Brave co-director Brenda Chapman has hit out at Pixar for taking away her control of the film during production.

The project had originated with Chapman however at the beginning of 2011 the studio took the reins from her completely and handed them to Mark Andrews, who’d worked on The Incredibles and Ratatouille.

In an essay to the New York Times, the director said the story came from her heart, “inspired by my relationship with my daughter”. She described the movie being taken away from her as “devastating”.

“Animation directors are not protected like live-action directors, who have the Directors Guild to go to battle for them,” she wrote.

“We are replaced on a regular basis — and that was a real issue for me. This was a story that I created, which came from a very personal place, as a woman and a mother.

“To have it taken away and given to someone else, and a man at that, was truly distressing on so many levels.”

While she did point out that ultimately her “vision” remained in the film, she continued: “Sometimes women express an idea and are shot down, only to have a man express essentially the same idea and have it broadly embraced.

“Until there is a sufficient number of women executives in high places, this will continue to happen.”