Disney is consciously giving its female characters healthier body shapes to create women and girls "we can all identify with".

Following backlash about the long limbs and pencil-thin waists of Frozen characters Princess Anne and Elsa in the 2013 hit film, the latest Disney installment features a female lead with a much healthier-looking physique.

Moana, due to be released later this year, stars the eponymous heroine with a more realistic body shape than her Disney peers.

Osnat Shurer, the film’s producer, said it was "absolutely" a conscious decision to give her a more healthy shape.

"We are telling a `hero’s journey` story, so we wanted our hero to be able to be a hero," she told the Sunday Times.

"We just felt it was very important for her to be someone we can all identify with and she’s stunningly gorgeous."

The latest release tells the story of 16-year-old Moana, voiced by Auli’i Cravalho, 15, who is on a mission to save her island.

During her journey, the teenage adventurer meets the once-mighty demi-god Maui, who guides her in her quest to become a master way-finder.

Together they sail across the ocean on an action-packed voyage.

Shurer added that Moana also wouldn`t be subjected to the traditional romance storyline.

She added: "We decided early on to treat Moana as you would any hero and there just wasn’t room for that aspect in her life."

But the film, which hopes to mimic the success of Frozen after it took almost £1billion at the box office , has not completely avoided criticism.

The studio was forced to withdraw a full-body costume for the character of the Maui, played by Dwayne Johnson, that featured brown skin and traditional tattoos.

Critics argued it was inappropriate for a racial phenotype such as skin colour to be donned as a costume and slammed the use of traditional tattoos as disrespectful.

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