| Tinker Bell | |
|---|---|
| Peter Pan character | |
Tinker Bell (2005, bronze) by Diarmuid Byron O'Connor |
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| First appearance | Peter Pan (1904) |
| Created by | J. M. Barrie |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Tink |
| Species | Fairy |
| Gender | Female |
| Title | Tinker Fairy |
| Significant other(s) | Peter Pan |
| Nationality | Neverland |
Tinker Bell (sometimes spelled as Tinkerbell, also referred to as Tink for short), is a fictional character from J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and its 1911 novelization Peter and Wendy. She has appeared in multiple film and television adaptations of the Peter Pan stories, in particular the 1953 animated Walt Disney picture Peter Pan. She also appears in the official sequel Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean and commissioned by Great Ormond St Hospital as well as the "Peter and the Starcatchers" book series by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry. At first only a supporting character described by her creator as "a common fairy", her animated incarnation was a hit and has since become a widely recognized unofficial mascot of The Walt Disney Company, and the centerpiece of its Disney Fairies media franchise including the direct-to-DVD film series Tinker Bell. In her animated form she leaves a trail of twinkling pixie dust.
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Tinker Bell was described by Barrie as a fairy who mended pots and kettles, like an actual tinker.[1] Her speech consists of the sounds of a tinkling bell, which is understandable only to those familiar with the language of the fairies. In the original stage productions, she was represented on stage by a darting light "created by a small mirror held in the hand off-stage and reflecting a little circle of light from a powerful lamp"[2] and her voice was a "a collar of bells and two special ones that Barrie brought from Switzerland".[3] However, a Miss 'Jane Wren' was listed among the cast on the programmes as playing Tinker Bell: this was a joke which also helped with the mystique of the fairy character, as well as fooled HM Inspector of Taxes who sent Jane Wren a tax demand.[3]
Though sometimes ill-tempered, spoiled, and very jealous [4] and vindictive (getting the Lost Boys to shoot arrows at Wendy),[5] at other times she is helpful and kind to Peter. The extremes in her personality are explained in-story by the fact that a fairy's size prevents her from holding more than one feeling at a time, so when she is angry she has no counterbalancing compassion. Fairies cannot fly in the rain but can enable others to fly by sprinkling them with fairy dust (sometimes called "pixie dust" by Disney, and presented as "starstuff" in Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's novel series).[6] At the end of the novel the suggestion is that Tinker Bell has died the year after Wendy and the Darlings leave Neverland, and Peter has no memory of her at all.
Tinker Bell makes a come back in the official sequel Peter Pan in Scarlet. When Wendy and the rest of the group reach Neverland and ask Peter where she is, he replies that he does not know anyone by the name Tinker Bell (explained by the fact that he does not remember her after she died). She is mentioned by Wendy and the rest of the Lost Boys to Fireflyer, a silly blue fairy, who when he reaches the top of Neverpeak, makes the wish to meet her. When they open Captain Hook's treasure chest, among other things, Tinker Bell is seen inside it to Fireflyer's joy. Initially, Tinker Bell does not like him, but eventually she comes to see that Fireflyer is not as bad as he seems to be. In the end, they get married and start selling dreams to pirates, while having many adventures.
In Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's Peter and the Starcatchers book series, Tinker Bell makes her first appearance at the end of the first novel. Originally, she was a green and yellow coloured bird who was put in a bag of starstuff, turning her into a fairy. Molly's father, the famous starcatcher Lord Leonard Aster, made her Peter's guardian and she follows him on all of his adventures. She doesn't like being called a fairy and would much rather be called "birdwoman" because of her origins. She is very protective of Peter, and hates his paying attention to any other female. She can be very impolite to others (only Peter is able to understand her perfectly, and most of the times does not reveal what she says about others, because it is mostly insults). She is also able to emit a very bright light, which she uses as an attack against other creatures, especially Lord Ombra, one of the main villains of the series.
In the famous Mary Martin musical version of the play, which opened on Broadway in 1954 and was first televised in 1955, Tinker Bell was represented by a darting light, as on stage, accompanied by bell-like sounds. Her favorite insult was "You silly ass!", which the audience watching the production eventually learns to recognize because it is always represented by the same group of sounds - four bell-like notes (one for each syllable of the phrase, presumably), followed by a growl on the bassoon.
Film adaptations provided the first vocal effects for the character, whether through sound—such as musical expressions or the sound of a tinkling bell—or human speech. She was played by Virginia Browne Faire in Herbert Brenon's 1924 version of Peter Pan, Julia Roberts in 1991's Hook, and by Ludivine Sagnier in P.J. Hogan's 2003 adaptation, which originally planned to use a computer-generated version of the character, but instead used Sagnier in combinations with digital models and effects to take advantage of the actress's expressions. Tinker Bell was voiced by Debi Derryberry in the 1990 Fox animated program Peter Pan and the Pirates, and by Sumi Shimamoto in the 1989 anime series Peter Pan no Boken.
