Postby KeithS » Sun Nov 08, 2009 8:56 am
Wow - I thought I'd raise this topic again, because it has been debated by Della and I over the last few weeks.
You see - we finally got around to watching the Tinker Bell movie on DVD a week or two ago. The movie isn't great, but it's not too bad. It 'looks' beautiful - the colours and animation etc, but the story is definitely aimed at a younger market.
Anyhow - what irked us both while we were watching is that Tink and all her friends are specifically labeled as "Fairies". All through the movie, Della kept calling out "she's a pixie, not a fairy". I thought at some point that this was going to be a plot point of the movie (hopefully showing that Tink is actually a pixie and therefore different from the rest - hence why she can travel to the real world) - Alas, I was too optimistic and there was no plot point - Tink is just a fairy in the new series of movies. "Pixie-dust" does exist in the movie, but there is no other reference to 'pixies'.
But now I've done some research into the pixie/fairy debate. As you all know, J.M. Barrie wrote the original Peter and Wendy book. In the book, Barrie describes her as "a common fairy" - the word Pixie is NEVER used in the book! She helps others to fly by sprinkling them with "fairy dust". The term "pixie-dust" was purely a Disney invention - probably to make it more friendly to US audiences in the 1950's.
So there you have it - is Disney actually trying to right the wrongs of the past by reintroducing Tinker Bell as a fairy - as she was originally written by J.M. Barrie? Or are they just using "Fairies" as they sound nicer to little girls nagging their parents to buy stuff?
Keith
Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015