Tinker Bell: Past and Present
TINKER BELL: PAST AND PRESENT
"Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure" will be released on home video on Oct. 27, but, no, that's not a scene from it above. The iridescent pixie shown above is a conceptual design drawing of Tinker Bell, Peter Pan's sprightly sidekick, from the late 1930s. This version was created with the beauty of a Dresden doll in mind and lacked that spunky hot-headedness that defined Tink when she finally reached the screen in the years-in-the-making "Peter Pan" in 1953. It's interesting to see the long history of a character that, really, is only now getting her Disney close-up.
Aside from her regular appearances on Walt Disney's various anthology TV shows -- "Disneyland," "Walt Disney Presents" and "The Wonderful World of Disney," among others -- she's traditionally was a character that Disney put little effort into developing as a key property. That changed with the creation in 2005 of the Disney Fairies campaign, which includes children's books, dolls, play-sets and a Pixie Hollow attraction at Disneyland and Disney World's Magic Kingdom -- all set in Tinker Bell's fairy world.
Last October, Disney released "Tinker Bell," the first movie starring the fairy, on DVD and Blu-ray, and that was just the beginning, with a planned four more in the works. The second of those releases is "Lost Treasure," which, like the previous film, takes place before the events shown in "Peter Pan" and draws its inspiration from a season -- the first film was spring, this one is fall and, in this second image, you can see Tink is very different than she was in her protean stage of seven decades ago.
Despite Tink's very lady-like associations, her latest film is being overseen by a couple of guys: director Klay Hall and producer Sean Lurie. The guys talked to Hero Complex contributor Patrick Kevin Day about working with Pixar mastermind John Lasseter, updating Tinker Bell's look and making a fairy movie despite being male.
PKD: What was the origin of the idea of making four Tinker Bell movies at once?
Klay Hall: It started when John Lasseter took over as the chief creative officer for [Walt Disney Feature Animation]. He sat down with myself and the rest of the directors and producers, and we talked about what this whole [Disney Fairies] world could bring to film. We landed on the idea to go with four stories based on the seasons. We liked the idea that fairies brought seasons to the world, so we decided to go out and start coming up with four different ideas for four different movies that would support the idea of seasonal change. They weren’t supposed to be sequels, they were supposed to be stand-alone movies that could just be able to be played by themselves and you could get the content and the characters and everything.
PKD: What's it like working with John Lasseter?Hall: At first it was as scary as you can imagine. He’s an amazing guy and has such an incredible track record. We were all in awe of him. But once you got to know him, he’s a real personal, warm guy who greets you with a big bear hug and is a real collaborator. And really supportive of the creative process and a director-driven movie studio. He sat down with us all, he embraced us. It felt we were on a level playing field. It never felt like an executive coming in to help guide you. Sean Lurie: He had such a great way of giving notes. He wants directors to solve story problems, and he’s there to help. The way he approaches it, he says, "I’m going to tell you the things that I think are working and the things I think aren’t working. I might even have some ideas, but you don’t have to take those ideas." He has a way of being critical of material in a warm, open way. You embrace it and appreciate it. He’s tremendous.
Rest of article: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/10/a-tinker-bell-movie-for-boys-the-makers-of-tinker-bell-and-the-lost-treasure-hope-so.html
