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Does Pixar Have a Problem Creating Good Female Characters?

Posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta

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Does Pixar have a gender problem? A blog called Vast Public Indifference thinks so, claiming that the Emmeryville computer animation studio doesn’t have any good women characters as the central protagonists in their stories. Caitlin GD Hopkins claims that most of Pixar’s female characters are “helpers, love interests, and moral compasses to the male characters whose problems, feelings, and desires drive the narratives.” I highly recommend reading Hopkins’ rant as she examines each and every Pixar film, one by one, even taking a look at the studio’s future projects.

Does Pixar have a problem with creating strong female protagonists? I’m a Pixar fanatic and this is a question that has never even occured to me. I would like to think that Hellen/Elasticgirl and Violet were well rounded female characters in Brad Bird’s The Incredibles, and you could argue that WALL-E’s EVE is both smart and strong. While she is the romantic love interest of the film’s title robot, EVE is a driving force within the story, many levels above Dory from Finding Nemo or Ratatouille’s only female lead, Colette.

But I do see the point — why does Remy have to be a male rat anyways? Or as someone quickly pointed out in the comments, would that then open the argument up to perpetuating a stereotype by making a female the one who is good at cooking. It might have been more interesting if Linguini was a woman.  Heck, even Colette said that it’s harder for a female to make it in the kitchen.

Discuss: Does Pixar Have a Problem Creating Good Female Characters?

via: Kottke

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  • Ben
    Non-issue.

    Next.
  • it's a non-issue for you but it's a big damn deal for many young females who are easily influenced by TV and movies.
  • Chadams
    Because "young females that are easily influenced by TV and movies" are the ones bringing up the issue with Pixar? Saying they're influenced is a similarly reductive statement in itself.
  • Credendo
    So then you're equally outraged by the stereotype in practically every sitcom in existence that has the husband as a bumbling buffoon who screws up everything because he doesn't listen to his wife right? Face it, in stories there are standard archetypes that are used by Pixar and every other good storyteller whose audience is child focused to make the story appealing. One of those is the love interest.
  • Nan
    Um, that's hardly "every sitcom in existence". It's a more recent trend, kiddo.
  • COsby-fan
    That would be where you would be wrong. It is EVERY SITCOM IN EXISTENCE with the notable exception of the Cosby Show.
  • Yeah, sorry "kiddo", but from the Honeymooners/Flintstones it's been a trend.
  • Bennay
    It's amazing how stupid and immature men are, next.
  • EVE was probably their strongest female lead, and although she was a robot she had emotions and such that mad her a strong character. But what I would agree with is that they have a problem in making a LEAD female character, with a story based solely on a female character.
  • EASports0003
    True, and the princess in "A Bug's Life" also played an important role in the plot along with the other females in the bug circus. I don't think it's a problem, it's just something to notice. If young women are actually negatively influenced by a few animated female characters and their lack of connection to the plot, then they have a few other things to worry about as well.
  • Trev
    lol femenists...
  • B
    "Lol" Loser.
  • jason B
    i like to think that writers simply write what's inside of them. and when situations are forced, just because its the PC or 'fair' thing to do, that that's when massive problems occur. so whichever writers wrote the various pixar scripts just didn't have a leading female character inside of them, and that's why the stories went the way they did.

    but now with hopkin's article, and the inevitable internet windfall to follow will be everywhere, do we have a forced female lead to eventually look forward to?

    i say let em continue to create what's inside of them. others will create the female leads that deserve to be out there, but it's not pixar's job to do anything other than what naturally comes to them.
  • Angela
    I know where you're coming from. Especially in a creativity-based industry, things like numbers of strong female characters shouldn't be forced. But at the same time, I think Hollywood (and the blogosphere) could do more to encourage female writers, directors, etc, to create better female characters.
  • I understand all that, but the point I am trying to make is similar to arguments of many others. What characters are developed basiclly runs down to who you are. If you are a white male american, you don't think about making an original character a Mongolian. We make the characters we are familiar with, and at this time, most of Pixar is comprised of males.
  • BagofTricks
    It seems like a huge underestimation of writers, directors, and animators and a pretty big insult to imply, like many are here, that people can only create authentic characters that are of their same race and gender. I would like to strongly disagree with that. Even if it were true, it has a simple solution, hire more people who aren't white guys.
  • Sorry, to long. Anyways...

    Pixar has never had an African American character, which represents a huge population of America. I'm not saying that white people (or any race or gender) can't make good characters different from them, it's just that we go to what we are familiar with. Some can make good female characters (James Cameron) but some cannot. And just pushing a female lead into a role just to promote pundints is not right. Take the time to develop characters, even if they are all males. It doesn't matter, as long as the characters work and are real developed, I'm not complaining. And I do think Pixar's female characters are well developed. Are they the central point in the movie? No. Are they ESSENTIAL to the stories? Yes. Imagine Finding Nemo without Dory. Or Wall-E without EVE. It just wouldn't work. And now my rant is down.
  • JavaJunkie
    So you're not counting Frozone?
  • Oh my god I did! I forgot about Sam Jackson. I have to repent. I feel like a major idiot. Take that last part back.

    Although you can probably say that he wasn't exactly a main character and strong, he was just the best friend. Which is kind of the point we were making about females. But I do love the Zone. My mistake.
  • Angela
    And I completely agree with you--my point is that there aren't enough women (or generally, those who can create genuinely good female characters) in filmmaking.
  • I agree too.
  • My thoughts exactly.
  • adamgal
    There's really nothing to force. Just take any male charcter the writers wrote, and give the script to a college student with the instructions to change all the pronouns to female and voila! you have a female character. The problem is that people are convinced its not that simple, that just changing a male charcter to a female character without changing essential details is like doing the same with a human character and some incomprehensible alien life form.
  • Discuss: Can people spin an argument out of just about anything?

