Today I have looked into character development. How the characters look and how it reflects who they are. I have looked at people in general as well as characters from stories. The protagonist in the Pixar animation 'Brave' Merida is a great example of how a character's appearance reflects their personality.
Merida is a princess yet she doesn't look like one. Her hair is fire red and uncontrollably wavy and frizzy which is a visual representation of her fiery personality and manner. The way she dresses aswell shows how she is by how she doesn't wear sophisticated garments like her mother, the Queen. It also shows how she is more like her father as he also has fire red hair and similar style of clothes to the ones her father wears.
There is also a scene where Merida's mother dresses her up in traditional medieval royal garments that a royal woman would wear. This scene highlights how different Merida and her mother really are by how comfortable and natural her mother looks compared to how uncomfortable Merida is in these type of clothes. The writers have created this to highlight the difference between Merida and her Mother which is a main part of the story and needs to be shown to tell it.
There's a part in these sequences of scenes where the Queen tucks in a lock of Merida's hair so she looks presentable, but when her mother is turned Merida pulls the wavy lock back out. This highlights how Merida's mother keeps trying to change her daughter yet Merida isn't having any of it.
