Tinkerbell (2008)

This movie came out a couple of years ago, Disney's take on one of the most well-known fairies in pop culture, Tinkerbell. When I first found out about this movie I was excited. Tinkerbell was never my favourite fairy, but I didn't mind her and I loved Peter Pan and mythological figures in general. And Disney is far from some low-budget no name company without a reputation to uphold, so needless to say I was looking forward to the film. When I actually did take the time to see it I was so disappointed I was almost angry. I touched on this a little bit in my post on Peter Pan. Basically, Tinkerbell is not a sweet, kind, loving character. She's jealous, vain, malicious, and manipulative. She's loyal only to Peter and tries to kill Wendy. In the book Barrie explains that fairies are so small that they can only feel one emotion at a time, so when they are good they are wholly good, and when they are not, they are wholly not. Meaning that fairies can be mean, evil even.

The Tinkerbell Disney created however, is nothing like this. The new Disney Tinkerbell was created more in the image of something you could probably find on the Treehouse channel, the kids channel you can find shows like Franklin, Max and Ruby, etc. So basically they've castrated one of the most well known, classic fairies in literature.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, the story itself was a vacuous waste of film. She went on a little adventure to 'find herself' and figure out that 'it's ok to be different' and to be friendly to the mean guys after she beats them. Basically the plot to your average b film.

I would probably not have minded so much if it was a nameless or new character Disney decided to feature in this fairy series (as there are multiple movies and books out), but chances are that series wouldn't have done half so well because it wouldn't be riding on the coattails of the fame and success of Peter Pan.

But. Now that I've had a couple of years to deal with this, I think that I can now separate the fake Tink from the real one enough to try to watch the new movie coming out, The Great Fairy Rescue. I didn't watch the second as there was still the poison in my heart, but I'm willing to give it another go I think. This might be a mistake and watching the new one might once again spark that 'someone slapping my love of fairies in the face' feeling, but  it's a chance one has to take when trying to weed the decent or even the great from the horrible.



Here's the sneak peek for the new movie. I can already tell I'll be frustrated by it, but not so much by Tink (though they're walking on thin ice in that department) and more by the bad story line and the proposition of ideas I don't agree with.





Here's Disney's website http://disney.go.com/fairies/