Tinker Bell (also nicknamed Tink or Miss Bell) is a feisty fairy and major character in Disney's 1953 film, Peter Pan, the 2002 sequel, Return to Never Land, and the main character in a popular series of made-for-DVD movies in the saga.
In the many years since her inception, Tinker Bell has become one of the main spokes-characters for The Walt Disney Company and one of its most popular and iconic characters (mostly known for flying towards the screen with a thin wand in her hand, waving it and causing fairy dust to fly out to the screen).
Since the release of the original Peter Pan, Tinker Bell has been known for being a silent character up until the release of her very own 3D computer-animated film Tinker Bell and all of its ever-expanding sequels. Since then, the character has been voiced by Mae Whitman.
When the film Peter Pan was in development, the filmmakers knew Tinker Bell couldn't have been a mere spot of light as she was portrayed in all previous Peter Panincarnations. Tinker Bell was designed and animated by one of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men, Marc Davis. Without the aid of a vocal performance, Marc relied on Tinker Bell's expressions for the animation, much like previous pantomime characters such as Pluto and Dopey. Upon the release of the film, Tinker Bell received critical acclaim and continued to shine as one of Disney's trademark characters.
Physical Appearance[]
Tinker Bell is described as a common, tinker fairy who is small, slender, hand-sized and fair-skinned. She is feisty and hot-tempered (with her face turning fiery red when angered), but is also quite cute and beautiful. She has baby-blue eyes, blonde hair worn in a bun and pointy elf-like ears.
She is usually seen wearing a green strapless dress with a mini-skirt, green shoes with white puffs on her toes and clear, insect-like wings on her back. In the Disney Fairies franchise, she is sometimes seen wearing more tomboyish clothing, though it is clearly based on her original outfit.
Personality and Characteristics[]
Some fans have assumed that Tinker Bell has a romantic crush on Peter. However, that theory has been contradicted several times by Margaret Kerry, who has said, "Tinker Bell was never in love with Peter Pan, she was sort of a groupie. Peter would go on his adventures and she would get to go with him, and what she was really worried about with Wendy was that maybe he wouldn't take her on the adventures anymore, he would take that ugly old girl! So that's what she was jealous of."
As a fairy, Tink can fly and produce fairy dust, which allows others to fly. She is described as being a tinker, meaning that she mends pots, kettles and acorn caps, and is shown to be very skilled, gifted and talented at it too.
Though she sometimes has a jealous side and can be ill-behaved and vindictive, at other times she is helpful and kind to others. The extremes in her personality and character are explained by the fact that fairies are so small, that they only have room for one feeling and emotion at a time.
Disney Parks[]
Tinker Bell posing for a photo at one of the Disney parks.
Prior to 2005, the only appearances for Tinker Bell at the Disney theme parks were in the nightly fireworks shows, in which she would fly from one side of the park to the other through the fireworks, started by Walt Disney himself.
The character also appeared in Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams at Disneyland, the Enchanted Adventures Parade at the Mickey's Pirates and Princess Party hard-ticket events at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, the Fantillusion nighttime parade at Disneyland Paris and, as of 2009, she now appears as the lead character in the Main Street Electrical Parade, replacing the Blue Fairy. She also appeared in the Walt Disney Cinema Parade at Walt Disney Studios Paris before it ended in 2008.
This all changed following the release of the Tinker Bell film, when Disneyland converted Ariel's Grotto into a representation of Pixie Hollow with the character having meet-and-greets, along with a few of her fairy friends. There had also been additional meet-and-greets with Tink and the fairies at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. But know, Tinker Bell has a new meet and greet in the Town Square Theater where she can greet guests on her own. Also in Hong Kong Disneyland, Tink can be a part of meet-and-greet. Tink can also be seen in Believe on board the Disney Dream.
She is therefore a meetable character in the parks; occasionally, the skirt of her dress gets very short, especially in California.
Tink has her own spell card in the attraction Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom known as "Tinker Bell's Pixie Dust".
Back to Neverland[]
This theme park theatrical cartoon was produced by Walt Disney Studios, BRC Imagination Arts in 1989 and featuring Tourist/Lost Boy, Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Captain Hook, Crocodile. A tourist in a Goofy hat (the actor Robin Williams) is magically transformed into a cartoon "lost boy" so that he can learn firsthand how animation is produced. Little Robin is happy about his transformation until his host- Walter Cronkite- drops him into a background painting of a pirate ship. Robin encounters Captain Hook himself, who wants to know where Peter Pan is hiding. Tinker Bell and the Crocodile show up and help save little Robin from the notorious pirate captain. Robin compares Tink to Barbara Streisand at one point.
