Tinker Bell (film)

Tinker Bell is a 2008 computer animated film based on the Disney Fairies franchise produced by DisneyToon Studios, the first of several Tinker Bell films. It revolves around Tinker Bell, a fairy character created by J. M. Barrie in his play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, and featured in the 1953 Disney animated film, Peter Pan and its 2002 sequel Return to Never Land. Unlike Disney's two Peter Pan films featuring the character, which were produced primarily using traditional animation, Tinker Bell was produced using digital 3D modeling.

Plot
Tinker Bell (Mae Whitman) is created from the first laugh of a newborn baby, and is brought by the winds to Pixie Hollow (which is part of the island of Never Land), where she is born into fairy form, and discovers her talent as a "tinker", the fairies who make and fix things. The other tinker fairies, Bobble (Rob Paulsen) and Clank (Jeff Bennett), try to teach her their craft, and while out working she meets Silvermist (Lucy Liu), a water fairy, Rosetta (Kristin Chenoweth), a gardener fairy, Iridessa (Raven-Symone), a light fairy, and Fawn (America Ferrera), an animal fairy. After meeting them, she notices Vidia (Pamela Adlon), a nature fairy who immediately dislikes her because of her unusually strong talent. Vidia challenges her to prove she'll be able to go to the mainland, and Tink does so by creating several inventions to be shown before the Minister of Spring (Steve Valentine). But Tinker Bell soon learns from Queen Clarion (Anjelica Huston) that only nature-talent fairies visit the mainland.

She tries her hand at other skills- making dewdrops with Silvermist, trying to coax a baby bird to fly with Fawn and lighting fireflies with Iridessa, but she fails miserably at all of these, prompting Rosetta to not teach her how to garden. Meanwhile, Bobble and Clank cover for Tink when asked about by Fairy Mary (Jane Horrocks), the tinker fairy overseer. When Tinker Bell returns, she tries to explain, but Mary simply responds that she knows, and expresses her disappointment at her choice. Iridessa, Fawn, Silvermist and Rosetta witness her repairing an entire ballerina music box, telling her that if this is what she's happy doing, the mainland shouldn't matter.

As a last resort, she asks Vidia for help in becoming a nature fairy. Vidia craftily tells her that capturing the sprinting thistles would prove her worth. However, once she sees Tink making progress, she lets the captured thistles loose, and in attempting to recapture them, Tink destroys all the work of the whole fairy community and cause them to consider delaying their main project, bringing spring to the mainland. Tink decides to leave, but after talking with the light-keeper Terence (Jesse McCartney) about how important his job is, she realizes the importance of a tinker.

Tinker Bell redeems herself by inventing machines that automate the process of decorating flowers, ladybugs, etc., which allows the other fairies to get back on schedule, thus saving the arrival of spring. Vidia is punished for prompting her to cause the chaos, and she is rewarded for this by Queen Clarion allowing her to join the nature-talent fairies when they bring the new season to the mainland, charged with delivering the music box to its original owner. (The girl is shown to be Wendy Darling, and in a nod to the original Disney film, the box plays its theme song, "Second Star to the Right"). The narrator ends by saying that when lost toys are returned or spring arrives, "it all means that one very special fairy might be near", and Tink spreads her trademark pixie dust.

Cast

 * Mae Whitman as Tinker Bell, a fairy born of children's laughter to be a tinker fairy. She finds interest in human things, and is thus discouraged to learn that tinkers don't go to the mainland, trying out various other skills before finally accepting, with the help of Terence and her friends, that she truly is a tinker. She helps to repair the massive damage she created and is rewarded, as she is allowed to join the nature fairies on their trip, where she delivers Wendy her lost toy.
 * Raven-Symone as Iridessa, a light fairy who tries to teach Tink to light fireflies. She is often the first to voice discomfort about Tink not wanting to accept her job as a tinker.
 * America Ferrera as Fawn, an animal fairy who tries to teach Tink to get baby birds to fly. She is the closest to Tink, and expresses her desire for her to be happy, which she suggests is in tinkering.
 * Lucy Liu as Silvermist, a water fairy who tries to teach Tink to make dewdrops. She is possessed of a sassy sense of humor.
 * Kristin Chenoweth as Rosetta, a gardener fairy who intends to teach Tink how to garden, but decides not to after her previous failures.
 * Pamela Adlon as Vidia, a nature fairy and Tinker Bell's main rival. She despises Tinker Bell for her unusual talent and tries to discourage her from learning other talents. She is humiliated by Tink when they both choose the same hiding space from a hawk, and Vidia has a load of berries fall on her. When Tink comes to her for help, Vidia knowingly suggests that she capture the dangerous thistle weeds. Vidia is later punished for her part in this.
 * Anjelica Huston as Queen Clarion, the queen of all Pixie Hollow, who gives Tinker Bell her job and oversees the four seasons. She wary of Tinker Bell's eagerness and is proved correctly so after she destroys the Spring workers' hard work. She nonetheless forgives her after she helps repair the damage done, and rewards Tink by allowing her to go to the mainland.
 * Jesse McCartney as Terence, the pixie-dust keeper, who is surprised to find out that Tink knows his name. In mentioning how his job is unimportant, he causes Tink to remark just how important it is, and realize her own importance.
 * Rob Paulsen as Bobble, a wispy tinker fairy with large glasses who helps Tink out; he is usually found with Clank or his mouse Cheese.
 * Jeff Bennett as Clank, a large tinker fairy with a booming voice; usually found with Bobble or Tinker Bell.
 * Jane Horrocks as Fairy Mary, the overseer of the tinker fairies, who expresses high hope for Tinker Bell. She is greatly disappointed to learn that Tink doesn't like being a tinker, but is pleased to see her accept her job and help repair the damage caused to Spring. Mary charges her with delivering the toy she repaired after she becomes a nature fairy.
 * Steve Valentine as Minister of Spring, the grand master of the season Spring who makes sure everything is finished in time.
 * America Young as Wendy Darling, the girl whose toy Tinker Bell repaired. She is given it back at the end of the film.
 * Loreena McKennitt as The Narrator, who relates the importance of fairies as it applies to reality.

