In her distinguished and highlight-filled career, photographer Annie Leibovitz has captured a lot of memorable images, and her work with Disney has been no different. Since 2007, Leibovitz has made magic with the Disney Dream Portraits series, with different entertainers stepping into iconic moments from the animation company’s past.. Plus, it’s got curls to spare. Released last month, her first but hopefully not last portrait of 2014 features actress Jessica Chastain taking aim with a bow and arrow as Merida from Pixar’s Brave. Not a good time to wear an apple as a hat.
Beyond the obvious similarities with the red hair, which looks so amazingly fluffy and comfortable atop Chastain’s head, the similarities of course extend to that time just before the actress broke out in 2011 when she had a run-in with that witch and she thought she was going to turn into a bear. It was on all the gossip sites... I think. Regardless, it’s a beautiful shot, with Angus the horse as silky and shiny as the heroine in the saddle. The cloudy sky really does it for me. Sunshine is for the birds. The ones that sing and do macramé.
The video below is a behind the scenes look at the shoot along with some verbal input from Leibovitz and Chastain. Some of the unused shots were just as great. I’ll have to see if she’s able to take a few photos of me as the Brave Little Toaster. I’m sure she’s not busy with anything else.
Her two portraits from 2013 featured Jennifer Hudson as The Princess and the Frog’s Tiana and Taylor Swift as Rapunzel from Tangled. As you can see below, they’re quite gorgeous in their own right…
…but we’ve seen these kinds of princesses in live action before. I guess the length of Rapunzel’s hair outweighs Merida’s bold red curls (both literally and figuratively), but I’d still prefer the ghoulishly atmospheric shot of Will Ferrell, Jack Black and Jason Segel as the Hitchhiking Ghosts from The Haunted Mansion. I’m really hoping for Louis C.K. as Prince Charming next.
