But how are the female characters getting shafted? In Bug's Life, okay, maybe, but other female Pixar characters are a strong, driven woman that clawed into an incredibly tough business that women traditionally aren't a part of (Ratatouille), a goofy character that none-the-less manages to get the main character through HALF of the things he goes through the movie (Finding Nemo--I don't think Marlin would've made it without Dory). What if the genders were switched?
Ratatouille: A clumsy, nervous, self-concious female dishwasher pretends to be able to cook when she needs the help of a rat to really do it. She falls for the hard-working, jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold chef who has nobody's help to get to where he was, and in fact had to beat the odds to become a chef. When she inherits her father's business, she's hopelessly out of her element and leans on her boyfriend and rat friend to help her keep afloat.
It would've been worse if Linguini was a girl, don't you think? Remy being a girl would've been fine, but then...she would've been a chef, right? A woman who wants to cook food! Groundbreaking! Of course, there's the fact that women as chefs in that sort of fancy restaurant is rare, so in that sense it WOULD be groundbreaking--but he's already a rat, already has a difficult time breaking into the career he wants. Colette being a separate character to show how women also have a difficult time breaking into that business worked better.
How is Colette (or the female cast members of The Incredibles, or Dory, even) not a strong character? How are these bad roles for female characters to have? Are we REALLY going to whine about the fact that the female characters don't get a bunch of spotlights shining down on them all the time? That's not equality. That's filling a quota to make people happy. I'd rather see female characters fall naturally into roles rather then pull out a stopwatch and compare how much screen time they have, personally.
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Ratatouille: A clumsy, nervous, self-concious female dishwasher pretends to be able to cook when she needs the help of a rat to really do it. She falls for the hard-working, jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold chef who has nobody's help to get to where he was, and in fact had to beat the odds to become a chef. When she inherits her father's business, she's hopelessly out of her element and leans on her boyfriend and rat friend to help her keep afloat.
It would've been worse if Linguini was a girl, don't you think? Remy being a girl would've been fine, but then...she would've been a chef, right? A woman who wants to cook food! Groundbreaking! Of course, there's the fact that women as chefs in that sort of fancy restaurant is rare, so in that sense it WOULD be groundbreaking--but he's already a rat, already has a difficult time breaking into the career he wants. Colette being a separate character to show how women also have a difficult time breaking into that business worked better.
How is Colette (or the female cast members of The Incredibles, or Dory, even) not a strong character? How are these bad roles for female characters to have? Are we REALLY going to whine about the fact that the female characters don't get a bunch of spotlights shining down on them all the time? That's not equality. That's filling a quota to make people happy. I'd rather see female characters fall naturally into roles rather then pull out a stopwatch and compare how much screen time they have, personally.