-controlled automated voice message telling Mérida that she has until the second sunrise to break the spell or her mother will remain a bear forever. The Witch tells Mérida the way to do it was to remember the riddle "Fate be changed, look inside, mend the bond torn by pride." Baffled, Mérida accidentally sabotages the cottage, so Mérida and Elinor take shelter in the remains of the cottage for the night. Mérida has a dream about a memory of her as a child with Elinor as they are both are singing "Noble Maiden Fair (A Mhaighdean Bhan Uasal)" together.

The next morning, Elinor brings some berries and water for breakfast. Mérida explains that the berries are poisonous nightshade berries and the water has worms in it. They go to a creek, where Mérida teaches her mother to catch fish, and they both start bonding. Then Elinor heads into the forest and Mérida follows her; but Elinor is not herself, and starts attacking her daugher until she returns to herself. Mérida is confused until they see a trail of will o' the wisps and follow them to the ruins of a castle. Mérida falls through the floor into a throne room and realizes it was the kingdom from the story Elinor was telling her about. Mérida sees a stone with three figures and a split stone with the fourth figure and realizes that the curse has happened before, when the prince seeked to change his fate, resulting in his kingdom's downfall and his transformation to Mor'du. Then she sees Mor'du and he attacks her until she barely escapes with Elinor's help and they flee back to the Ring of Stones. Mérida realizes that Elinor will become like Mor'du forever unless she sews the tapestry back together to "mend the bond torn by pride" in hopes it will break the spell.

That night they sneak into the castle. Peeking into the Great Hall, they see Fergus and the lords behind barricades, hurling weapons at each other, on the brink of war. Mérida tries to tell Elinor to stop them. But Elinor, in bear form, can't do any such thing, and it is up to Mérida to stop this madness. Elinor, fearful of being seen and attacked, freezes into a stationary position while Mérida walks into the room and tells them she was in conference with Elinor. The Lords demand to see the queen until Mérida silences them all. She tells them of the story of the selfish prince who brought chaos to the land, and reminds them that legends are lessons and they ring with truths. The clans had been enemies until they were threatened by the Northern Invaders and joined forces to defend their lands. When they won the war, the clans made Fergus their king for bringing them together and made an alliance. Mérida then tells them that they should be free to follow their hearts and find their own love. The Lords' sons agree with this and confess to their fathers that they didn't want to fight over a girl who doesn't want any of it. So they all agree; but Mérida notices a guard staring at Elinor's frozen pose and distracts everyone by telling them to got to the cellar to celebrate. When everyone is gone, Elinor is proud of her and they both head to the tapestry room.

As Mérida is looking for thread and needles to mend the tapestry, Elinor turns wild again and attacks Mérida. When Fergus enters the room she attacks him, and cuts Mérida's arm. When Elinor snaps out of it, Mérida tries to calm her, but her mother flees in horror as Mérida tries to tell Fergus that the bear is Elinor, but Fergus refuses to listen. He locks her in the tapestry room for protection and gives the key to the old the servant Maudie while he and the Lords go after Elinor. Mérida starts crying again and calls out until her brothers show up... but they, too, have been turned into bears for eating of the cursed tart. She tells them to get the key. They release Mérida, and all four ride on Angus while Mérida frantically sews up the tapestry. They follow a trail of will o' the wisps to where Elinor was captured. Mérida fights Fergus to keep him from killing Elinor, until he is convinced when the three bear cubs help stop him, and he realizes they are his sons.

Suddenly Mor'du appears and attacks the soldiers and Fergus. Then he attempts to kill Mérida until Elinor breaks free from the ropes. She saves Mérida just in time and starts fighting Mor'du. After slamming Elinor into one of the stones, he turns to kill Mérida, who is holding up a spear against him, until Elinor pulls him back and smashes him against a cracked menhir, which then crushes him to death. A wisp of something rising from his body reveals the image of the prince, who nods to them as if in acknowledgement and gratitude and then disappears. As the sun starts to come up, Mérida realizes it is the second sunrise; she grabs the tapestry and throws it around Elinor, but realizes nothing's happening. Thinking she has failed, she tearfully hugs her mother and apologizes for everything and tells her she loves her. Then the tapestry seals itself around her clumsy stitches. She feels a human hand touching her hair and realizes Elinor is human again. Fergus comes and hugs his wife and daughter and kisses Elinor. Mérida reminds her she is naked under the tapestry and Fergus tells the lords not to look as the triplets, now human once again, come running naked and hugging their parents and sister.

