~* Tinker Bell *~
A Quick History

Did you ever wonder, exactly how it all began, well, in the next few paragraphs I'm going to try and tell you as much as I can about our favorite little pixie.  You will notice this section has changed entirely from what it used to be.  It used to have the same info the official Disney site had.  But I decided to go ahead and try and write it myself.  So I just thought I would explain that, so you know why the grammar is so bad, lol, here we go...

Tinker Bell is the jealous little pixie from Peter Pan.  She was created by James M. Barrie, the British playwright and author of Peter Pan.  Here is a very famous line from Peter Pan, it gives you Barrie's take on how fairies came to be...

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."

Now over the years, there have been many different versions of Tinker Bell.  My favorite of course is the Disney Version, she was brought to life by the Disney animator Marc Davis.  Marc shaped miss bell into a very curvaceous little pixie.  This fact fueled rumors that she was modeled after film star Marilyn Monroe, but this is not true.  At the time Disney was working on this film Monroe was not a big celebrity yet, she was just playing bit parts.  But because this movie came out when she was becoming famous people assumed she was the inspiration. Tinker Bell was actually modeled after Margaret Kerry.  The woman that was her live action reference.  You can see a picture of Margaret Kerry beside this text, as you can see in the picture she is modeling with a large keyhole, for the scene where Tink is trapped in the drawer in Wendy's room.  You can read an interview of Margaret Kerry in the history section of this site.  She has some fun stories to share of her time as Tink.

Some other Versions of Tinker Bell that I know of are of course the traditional beam of light that was featured in stage productions of the play.  The spotlight flitted across the stage to show Tink's presence.  You can see this in action in the Kathy Rigby version of Peter Pan, I used to watch that video all of the time when I was little.  But be aware it is not really very true to the original play, but the Disney version also takes many liberties in the story.  Other versions are Julia Roberts in Hook.  Now there is also a new live action version of Tink in the 2003 version of Peter Pan.  I really liked this movie and the woman that played Tink did a great job.  Another animated version of Tink that I am aware of is Tink from the Fox show Peter Pan and the Pirates.  I have never actually seen this show, but I really want to, so if anyone knows some way I can get some of the episodes then please let me know.  Thanks

Over the years this popular little pixie has gone on to do many things for the Disney company.  I will list below all of the places I can remember seeing her.  I'm sure there are several other things she has appeared in, and I'll try to add to this list as I have time.

• Disney's Peter Pan (1953)

• Disney's Return to Neverland (2002)

• TV Hostess for the following Disney TV shows. "Disneyland", "Walt Disney Presents", "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color", and "The Wonderful World of Color".

• The Black Cauldron - Tink makes a brief appearance in this film.  She flies by in the fairy caves, or wherever that was, lol I haven't seen the movie in ages, but I know she is in there somewhere. :)

• Video Game - Kingdom Hearts - She plays a minor role in this Video game, it is a really great game, by the way.  If you havn't played it yet you should ^_^

• Mickey's Magical Christmas - Snowed in at the House of Mouse - Tink has a very important role in this film, even though she isn't in it a terribly long time.

• TV Series - The House of Mouse - She makes several appearances in this show.

• Tink Opens the fireworks shows at some of the Disney Them Parks, *This of course is an actual person, not the animated Tink.

• Disney Movie Opening, Tink sprinkles fairy dust over the Walt Disney Castle at the beginning of most Disney films.

• Disney Fairies - This is a brand new series of books and soon to be movies, the first movie will open in 2007 either as a direct to video release or a theatrical release.  Much more info about all of this in the Pixie Hollow section of this site. :)

The list above are just appearances by the Disney Tinker Bell.  If you know of more Tinker Bell appearances please e-mail them to me so that I can add them to this page.  Thanks