World of Color[]
At Disney California Adventure, Tinker Bell kicks off the show during the introduction, and also appears in small snippets alongside her friends from the Disney Fairies franchise in the winter rendition of the show,Winter Dreams.
Disney Dreams![]
In Disneyland Paris, Tinker Bell is called fourth by Peter Pan to help restore the released magic to the Second Star to the Right and defeat Captain Hook and the Disney Villains. After successfully doing so, Peter, Wendy and Tink enjoy a flight together.
Peter Pan's Flight[]
Tink also has a central place in the Peter Pan's Flight attractions at the Disney Theme Parks (with the exception of Hong Kong Disneyland), all of which are located within Fantasyland. The original version at Disneyland was one of the first attractions to open with that park in 1955.
It's a Small World[]
Tinker Bell in Tokyo Disneyland version of It's a Small World
Tinker Bell appeared on Hong Kong Disneyland, Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland versions of It's a Small World as animatronic doll in England part of Europe scene. As of now, Tinker Bell was the smaller doll in every versions of It's a Small World.
Fantasmic![]
Tinker Bell is summoned by Sorcerer Mickey towards the end of the show to restore the river after the Disney Villains are defeated.
Soarin' Over California[]
Tink makes a special appearance at the end.
Disney Fairies[]
Tinker Bell, as she appears in the Disney Fairies films.
In 2005, Tinker Bell became the lead character for her own line of licensed products called Disney Fairies. This program, a spin-off of the popular Disney Princess line (which she was a part of before this new franchise started) includes toys, accessories, clothing, Halloween costumes, books and a direct-to-video movie series. The first book in the series, titled Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, was written by Ella Enchanted author Gail Carson Levine. In it, Tinker Bell, who lives in a secret place within Neverland called Pixie Hollow, and three of her fairy friends are faced with the task of protecting the egg responsible for keeping Neverland's inhabitants forever young, pretty, and beautiful.
Although she had been capable of speaking in Disney comics, Tinker Bell never had a voice in Disney films and television shows, always having been mute and using pantomime to communicate with humans. This changed with the release of her self-titled direct-
to-video movie, which takes place before the events of the 1953 Peter Pan film. Late actress Brittany Murphy was initially chosen to provide Tink's voice in the film; however, due to scheduling conflicts, she was replaced by Mae Whitman, who said in an interview with USA Today:
"Kids will like Tink's energy and feistiness because it never comes from a malicious place. It's always out of the goodness of her pure heart."
Other voices in this film include Anjelica Huston as Queen Clarion, Raven-Symoné (of Disney Channel's That's So Raven) as Iridessa, Kristin Chenoweth as Rosetta, America Ferrera as Fawn, British actress Jane Horrocks as Fairy Mary, Loreena McKennitt as the narrator, Jesse McCartney as Terence and Kathy Najimy as the Minister of Summer. Several sequels followed. A preview clip of the movie aired on ABC during a telecast of Peter Pan on July 26, 2008. In the clip, Tink tries to teach a baby bird to take flight, with embarrassing results. The television debut of the film aired on November 30, 2008 on Disney Channel.
Trivia[]
Tinker Bell and Peter by David Hall.
Tinker Bell made a cameo appearance amongst the Fair Folk in the 1985 film The Black Cauldron.
From 1994-1999, Tinker Bell appears on the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection intro logos, sprinkling pixie dust on the bare version of the logo to the completed version of the logo (purple hump-shaped logo complete with Disney castle in the middle) while the 1988-1994 Walt Disney Classics music plays over.
Tinker Bell by Mary Blair.
In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, just before the song There's a Party Here in Agrabah, Genie briefly transforms into Tinker Bell.
For the 2009 direct-to-DVD video film Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, Tinker Bell was given her first new outfit in over 50 years, which reflects the autumn setting of the movie. According to Klay Hill, the director of the movie, the tomboyish look of the outfit still reveals the curves she has had since her first appearance in 1953. Her outfit is consisting of a hat, cape, long sleeve top, leggings and boots with her familiar pom-poms.
Tinker Bell acts like the Auto-Life from the Final Fantasy series and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, reviving Sora if his HP is depleted.
Tinker Bell is similar to Ray from the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog in the sense of when both feel jealousy, both turn red.
