Preach! I agree with everything you've written here. We deliberately seek out movies and books with bold, confident heroines in the lead.

We also liked Disney's The Princess and the Frog because you see how hard Tiana works in pursuit of her dream of opening a restaurant. Heroines with goals other than marrying a prince are worth celebrating!

My girls enjoyed watching Drew Barrymore's version of Cinderella, "Ever After." In her version, the character is much feistier and there's a wonderful scene where she bargains with a group of thieves that she can walk away with anything she can carry. They agree, thinking she would just grab the fancy dress, but she picks up the prince and throws him over her shoulder. We all laughed out loud!