Make room for Tinkerbell

In 1911 JM Barrie created a book entitled Peter and Wendy which was based on a play he wrote in 1904. Tinkerbell, Peter’s assistant, was and is one of the interesting characters in the book and play. Tinkerbell appeared in the official sequel commissioned by Great Ormone St Hospital which was known as “Peter Pan in Scarlet” and then in a book series called “Peter and the Starcatchers” by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry. She was also involved in many film and television adaptations of the story and really rose to fame in Walt Disney’s 1953 animated film “Peter Pan.” She has since become one of his official mascots.

Tinkerbell was in fact only a minor character when JM Barrie created his original work. He described her in her book as little more than a common fairy. Once Walt Disney produced the legendary animated adaptation of him, she rose to fame and has become a hugely popular Disney character ever since. Since the initial Peter Pan movie was made, Tinkerbell has gone on to make 3 more movies on his own. (Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue is scheduled to be released on September 21, 2010)

In JM Barrie’s original story, Tinkerbell’s name arose because her job was to mend cauldrons and pots. That all changed after he learned how to use his pixie dust to his advantage. Tinkerbell is correctly spelled as one word or Tinkerbell as two. But, in the movie, Captain Hook is heard to address her as Miss Bell. That gives the impression that she has a first and last name.

When the play first came out, the show listed Tinkerbell as being played by Jane Wren even though Tinkerbell was just a ray of light. Her deception worked so well that she duped her Majesty’s Inspector of Revenue, who proceeded to send Miss Wren a tax return. This further helped market the magic surrounding Tinkerbell.

Tinkerbell was always portrayed as a vengeful, daring and precocious character in those times, but she was actually ahead of her time. In that time period, the female characters were usually submissive, undemonstrative, and would never do whatever they wanted like Tinkerbell did. When she was creating her character, there was a lot of concern about exactly how Tinkerbell should be portrayed. It was felt that “being independent was not a very good role model for girls.” It was then decided that her character would be sort of a half-girl, half-woman so that she would be perceived as a transitional female character who would be emotional and therefore more acceptable.

Every night at Disneyland, Tinkerbell still flies through the skies. When Disneyland decided to do this in 1961, they hired a very tiny lady named Tiny Kline. She was four feet ten inches tall and weighed only ninety-eight pounds. She was sixty-one years old at the time and had been a circus acrobat. When she reached the bottom, the only way to stop her was to crash into a mattress. In true Tinkerbell fashion, she Tiny was very volatile and in 1964, at the age of 74, she retired due to ill health.