Brave. I loved it.

I took Peanut to her first big-girl movie. It was a Mummy-Daughter date of the most awesome kind.

We left Daddy and the baby sister at home, skipped nap time (!) and headed into the city. Medium popcorn, just-in-case bathroom trip before the film, and then my three year old was perched on a giant theater chair and ready to be enchanted.

And she was.

I don't think she moved an inch during the entire film.

I have to admit, I may have cried a little during the opening scenes. Not as a response to anything on screen, but out of joy and relief that there was finally a Disney movie I could take my impressionable daughter to see, without an under dressed, boy-crazy, marriage-chasing princess as the "heroine", or a suitably handsome rescuing Prince in sight. And (I don't want to spoil it for you) the heroine's marriage may be a plot point in the movie, but it's not the end point. Thank goodness.

Merida (the princess) is a wild haired, impudent girl who rides an enormous horse, knows her arrows from her arrowroots, and finds corsetry restrictive. I loved her.

But I especially loved how her relationship with her mother developed throughout the movie, as they each came to realise and appreciate the strengths of the other, and move from a directing mother - directed daughter relationship to one based on mutual  respect and admiration.

I hope that my relationship with my daughters can do the same, but hopefully without the intervention of a scatterbrained witch with a malfunctioning cauldron voice mail. Cause, you know, I like my witch's technology to work. Disney and Pixar have previously done some fantastic father son movies (Finding Nemo, for example) and it's great to see them successfully doing the same for mothers and daughters. Hopefully they will see that the format works, and make many more!

Get your kit sorted, lady!

Most importantly, I want Merida to come to my house and stay here, as a role model for my daughters. The split second this movie is available on DVD, I'm buying it. Tangled (the Rapunzel movie) is the only Disney Princess movie in our house at the moment, and already Peanut is spouting garbage about marriage and handsome princes. It's insidious, and it alarms me, but hopefully Brave will help me fight fire with fire, even if I bought the fire from the same shop!

But until the DVD arrives, Peanut and I will just keep on chatting over what happened ("She roded the horse! That was my favvite bit. She climb the waterfall! Acksually, that was my favvite bit too...") and eating our treats. Yup, because if you want to win the Mummy of the Year award, and spoil a kid who's been an absolute gem while her baby sister's been sick, don't leave anything to chance. After the movie, hit up the lolly shop. Let her pick one of EVERYTHING from the loose lolly bins (grand total, $3.20) and she'll be yours for life. Well, until you suggest it's bath time, anyway.

So, dear reader, if you have the spare cash and a few hours this week, I suggest you hit up the movies and watch Brave. Show the Hollywood studios that they can make good money in kids movies with strong, empowered female leads. And take your girls, so they get inspired. And take your sons, so they learn that strong willed, smart girls with crazy hair and good aim are heroes, too. You'll like it, I promise.

Now help me out, do you have any suggestions for other movies in the same vein, suitable for very young ladies? I'm not a big film buff, and I could use some advice!