    Seriously guys, I think Elastigirl, Violet and EVE derail this question. I wouldn't put Dory out of it either - she's easily the most recognizable character in Finding Nemo.

    Where's our strong female superheros? Dreamworks, why haven't you made a female-oriented CG film? Diana Jones and The Lost Continent?

    Oh, that's right - because young teenage/adult males make up the majority of movie going audiences.
  • I'm waiting for a female superhero movie to get off the ground, too. I really hope that DC pull their shit together and make a Wonder Woman movie.

    guess what? male audiences will gladly go see a strong female lead in an action film. Example? Lara Croft and Resident Evil were hugely popular franchises.
  • Mark
    Especially superhero movies with female leads had disastrous box office results (Catwoman, Elektra, Aeon Flux). Granted those movies were bad, but male superhero movies tend to be much more successful even if they are incredibly bad (Ghost Rider?). Female superhero movies can work, but it's a greater risk for the studio. Eventually we will probably see a Wonder Woman movie, but if that one doesn't work this sub-genre is done for quite some time.
  • Ceph
    How about Uma Thurman in 'My Super Ex-Girlfriend'? Does she count?
  • I'll beg to differ about that last statement.

    There are just as many women at the cinema as men. I'm not saying they always go to the same movies but they are there just as much.

    A female oriented CG film? For the most part they are pretty much family affairs. Especially the Pixar stuff.
  • FreedomPopular
    I'm pretty sure this isn't a phenonmenon exclusive to Pixar. Most Films in general don't treat women as leads in the story.
  • kabraz
    well if remy WAS a female character would we have to explain why we have a female character cooking?
  • Nan
    No, not really. It might have actually strengthened the story - there is still a very real gender bias AGAINST females becoming master chefs. Making the lead a girl would've been completely normal and realistic.
  • Good point. What about Linguini? It seems to me that having Linguini as a female might have been the better way to go in this argument.
  • Love articles like this. Will definitely give it a read.
  • Angrybroomstick is going to be alllll over this post
  • haha, you got that right.
  • lpfanaddy
    why does it matter? lessons can be learned by male and female characters from male or female characters. And each gender can be entertained by the other. I agree with the first post, non-issue.
  • this is very true. DISNEY have had a better history of creating female leads in animated movies way better than Pixar, which is kind of surprising, considering that Pixar seems more "progressive" in terms of CGI and ideas in their movies. Disney had Pocahontas (who falls flat because she's really just there for romance and love bullshit), Ariel (another bullshit character who's there to give up everything for a stupid prince), and Princess Jasmine (once again, another object of affection for a guy).

    the only really STRONG Disney female character I can think of right now would be Mulan, who gave up everything to fight for her country, but they had to go and ruin it by adding a love interest to the story. Blah.

    I'll argue that EVE from Wall-E is a strong, solid female lead because she is assertive, strong, and independent. But she falls flat, because the movie is not about her, it's about the male robot.
  • Umby
    Can robots have gender?
  • well, the movie assigned genders to both robots...
  • Did you not see Kane's "appendage" in Robocop 2?
  • Angela
    You could argue that Belle is a strong character. She likes reading (which is nothing short of SHOCKING in a Disney film), bitches out the beast, chauvinistic (sp?) Gaston, and is unapologetic. Of course, you could make the argument that she is a stereotypical "moral compass/love interest" character.
  • You also forgot Lilo from Lilo & Stitch. Both her and her sister are very strong female lead characters. Not to mention them tackling the parent-less issue in the movie.

    That is a good point. Disney does use women way more often. They also make good female villains which I have always loved.
  • lilo and stitch wasn't pixar though... i think they were just pointing out pixar. but yeah lilo was a great character. all their non computer animated films, do have relatively strong characters.
  • I never thought about either, I guess because I'm a male I don't tend to look at that or even register it. I would watch a pixar movie no matter male or female lead but now after seeing this article they should make one with a strong female lead. I do not think they did this on purpose, being an animator myself it seems like there is more male than female working in this industry
  • I concur. As a male, the thought never occurred to me. But I do think that nearly every female in Pixar movies have been strong, smart, confident characters. Well, maybe not Little Bo-Peep...
  • jobless
    it is much easier to make male characters relatable to movie going audiences than female characters, especially when they are animated. i also think that people would be more angry if there was a male rat controlling the actions of a female the way that remy did to linguini. so yeah, maybe pixar doesnt make their main characters female, but you have to admit that females are integral in making their stories. except for maybe up.. we'll see though
  • I see the argument, but I hardly understand the point. The basic plots/characters for the 9 Pixar films were thought up by a handful of individuals, almost all men (or maybe all men, I don't know). Men are generally better at writing about male characters.

    Do they have a problem with creating good female characters? As stated in the comments above, no. There are some good examples in their films.

    Is it an issue? No. They're free to write whatever stories and make whatever movies they want with whatever characters they want, whether they be male, female, transgender, or whatever.

    For anyone complaining that Pixar should have more female leads in their movies, sit down and shut up. They don't answer to you. They answer to their own imaginations.
  • dvva
    What I think the article fails to mention is how important these female characters serve the story. To give The Incredibles only a 5/10 when Elasti-Girl is the one to go and SAVE the man (her husband) who got captured. Usually, it's the other way around.

    In most of these cases; EVE, Sally and Colette are actually smarter and stronger than their male counterparts. Shouldn't it be about QUALITY and not QUANTITY, anyway?
  • As, I assume, you remind everyone in any conversation on the subject.

    P.S. It's spelled feminist to *everyone*. Please be condescending and insulting correctly.
  • I agree with you completely, but I think what shes saying is that Eve, Sally and Colette only serve to help the male lead to get to their goal
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