Blue Fairy

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The Blue Fairy is a fictional character in Carlo Collodi's classic novel Pinocchio. She repeatedly appears at critical moments in Pinocchio's wanderings to admonish the little wooden puppet to avoid bad or risky behavior. Although the naively willful and impulse-driven humanoid marionette initially resists her good advice, he somehow finds it within himself at last to follow her rightful instruction, albeit a bit reluctantly at first go. She in turn eventually rewards him for his well-acquired and genuine goodness by enabling his transformation into a real, flesh-and-blood human boy and becomes a mother figure to him.

She is not actually referred to as the "Blue Fairy" in the original story (this occurred first in Walt Disney's film), but either as the "Fairy" (or "my Fairy" as Pinocchio comes to speak of her) or the "Lovely Maiden with Azure Hair" [in Italian, Bambina dai capelli turchini]. She is sometimes also referred to by her name, Canpenella. Also, in the story, she does not bring him to life (unlike the Disney adaptation). Rather, Pinocchio comes to life on his own; indeed, the piece of wood he is carved from is already alive and can even speak. The Fairy comes into the story later (Chapter 15, to be precise), first politely turning him away from her house, then intervening to save Pinocchio from death by hanging (Chapter 16). The Blue Fairy was not a part of the first publication of the story, which did not end happily, but was added later as the story was expanded.

In the Disney film, the Blue Fairy appoints Jiminy Cricket as Pinocchio's official conscience. Disney's twist on Collodi's classic plot positions Jiminy Cricket to "steal the show" through numerous lyric and comic interludes. In the film, the Fairy appears as a more divine, less vulnerable figure than in the book.

The Disney version of the Blue Fairy was featured as a guest in House of Mouse.

[edit] Appearance in A.I.:Artificial Intelligence

In Steven Spielberg's 2001 movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001), the Blue Fairy (voiced by Meryl Streep) appears as a plot MacGuffin. The main character, David, a robotic child played by Haley Joel Osment, believes that the Blue Fairy has the power to turn him into a real boy. It also appears in the form of the Coney Island statue of the Blue Fairy, which David mistakes for a real blue fairy.