Also among the cast are Kathy Najimy as the Minister of Summer, Richard Portnow as the Minister of Autumn, and Gail Borges as the Minister of Winter, all in very brief appearances in this movie.

Crew

 * Director - Bradley Raymond
 * Writer - Jeffrey M. Howard

Production
Originally Brittany Murphy was up for the role of Tinkerbell but then later lost the role. One of this film's working titles was Tinker Bell and the Ring of Belief.

Music
The score to the film was composed by Joel McNeely, who recorded the music with an 88-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony and Celtic violin soloist Máiréad Nesbitt at the Sony Scoring Stage.

The movie's soundtrack was released on October 14, 2008, a week before the DVD release and contains songs from and inspired by the film.


 * 1) "To the Fairies They Draw Near" - Loreena McKennitt
 * 2) "Fly to Your Heart" - Selena Gomez
 * 3) "How to Believe" - Ruby Summer
 * 4) "Let Your Heart Sing" - Katharine McPhee
 * 5) "Be True" - Jonatha Brooke
 * 6) "To the Fairies They Draw Near, Part II" - Loreena McKennitt
 * 7) "Shine" - Tiffany Giardina
 * 8) "Fly With Me" - Kari Kimmell
 * 9) "Wonder of It All" - Scottie Haskell
 * 10) "End Credit Score Suite" - Joel McNeely

Marketing
The digitally animated character of Tinker Bell and other fairies appearing in the film were featured in Disney Channel bumpers in which they would draw the channel's logo with their wands. Rosetta's represents her webisode.

Frank Nissen, the director of Cinderella III: A Twist in Time directed a series of webisodes to promote the film on the "Fairies" channel of the Disney XD web site. Except for a few vocal effects, only one contains dialogue.
 * Tink and the Bell: Tinker Bell finds a silver jingle bell, makes funny faces at her reflection in it, and then gets stuck in it.
 * Tink and the Pepper Shaker: Tinker Bell finds a pepper shaker and plays with it.
 * Fawn and the Log: Fawn attempts to wake some sleepy squirrels in a log.
 * Fawn and the Butterfly: Fawn attempts to help a butterfly which is having trouble getting out of its chrysalis.
 * Silvermist and the Fish: Silvermist helps a baby fish get over a waterfall so that it can be with its family.
 * Iridessa and the Light Bugs: With the help of Pixie Dust, Iridessa helps make lightning bugs glow.
 * Rosetta and the Flower: Rosetta has some trouble in attempting to get a stubborn flower bud to open up. (This is the only webisode with two versions: one with dialogue and one without.)
 *  Tink and the Bird: This one was shown once on ABC in their special airing of Walt Disney's Peter Pan.

Reception
The film saw a brief theatrical release at the El Capitan Theatre between September 19 and October 2. It was shown on the Disney Channel on November 30 as part of "New in November". It was well-received by critics, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it an 86% approval rating. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on October 28, 2008. 668,000 copies were sold in North America on its first day of release, about 22 percent above previous estimations

DVD sales brought in $52,201,882 in revenue for 3,347,686 units sold. At the time they also announced three direct-to-DVD sequels to follow this film, also digitally animated, with a fourth added to the list in 2009- Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure (Autumn 2009), Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (Autumn 2010), Tinker Bell: A Winter Story (working title, Winter 2011) and Tinker Bell: Race Through the Seasons (working title, TBA).