In many animated films in the 21st century, it’s likely that a token strong female character who reviewers will call “feisty" will show up.

They are often the best friend of the main male star of a film. Sometimes, they may even have some commentary about sexism or male domination. She may be brave, smart, or strong, but her purpose is to help the male character on his quest, even if the main cast s gender equal.

They are often the Tsundere.

This trope is essentially a more modern take on the Smurfette Principle in that he Token Girl is feisty or an Action Girl as opposed to being The Chick or playing any other traditionally submissive gender role.

The Unfortunate Implication comes from works, usually those from Disney/Pixar or Dreamworks, that have so magnanimously thrown in a feisty female character. the implication is that because the work has added a feisty female character, that we’re no longer supposed to care that almost all of the other characters in the film are male, including the star who the movie is often titled for. The crowd scenes in the film are also made up of mostly males.

Minority in the large, broad sociological lens refers to a part of the population that is treated as one by society, even if it is not a minority per se. For example, women are slightly over half the population, yet they are treated as a minority to men. Basically, in Western countries, if you are not born a white heterosexual male, you are a minority. That means that ladies, gays, and trans are minorities, too.

Related to Smurfette Principle. Can be part of Two Girls To A Team. Compare and contrast Smurfette Breakout.

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Examples:

Discussions

• The curse of the Minority Feisty female in kids movies, a blogpost on the blog, Reel Girl, talks about this trope.

Film

• Astrid in How To Train Your Dragon a strong female character who is best friends with the male lead character Hiccup.
• Jessie from ToyStory 2 is a strong female character who is best friends with the male lead characters, Woody and Buzz and is part of a mostly male crowd.
• Colette from Ratatouille is the only female chef in the restaurant and talks about how sexist or male dominated the culinary profession is.
• Chel from The Road To El Dorado certainly fits, being a sexy sarcastic burglar in a story featuring almost exclusively male characters: the two protagonists, the priest (foe), and the king (ally).

Video Games

• In Universe, in the Mass Effect series, Nyreen Kandros is the only resident of Omega who dares to stand up to its uncrowned queen Aria T'Loak--and gets to keep her life. Because Aria admittedly likes it when she's feisty.

Western Animation

• Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars:The Clone Wars one is a feisty who is best friend of the male lead and she is an apprentice.