"Dear Pixar"

This almost made me cry - I loved this "letter" about movies and girls. Here's an excerpt:

. . . I don't like to make movies political, especially kids' movies, if I can help it. Sometimes a princess is just a princess and should be taken as such.

At the same time, little Russell, in Up, is Asian-American, right? And that's not a big plot point; presumably, he just is because there's no particular reason he shouldn't be. You don't need him to be, but you don't need him not to be, either. It's not politics; it's just seeing the whole big world.

Well, the whole big world has a lot of little girls in it, too. And not all of them are princesses -- and the ones who are princesses have plenty of movies to watch.

And even many of them who do aspire to be princesses are mixing their princess tendencies with all manner of other delicious things. Their tiaras fall off when they skin their knees running at top speed; they get fingerpaint on their pink dresses; they chip their front teeth chasing each other in plastic high-heeled shoes.

There's nothing wrong with the movies you're making; I'm sure your princess movie will be my favorite one ever. I'm just saying, keep them in mind, those girls in Band-Aids, because they want to see themselves on screen doing death-defying stunts, too.

ADDENDUM

I saw the movie, Up, this weekend with the kids. I liked it a lot, it's very poignant, but the themes (e.g., death and unfulfilled dreams) are awfully adult for a kids' movie. As several people said, it's very sad, much more so than in it's promotional campaign - I felt a little mislead (like I did with Marley and Me).