I will spare you the grisly details, but this irrational fear began when I was an 11-year-old kid in Vancouver and was scarred by a horrific incident involving (a) a huge spaghetti dinner and (b) a spleen-rending ride on the huge roller-coaster at the Pacific National Exhibition. In the end, it worked out, and I’m very proud of the movie, and that I ultimately stood up for myself, just like Merida, the protagonist in “Brave.This article was published (4861 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.Ĥ44I believe if God intended for humans to enjoy midway rides we would have been born with a corn dog in one hand, an air-sickness bag in the other, and wearing a sturdy pair of adult diapers. So I kept my head held high, stayed committed to my principles, and was supported by some strong women (and men!). It simply wouldn’t have worked without it (and didn’t at one point), and I knew this at my core. But in the end, my vision came through in the film.

To have it taken away and given to someone else, and a man at that, was truly distressing on so many levels. This was a story that I created, which came from a very personal place, as a woman and a mother. We are replaced on a regular basis - and that was a real issue for me. Animation directors are not protected like live-action directors, who have the Directors Guild to go to battle for them. When Pixar took me off of “Brave” - a story that came from my heart, inspired by my relationship with my daughter - it was devastating. It has been a heartbreakingly hard road for me over the last year and a half. In a New York Times op-ed, she spoke about the experience: This hardly comes as a surprise, but she wasn’t happy with what happened during the production, though she admits to being proud of the results. Now that Brenda Chapman is no longer an employee of Pixar, she is speaking out for the first time about being removed as the director of Brave.

Brave heart cartoon