Tinkerbell & the Secret of the Wings
Kassie has now watched, "Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings" so many times that she can say virtually all the lines in time with the characters. It's better than that thing with the fairies and elves in anyway, whatever it's called. However, I haven't indulged my penchant for deconstructing childrens' T.V. for a while and a half heard story on the radio revealed the allegorical or occult meaning of the aforementioned film. For those of you have not seen this classic of modern film making, the plot is essentially a tale of lost love. This alone would make it unusual what with the implication of homosexuality, and arguably incest, in a product of the rabidly conservative Disney organisation. However that's only a superficial reading...
As you are no doubt aware, fairies are created when a baby giggles for the first time. At this something resembling thistledown, floats off to a region called "Pixie Hollow" which appears to suspended partially outside of the space-time continuum and partially somewhere in the North Sea or the English channel. Why this is the case in an american movie is not entirely clear although it may simply be narrative continuity with Peter Pan. I have no idea why the producers bother as this Tinkerbell, or more properly Tinker Belle1, does not seem to share any character traits with the vicious little goblin from Peter Pan and is clearly not an inhabitant of Never-Never land. Anyway, in Pixie Hollow, all four seasons take place simultaneously with the real world appearing to flow through the region of Pixie Hollow itself.
Although all four seasons are a part of Pixie Hollow, Winter is mysteriously isolated from the other three. Warm fairies are not allowed to enter Winter and winter fairies are equally barred from all the regions we have seen so far. No obviously your first thought is therefore that there is some terrible dark secret buried in Winter. Perhaps the vital pixie dust only appears to come from the Pixie Dust Tree and is actually extracted from the tears of children whose first pet has just died. Maybe the fairies themselves are the manifest dreams of a sleeping Nephilim who has to be soothed to sleep with sacrifice and atrocity2. To my surprise, the rule turns out to be a health & safety issue where the fairies wings are very vulnerable to extremes of temperature and, if broken, cannot be repaired/healed.
Now I want to avoid spoilers because I know how important plot and character development is to the target audience. I'm not going to give away any specific but it's behind the cut anyway.[Spoiler (click to open)]
Obviously, someone crosses the border anyway and has loads of fun until a near miss accident with injured wings. Then a disaster is narrowly averted by quick thinking and self-sacrifice.
There are two really interesting points to make here
I'm sure you can see the films true message now but just in case you need it spelling out:
Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings is a damning indictment of the drugs policy of most governments with a particular focus on the American "War on Drugs". This is amazingly progressive for a company like Disney. This is at least as significant as when "Three Kings" came out!
As you are no doubt aware, fairies are created when a baby giggles for the first time. At this something resembling thistledown, floats off to a region called "Pixie Hollow" which appears to suspended partially outside of the space-time continuum and partially somewhere in the North Sea or the English channel. Why this is the case in an american movie is not entirely clear although it may simply be narrative continuity with Peter Pan. I have no idea why the producers bother as this Tinkerbell, or more properly Tinker Belle1, does not seem to share any character traits with the vicious little goblin from Peter Pan and is clearly not an inhabitant of Never-Never land. Anyway, in Pixie Hollow, all four seasons take place simultaneously with the real world appearing to flow through the region of Pixie Hollow itself.
Although all four seasons are a part of Pixie Hollow, Winter is mysteriously isolated from the other three. Warm fairies are not allowed to enter Winter and winter fairies are equally barred from all the regions we have seen so far. No obviously your first thought is therefore that there is some terrible dark secret buried in Winter. Perhaps the vital pixie dust only appears to come from the Pixie Dust Tree and is actually extracted from the tears of children whose first pet has just died. Maybe the fairies themselves are the manifest dreams of a sleeping Nephilim who has to be soothed to sleep with sacrifice and atrocity2. To my surprise, the rule turns out to be a health & safety issue where the fairies wings are very vulnerable to extremes of temperature and, if broken, cannot be repaired/healed.
Now I want to avoid spoilers because I know how important plot and character development is to the target audience. I'm not going to give away any specific but it's behind the cut anyway.[Spoiler (click to open)]
Obviously, someone crosses the border anyway and has loads of fun until a near miss accident with injured wings. Then a disaster is narrowly averted by quick thinking and self-sacrifice.
There are two really interesting points to make here
- The accident was of the sort common to first generation technical fixes. It is clearly possible to improve the solution and indeed this has happened by the end of the film. The Lord of Winter and Queen Clarion cannot understand the nature of iterative problem solving, neither is a Tinker Fairy, and when the prototype has a bug, condemn the whole project. They treat the other fairies like children when the real problem is their lack of vision.
- The near disaster is a result of the Lord of Winter's reaction to the border crossing and not the border crossing itself! I feel that this is critical to the real message of the film.
I'm sure you can see the films true message now but just in case you need it spelling out:
Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings is a damning indictment of the drugs policy of most governments with a particular focus on the American "War on Drugs". This is amazingly progressive for a company like Disney. This is at least as significant as when "Three Kings" came out!
- "Tinker" being an honorific describing the fairy's talent/job like Doctor.
- Possible plot for the next film there; the fairies' powers, and very selves, begin to waver as the monster stirs in its sleep. The film follows the moral terror of the choice between committing the acts that will soothe the sleeping horror and the prospect of a world without fairies where the leviathan is free to ravage and plunder as it wills.