I was thinking of this quote, which most of you have probably heard by now- link I think most filmmakers do because they know that's what a lot of the audience wants. so because of this they tend to skimp out on making some really good, well rounded heroines. Disney has it pretty bad especially. They know it's best to play it safe so they don't really make many organic-feeling characters anymore.

Even though this example isn't from an animated movie, I think Snow White in Snow White and The Huntsman is a perfect example of this. Okay, first of all, I wanna make it clear that even though I'm not a Kristen Stewart fan, I also never got on the hate bandwagon like everyone else did. I think she's a good actress and just plays some really badly written characters, this being one of them. They were so focused on trying to make her character a badass character that is the one who will save everyone that they forgot to make her interesting or even give her a personality. Same can be said about characters like Anna, Elsa, Astrid (in the first film that is) and whatever the name of that chick from The Book of Life was.

One thing I think a lot of people don't understand is that a heroine doesn't have be "a tough tomboy who kicks butt" in order to be "strong". She can be feminine/ girly and still be a "strong" heroine.

Yeah, Hollywood seems to be infected with this, live-action and animation wise. We either have the Marias, the Astrids, the MKs- the strong independent woman who lashes out at anyone who talks at her, or we have damsels.

I agree with everyone who commented above.

It's like a disease

And often, that is the ONLY criteria filmmakers feel they need to fill for writing their one token female character as a result. As long as she looks and acts tough, they don't need to put any more effort into her personality, interests, quirks, character development, existence outside the man they almost always make her fall in love with (even if they have no chemistry and nothing in common), and so on.

^ That.

Definitely!! Agree with Tygers_Eye