Good lord, I love that headline so much I just had to repeat it. And now you simply must read the article! Here’s a snippet to entice you:
I have nothing against princesses. I have nothing against movies with princesses. But don’t the Disney princesses pretty much have us covered? If we had to wait for your thirteenth movie for you to make one with a girl at the center, couldn’t you have chosen something — something — for her to be that could compete with plucky robots and adventurous space toys?
Or more to the point, why couldn’t your first female central character be as specifically drawn as the women and girls (and girl robots, etc.) you’re already writing as secondary characters? Ratatouille has a chef! WALL-E has Eve! The Incredibles has superheroes!
And Up…oh, Up has Ellie, who I could have watched forever. Seen only in flashbacks to the main story, Ellie is warm and hilarious, ambitious and fearless, and then gone for most of the movie. She provides the engine for the story, in many ways, but it’s an old man and a little boy who actually get to hit the gas.
Hat tip: Feministing.
(And yes, I loved Up too.)
Broke Hoedown 
That was a great article. I have always seen the Pixar movies to be the boys answer to the all the Princess stuff at the parks. Sure Disney is pushing the Pirates, but it seems that it is the Pixar stuff that really boy market.