Later, Mérida and Elinor are sewing a new tapestry together of Mérida and Elinor as a bear until they are called to the docks to say goodbye to the Lords. Then they both ride on their horses and journey around Scotland making their bond stronger than before.

Disney Parks
Currently, Mérida is a very common character to meet and greet at the various Disney parks. In the Magic Kingdom, she can be found at Fairytale Garden in Fantasyland. At Disneyland Park, she meets guests near the It's a Small World attraction. She is also seen sometimes at the World Showcase in Epcot.

Trivia

 * She is expected to join the Disney Princess franchise, making her the first ever Disney Princess to come from Pixar and the 11th Disney Princess in the franchise.
 * If Mérida joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the second Disney Princess with red hair (the first being Ariel from The Little Mermaid) and the third Disney Princess with blue eyes (the other two being Cinderella and Ariel).
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the second Disney Princess with freckles, the first being Rapunzel.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the 2nd computer animated princess the first being Rapunzel.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the first never to sing, with a small exception of one song she sings with her mother as a child, and with that song's lyrics being in a language other than English.
 * In fact, if she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the first whose film is not musical, though two of the songs will be sung by characters.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the second princess to have biological siblings. (Ariel being the first).
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, Mérida would be the first Disney/Pixar 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.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be 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.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the third princess to use a weapon (bow and arrow) in her feature film. Fa Mulan being the first in using a sword and fan and Rapunzel being the second in using a frying pan.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess Franchise, she will be the second princess to be trained with a bow and arrow, Fa Mulan being the first.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess Franchise, she will be the second princess to be raised by both of her biological parents for her entire current life, Fa Mulan being the first.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the only princess who isn't a Spell Card character in Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the third princess to be wearing a cape. Snow White being the first and Aurora being the second.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the fourth princess to have a horse companion. The others being Cinderella, Belle, and Fa Mulan.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, Mérida will be the fourth to be shown physically as a child in her feature film. Cinderella being the first, Tiana the second, and Rapunzel the third.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the second princess to have a parent physically transformed, Ariel being the first.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, Mérida will be the second princess to be visibly wounded (gets cut on her right arm by Elinor as a bear). The first being Fa Mulan (she was cut on her chest by Shan-Yu).
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, Mérida will be the first princess in a film in which the villain is killed by a parent.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess francise, Merida will be 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 Philip), 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 Kocoum).
 * If she joins the Disney princess franchise, she will be the first ever princess to not have a love interest.
 * Mérida is the first main protagonist to be a female in Pixar history.
 * Mérida is the third heroine/main 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.
 * The setting location for Mérida's story is the fifth specified after Belle (France), Pocahontas (Virginia, USA), Fa Mulan (China), and Tiana (Lousiana, 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.
 * Mérida is the third Pixar Princess after Atta and Dot in 1998 from A Bug's Life. However, she is the first human Pixar Princess.
 * Reese Witherspoon was originally casted to voice Mérida, but due to scheduling conflicts she was replaced by Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald.
 * Mérida 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.
 * Mérida has more than 1500 individually sculpted, red strands that generate about 111,700 total hairs.
 * If Mérida’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, Mérida has a total of 22 different costumes. She also has five different hairstyles.
 * Brenda Chapman came up with the concept of Mérida's character as a combination of one of her daughters and a friend.
 * Mérida 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.
 * Apparently Mérida and Young MacGuffin were going to be the "canon" couple, but then the film makers decided it would be better to leave her single.
 * DunBroch is thought to be set near Glencoe, Scotland.
 * Mérida is the third main character of a Pixar film not to have a love interest, the first being Sulley and the second being Remy.

Gallery
Merida