A Review of ~ Tinker Bell: An Evolution
By Mindy Johnson
Forward by John Lasseter
Act III of III
“I
believe you’re going to like Tinker Bell . . . we fell in love with her . . .”
~
Walt Disney ~
“I believe
if you love Tinker Bell you will enjoy this book!”
~
PrankingPixie ~
I am a huge Tinker
Bell fan, as if you could not guess that by my blog and screen name. I’ve
always been fascinated by her and identified with her feisty ways and feminine
wiles. So when I heard about this book I knew I wanted it for my collection.
This book was just released October 8th, 2013.
Reading
experience: This is a quick “read” but is something you will enjoy looking at
over and over again and taking your time with. The text is punctuated by
beautiful pictures sharing the development and history of Tinker Bell. It is a
book I see myself going back too again and again.
This book has so
many interesting things to learn and see I’m going to break it up into 3
separate posts for ease of reading.
Again I must say
thank you to Laura at Disney Publishing for sending me this book to review.
The book is set up
as a 3 Act “Play”.
Act I shares
Tink’s origin and travels from stage to cinema.
Act II shares how
Walt Disney saw Tinker Bell and how she developed. In this “act” are the
storyboards, some used some not and development sketches that lead to her final
form. Also in Act II is Tink’s Film Debut.
Act III is about
where Tink has gone before and where the Impish Icon is going from here.
I highly suggest
this book for any Peter Pan, Tinker Bell or just Disney Fan out there. It is a
great snapshot into JM Barrie, Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Disney history and how a
Disney character is developed.
That is it for the
“No Spoilers” part of my review! Now for sharing what I found out! Read on if
you wish or go get the book!! (Purchasing information, such as the ISBN # and
links to the book on Amazon.com) will be at the end of this post.
Act III’s review:
Tinker Bell was a
Pitch Pixie for many products. Even before she made her debut in Peter Pan she
was selling Peter Pan Peanut Butter, TVs and even cars! She was used in the
opening of Disney TV shows and often shared the screen with Walt Disney.
August 1st
of 1958 Walt Disney watched as the first flesh-and-bones Tinker Bell took
flight over the Hollywood Bowl in a Disney Sponsored event: “Disneyland Comes
to Hollywood Bowl”. 4 ft 10 in Tiny Kline dressed up as the playful pixie and
flew over the audience. Kline was a dancer but gained her fame in 1924 as part
of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Combined Shows. She used her “iron
jaw” to hang above the crowd.
During the summer
of 1961, 3 years after flying over the Hollywood Bowl Kline reprised her role
of Tinker Bell, this time at Disneyland flying off of the Matterhorn Mountain
and over Cinderella’s Castle. She was 70 years old. Her flight took her down a
784 foot long cable and would signal the launch of the nightly fireworks. Tiny
Kline was Tinker Bell for 3 summers. She died in 1964 at the age of 73 of
cancer.
“I can actually feel the thousands staring
at me from the sea of faces below.
Every night when the searchlights come up
to pick out Tinker Bell,
then, up there on the mountain I’m young
again.”
~ Tiny Kline, recalling being Tinker Bell ~
Judy Kaye took up
Tinker Bell’s wand in 1965. She was the daughter of Terrell Jacobs – Ringling Brother’s
renowned lion tamer. Her mother had trained many animals featured in Walt’s
early live-action films.
Many have memories
of watching Tink fly over the castle at Disneyland. I’m sure if you have been
to Disneyland you have yours. Richard Sherman shares his memory in this book. Richard
and his wife were walking down Main Street after the fireworks one night when
they noticed Walt walking alone down Main Street toward the exit. Wanting to
thank their host for such a memorable day, the Shermans approached Walt and
gushed about their favorite experiences, especially the amazing fireworks
display with Tinker Bell actually flying across the night sky.
“I’ll never forget it, Walt wiped a tear
from his eye and said,
‘Yep . . . it gets me every time!’”
~ Richard Sherman ~
Tink has been
published in comic books back in the 1950’s and currently is in various storybooks.
Gail Carson Levine has written several books, Fairy Dust and the Quest for the
Egg, Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand, Fairies and the Quest for Never
Land and In the Realm of the Never Fairies and The World of Fairies. All of the
adventures center around Pixie Hallow where the fairies live.
Dave Barry and
Ridley Pearson tell how Tinker Bell came to be and why she is so attached to
Peter Pan in their book Peter and the Starcatchers, the first of the Peter and the
Starcatcher series of novels.
Disney decided to
further explore the Pixie Hallow publications of Levine and made a series of
direct to home DVD release movies. In these stories the voice of Tinker Bell can
finally be heard. Tink is voiced by Mae Whitman.
“Our Tink is sharp-tongued-although
fortunately only
Peter understands her-and often quite
funny.”
~ Dave Barry ~
Tinker Bell has
become an Impish Icon and has become part of the world’s cultural history.
Here is a link to
my first two post about this book:
1
2
Links and
information on the book:
Tinker Bell An Evolution on
Amazon
Barns & Noble
ISBN #:
978-1-4231-7201-7
My
Christmas book, “An Angel Remembers 25 Voices of Christmas” is available!!
This is a collection of 26 short Christmas stories that together
bring the amazing events of Christ’s birth alive. It is my hope that this will
help encourage families to spend 10-15 minutes a day together during the busy
holiday season remembering the true reason for the season.
You can
find it for ALL eReader formats and PDF at:
For your
Nook the link is:
It is also
available at the iTunes book store and many other ebook seller sites.
The only
big site not carrying my book is Amazon.
You can
download a Kindle version from Smashwords.com
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