Peter Pan was first released in 1953 by RKO Pictures, who Disney had worked under before starting their own production. Peter Pan featured 5 main characters but today we are talking about the beloved little fairy, Tinkerbell. Tinkerbell is a tinker fairy, she is a small Caucasian girl, with yellow- blonde hair that is pulled into a bun on the top of her head.
Throughout the animated movie, we see Tinkerbell being Peter Pans sidekick, but she also shows a lot of jealously toward Wendy with Peter being the stem of her emotion. Tinkerbell is only jealous towards Wendy, not Peter. Towards Peter, Tinkerbell is a kind fairy. Although she has her moments against him.
2)“According to J.M. Barrie, she’s just too tiny to fit more than one emotion at a time.”
During the 1953 movie, some language and words used were very harsh, because it was made in the older years, it wasn’t looked at as anything. Growing up on the 1953 movie, along with a lot of other children my age presents a stereotype of that it is okay to call and talk to people that way. So, in real life, that causes kids who have watched this first movie to react this way.
This can cause kids to have an expectation from Disney and the creators that come with it. Causing backlash when changes are made.
By changes I mean the change of Tinkerbell in the recent 2023 remake of Peter Pan.
In the 2023 live remake of Peter Pan, called “Peter Pan and Wendy” It came to a shock to viewers when they saw their favorite little fairy as actress Yara Shahidi.
When Yara is playing this character, she stated 1) “A lot of her performances are things that me and the director [David Lowery] looked at because she’s so expressive with saying no words,” she explained. “And that was kind of the challenge of playing Tinker Bell, just chiming in fairy language the whole time.”
Having a colored actress play such a pivotal role in Peter Pan and Wendy is so inspiring for younger girls and upcoming Disney movies. Yara did such a great way of explaining it in this article, 2)”I would dress up as the princesses and different characters, but I was always the Black version of a character because none of them looked like me,”. Having Tinkerbell colored gives young girls more perspective and inclusivity.
Bibliography:
Blackwelder, Carson. 2023. “Yara Shahidi on why playing Tinker Bell is ‘really surreal and full circle.’” ABC News. April 24, 2023. https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/yara-shahidi-playing-tinker-bell-surreal-full-circle/story?id=98804361.
Guimarães, Elisa. 2023. “Differences Between Disney’s ‘Peter Pan’ (1953) and the Book It’s Based On.” Collider. April 30, 2023. https://collider.com/peter-pan-movie-book-comparison/.
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