Feminists

the cut of the dress has gone from an ordinary kirtle style to an off-the-shoulder ballgown with cleavage (and a flashy gold trim to draw attention to said cleavage), not in keeping with the character's personality. The bow and arrows- i.e. weapons i.e. power symbols- have been removed completely, and instead of the quiver of arrows she has a fashionable, waistline-enhancing belt- also not in keeping with the character, since her archery was important to her. The figure has been changed to give her a narrower Barbie waistline. The forehead has been raised, the eyes slanted, the hairline altered and the hair restyled to make her look much older than the original character's 16 years.

Merida was/is unique in the Disney lineup in that she did not have a romantic interest, and was not married off at the end of the movie. She was a tomboy. The new rendering is not Merida, it's Scottish Barbie. I suspect they were trying to bring her visual more in line with the rest of the looking-for-marriage Disney girlies, but it goes directly against what the character represented. This is important because the target audience for "Brave" are tween girls and younger, and the message this sends to a girl that age is that just being plain you isn't good enough- you've got to have the sexy and the glitz, and give up the "boy" interests in favor of fitting in with the crowd. It's hard enough to be a young tomboy with a lot of traditionally "boy" interests without having that message thrown at you. There are already plenty of glitzy princesses; this character was intended to reach the girls who aren't into that, and she needs to be left the way she is.