In her most widely known appearance in the 1953 animated Peter Pan film, the character was animated and had no dialogue. Tinker Bell has been one of Disney's most important branding icons for over half a century, and is generally known as "a symbol of 'the magic of Disney'."[7] She has been featured in television commercials and program opening credits sprinkling pixie dust with a wand in order to shower a magical feeling over various other Disney personalities, though the 1953 animated version of Tinker Bell never actually used a wand. In the picture and the official Disney Character Archives, she is referred to as a pixie. She is also featured in the opening of all Disney films flying over the Magic Castle (in a counter-clockwise direction, right to left).
There is an urban legend that the original animated version of Tinker Bell was modelled after Marilyn Monroe. However, Disney animator Marc Davis's reference was actress Margaret Kerry.[6][8] He illustrated Tinker Bell as a young, attractive, blonde haired, big blue eyed, white female, with an exaggerated hour-glass figure. She is clad in a short lime-green dress with a rigid trim, and green slippers with white puffs. She is trailed by small amounts of pixie dust when she moves, and this dust can help humans fly if they believe in happy thoughts. Some critics have complained that Disney's version of Tinker Bell is too sexually suggestive.[6][9]
Since 1954, Tinker Bell has featured as a hostess for much of Disney's live-action television programming and in every Disney movie advertisements flying over Disneyland with her magic wand and her fairy dust, beginning with Disneyland (which first introduced the theme park to the public while it was still under construction), to Walt Disney Presents, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, and The Wonderful World of Disney. In 1988, the same year The Wonderful World of Disney moved from ABC to NBC as The Magical World of Disney. That year, she also appeared in the final shot of the ending scene of Disney's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, along with Porky Pig; sprinkling fairy dust on the screen after Porky's trademark farewell as it goes black prior to the closing credits. She also starred alongside other Disney characters, such as Chip 'n Dale, in many Disney comics, where she was also able to speak. Tinker Bell also appears as a summon in the Kingdom Hearts series of video games.
At Disneyland, Tinker Bell is prominently featured in Peter Pan's Flight, a suspended dark ride based on the artwork from the animated film. Beginning in 1961, she was also featured as a live performer who flew through the sky at the climax of some of the nightly fireworks displays. She was originally played by 71-year-old former circus performer Tiny Kline, up until her retirement three years later.[10]
On the 2008 Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade special on ABC, Disney announced that a Tinker Bell float would be added to the classic Disney's Electrical Parade at Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort, the first new float to be added since even long before the parade ended its original run at Disneyland in 1996.
Tinker Bell was part of the Disney Princess franchise, from which she was later extracted and converted into the central character of the new Disney Fairies franchise in 2005. In addition to an extensive line of merchandise, 2008's Tinker Bell film is the first of five direct-to-DVD features set in Pixie Hollow. Tinker Bell is voiced by Mae Whitman in these digitally animated DVD features. In addition, Disney announced in 2010 that Tinker Bell will have her own live-action comedy movie and actress Elizabeth Banks is cast as Tinker Bell. The movie will explore Tinker Bell's nature, and Elizabeth Wright Shapiro and McG are the screenwriters in this movie.[11]
At Disneyland, a Pixie Hollow meet-and-greet area opened on October 28, 2008, near the Matterhorn, where guests are able to interact with Tinker Bell and her companions. A similar area called "Tinker Bell's Magical Nook" is in Adventureland at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida.
In November 2009, Tinker Bell became the smallest waxwork ever to be made at Madame Tussauds, measuring only five and a half inches.
On September 21, 2010, Tinker Bell was presented with the 2,418th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, becoming the thirteenth fictional character and the sixth Disney character to receive this honor. Tinker Bell's star celebrated Hollywood Walk of Fame's 50th anniversary.
In addition to the illustrations in the original editions of Peter Pan, Tinker Bell has also been depicted by fantasy artists such as Brian Froud and Myrea Pettit. She also appears in the edition of Peter Pan in Scarlet illustrated by David Wyatt. A bronze sculpture of Tinker Bell by London artist Diarmuid Byron O'Connor was commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital, to whom Barrie bequeathed the copyright to the character, to be added to his original four-foot statue of Peter Pan, wresting a thimble from Peter's hand. The figure has a nine-and-a-half-inch wingspan and is seven inches tall, and was unveiled on September 29, 2005 by Sophie, Countess of Wessex.
When translated into other languages, Tinker Bell's name is sometimes rendered more or less phonetically, but is often replaced by a name that evokes her character or one that refers to a bell or represents its sound.
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