Disney has been forced to remove a "glammed-up" version of Princess Merida from the Pixar fantasy fairytale Brave from its official website following a high-profile campaign.

Red-headed teenage tomboy Merida had been given a makeover in advance of her induction into the Disney Princess collection, rendering the character slimmer, older and somewhat sexualised in comparison with her appearance in 2012's Oscar-winning animation. More than 200,000 people signed a Change.org petition calling on the studio to return the character to her more realistic origins and the redesign was also criticised by Merida's Oscar-winning creator Brenda Chapman.

While Disney has not officially announced a U-turn, the creator of the Change.org petition says "glam" Merida has gone missing from the Disney Princesses website after being officially inducted at Disney World last weekend.

"Numerous supporters have written to us to share the news that the new makeover version of Merida is no longer appearing on Disney.com," wrote Carolyn Danckaert of the website A Mighty Girl.

Chapman, who was replaced by Mark Andrews halfway through the production of Brave but maintained a co-director's credit, described the new Merida as "atrocious" in an interview with her local newspaper, the Marin Independent Journal.

"When little girls say they like it because it's more sparkly, that's all fine and good but, subconsciously, they are soaking in the sexy 'come-hither' look and the skinny aspect of the new version," Chapman said. "It's horrible. Merida was created to break that mould," she added. "To give young girls a better, stronger role model, a more attainable role model; something of substance, not just a pretty face that waits around for romance."

A Disney spokesperson said that the design was always intended to be a one-off: "The artwork used on Merida's official social media sites has always been the imagery from the movie. We routinely use different art styles with our characters and this rendition of Merida in her party dress was a special one-time effort to commemorate her coronation."

Disney bought Pixar, the makers of the Toy Story films, in 2006 with the smaller firm's John Lasseter taking over as creative head of both studios. The Pixar influence was immediately seen in a new wave of Disney CGI features such as 2008's Bolt and this year's Wreck-It Ralph, which abandoned the musical style for a fresher approach. However, the Merida furore suggests there remains a disconnect between the two studios that makes integration of Pixar characters into the Disney universe a troublesome proposition.