It is a truth universally acknowledged that a great character does not need to be a good role model. Stories require conflict, and in order to be compelling, that conflict should come from the flawed people within them. But when the character in question is in a children's story, conversation takes a turn. If we tell stories to children to impart moral lessons, and the protagonist of such a story isn't someone to admire, has the storyteller failed? Disney has been grappling with this question for decades, perhaps its entire existence, because Disney is a brand. They don't just tell stories, but also market the characters in those stories as aspirational to children and admirable to parents with money to spend.
In the years that followed the wildly successful Disney Renaissance, online discourse took a razor-sharp critique to their lineup of protagonists as a series of think pieces separated wheat from chaff, "good role model" from failure. As a result, certain characters have been weighed, measured and found wanting. Perhaps the most chastised has been "The Little Mermaid" protagonist Ariel, called anti-feminist because, of course, as many point out, "She gives up her voice for a man."
