Welcome to How to Be a Redhead 
By: Guest Writer, Lisa Ferreira
A Disney princess movie without a prince? Must be Pixar.
My seven-year-old son and I are both ‘gingers’ and attended the advanced screening of Brave, a movie featuring a tremendous amount of redheads. Not quite as emotionally wrenching as past Pixar treasures like UP or WALL-E, but Brave still had me tearing up.
Just as Finding Nemo is a wonderful father movie, Brave is a wonderful mother movie. The story was surprising and touching, the scenery beautiful and lush and it made me want to Visit Scotland the same way The Lord of the Rings made me want to visit New Zealand.
Ariel has always been my favorite Disney princess, but it always bothered me that she “went Sandy for Danny.” Ariel completely gave up her life, her family, and her oxygen-from-water ways for a hot guy. Yes, Prince Eric was dreamy, but he also almost married an octopus.
Merida is a different kind of redhead. Although Brave is set in a time long ago, she’s much more modern. She has many traits I identify with as she’s strong-willed, stubborn, fiery-tempered, and blunt.
Ariel’s time is over – there’s a new redhead in town who doesn’t want to give up anything for a prince.
Also, Merida’s strong character traits makes Brave more than a princess movie and it’s evident because my son never balked at this movie. The immense redhead representation may have helped (Merida’s father, & her triplet brothers are also redheads), but he wouldn’t even be comfortable holding a lavender popcorn bucket with Rapunzel on it.
And that hair! Merida’s glorious hair! I’ve never had such severe curl envy and I suddenly feel like my natural red hair is pretty dull in comparison. I predict Merida wigs will be all over the place this Halloween and I guarantee her shade of bright orange-red may start to become a huge summer/fall hair trend. Hey, maybe she’ll even bring perms back.
I give the movie 5 stars and can’t wait for you (redheads) all to see it!
