Talking to an Icon: An Interview with the Woman Who Inspired Tinkerbell

I went to a film school. I took film classes where I analyzed films to death and treated them like they might be the cure for cancer. That means I am serious about film. I am cynical. I am hard-edged. I am all grown up and nothing can phase me, right?

Five seconds into viewing the new double-disc DVD release of Walt Disney's "Peter Pan" was enough to dash all of those thoughts to pieces. At first my plan was to few even just a few minutes of the actual movie to see how the digital restoration looked. I was going to review the entire DVD package, not really the movie, so the key was to see what else was on there, right? Yeah, well, five seconds into it I was enthralled and five years old again caught up in a tale of a boy who won't grow up and his battle against pirates. There's just something about classic Disney.

Of course one of the most recognizable characters connected with Disney comes from this movie. Next to Mickey Mouse the symbol that probably comes to a lot of people's minds when they think of Disney is Tinkerbell. It was Tinkerbell who was on Walt Disney's television show. It is Tinkerbell who, at both World and Land, launches the spectacular fireworks show every night.

Back in those days there were no computer to help with animation. It was pure talent. The animators would study film of actors performing scenes. So, yes, real actors dressed as the characters and acted out the movie so animators could study them and draw their figures. So, who was Tinkerbell? Someone had to do her performance, right?