In the 1990's Tinker Bell appeared with a wand in the logos "Disney at Christmas" and "Disney at Easter" for ITV's Disney Christmas and Easter Movies.
On October 25, 2009, an event was held at the United Nations world headquarters in New York City for the world premiere of Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure. Just before the screening of the movie, Kiyo Akasaka, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Communication and Public Information, introduced her to the audience, while Director Klay Hall and Producer Sean Lurie gave her a plaque for the work that she has done promoting environmental conservation and, perhaps most notably, for her work in a campaign for the Ad Council that she was in.
In 2010, Tinker Bell was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Tinker Bell was once part of the official Disney Princess line-up, but was later pulled from that franchise when the Disney Fairies franchise was created.
Anna and Tinker Bell share a number of similarities.
Both seem to prefer the color green for their outfits (Anna's blue and magenta winter outfit was worn because that was all Oaken had in stock at his store at the time).
Both have sisters who mean everything to them and who both were born with incredibly strong ice/snow/frost/sleet-based abilities (Elsa and Periwinkle); cryokinesis and frigiokinesis.
Coincidentally, both sisters have whitish hair and are seen primarily in pale blue outfits.
Both have demonatrated adventurous spirits, stubborn streaks and firey tempers. Both also don't like being told what they can and can't do.
Both have loyal, devoted sidekicks (Olaf for Anna and Blaze for Tinker Bell)
Both had made made tremendously brave self-sacrifices to save the sister they care about and love so (Anna gave her life to save her elder sister from being killed by Hans, while Tinker Bell first sacrificed her wings to save all of Pixie Hollow in Secret of the Wings, then later her own life in Peter Pan to save Peter from Hook's bomb.)
In each instance, both had their sacrifice miraculously reversed though a connection to someone they cared about.
She is also similar the horse Maximus from Tangled, at the beginning, they both jealous or dislike on their same gender protagonist (Wendy and Flynn Rider), and like the protagonist of the opposite gender (Peter Pan and Rapunzel).
Tinker Bell is also considered one of a few Disney mascots along with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Jiminy Cricket and Winnie the Pooh.
She is also one of the most recognizable characters of Disney, along with Mickey Mouse and others.
The only non-fairy characters known to understand Tinker Bell completely are Peter Pan and Captain Hook, though the Lost Boys understand her to a degree.
Despite being one of Disney's most iconic performing characters, Tinker Bell has never sung in a film, nor has she had a song that can be easily attributed to her sung by another character or off-screen.
In the Disneystrology book, Tinker Bell is the birthday character for June 21. However, according to the movies, the idea of June 21 being her birthday is impossible, due to the fact that in the first movie her birth was shown to be right at the end of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. If one were to count the days from Tink's arrival to March 20 - the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere - it would show that her actual arrival day is March 15.
In Secret of the Wings, there is a scene in which Tink and Periwinkle list things they have in common by making tally marks on an ice wall. If one were to count all the markings, it would show that the two sisters have 120 things in common with each other.
Tink is mentioned in Skye Sweetnam's song "Baby Doll Gone Wrong".
Tink has been featured on more Peter Pan merchandise than any other character in the movie.
Tinker Bell was born approximately 6 seconds before Periwinkle. It is easy to tell which is which by observing their neck and Tinker Bell's position: Tinker Bell in the first movie and in the scene where Tinker Bell and Periwinkle watch how they came to be does not wear a collar, and her position is to the left, which is the direction Queen Clarion is shown to be entering after her birth. Periwinkle is shown to be wearing a collar, and her position is to the right.
Tinker Bell is the only known fairy to have a sibling.
In the book Disney Trivia from the Vault - Secrets Revealed and Questions Answered by Dave Smith, Dave mentioned that Tinker Bell is sometimes mistaken to be modeled after Marilyn Monroe, sincePeter Pan was released in the same year when Marilyn Monroe was at the peak of her popularity, in 1953.
In the original novel, it is thought that Tink dies shortly after the conclusion of the novel, as in the year later epilogue when Wendy asks Peter about Tinker Bell for him to respond that he completely forgot she existed.
She, however, is revived in it's sequel, Peter Pan in Scarlet, due to the wish of a silly blue fairy called Fireflyer who wants to meet her after hearing about her from Wendy. They go on to get married, have adventures and sell dreams to pirates.
Tinker Bell gets trapped in a lantern by Captian Hook twice. First being in Peter Pan, second in the Jake and the Neverland Pirates episode "The Neverland Rescues".
