Pixar’s first female director removed

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Brenda Chapman, the first woman to direct a Pixar Animation film, has been removed from ‘Brave,’ a person familiar with the matter confirmed.

The director has been replaced by Mark Andrews, who co-directed the Pixar short ‘One Man Band,’ the blog Cartoon Brew reported.

Directorial shakeups are nothing new in animation: Indeed, Pixar creative head John Lasseter has stepped in as director for ‘Cars 2.’ What makes this significant is that Chapman, who worked as a writer on such Disney animated films as ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘The Lion Kng,’ was the first woman to direct a Pixar film, after 11 projects were helmed by male directors -- and focused on male protagonists.

‘Brave,’ previously titled ‘The Bear and the Bow,’ is the story of a Scottish princess, Merida, who decides to persue her interest in archery but inadvertently puts her father’s kingdom, and her mother’s life, risk.

-- Dawn Chmielewski