49 Fun Facts About Tinkerbell

In J. M. Barrie's novel, what is Tinker Bell's gown made from?

A skeleton leaf, cut low and square so that her figure 'could be seen to the best advantage': Barrie wrote her as 'slightly inclined to embonpoint', an old word for plumpness.

According to Barrie, what job did Tinker Bell do among the fairies?

She mended pots and kettles, which is a tinker's trade, and Peter tells Wendy that this is exactly why she is called Tinker Bell.

What was Tinker Bell called in the first draft of Barrie's play?

Tippy-toe was the fairy's name in Barrie's first draft; as Tinker Bell she speaks only in 'a tinkle of bells', the fairy language that Peter has to translate.

How was Tinker Bell represented in the original stage productions?

A darting light from a hand mirror: the stage manager bounced a spotlight off it to send her flitting round the nursery, while a collar of bells supplied her voice.

Why did Barrie add fairy dust to Peter Pan after its first production?

Children were hurt trying to fly: parents asked Barrie for the change, because youngsters had gone home, launched themselves from their beds and 'needed surgical attention'.

In Barrie's story, why can Tinker Bell hold only one feeling at a time?

She is too small: Barrie wrote that fairies have 'room for one feeling only at a time', so a jealous Tink is all bad until she changes, and the change must be complete.

What is Tinker Bell's favourite insult in Barrie's play and novel?

You silly ass: Peter has to translate it for Wendy the first time, but by Act II Barrie's stage direction calls it 'the tinkle we can now translate'.

In Barrie's play, how does Tinker Bell save Peter before the audience saves her?

Drinks his poisoned medicine: Hook doses the cup while Peter sleeps, Peter refuses to believe her warning, and she drains it herself before he can, then lies dying until the audience claps.

At the end of Barrie's novel, what happens when Wendy asks Peter about Tinker Bell?

He cannot remember who she is: 'There are such a lot of them,' Peter shrugs, guessing 'she is no more', and the narrator expects he is right, because fairies do not live long.

In Disney's 1953 Peter Pan, what does a jealous Tinker Bell convince the Lost Boys to do?

Shoot Wendy down: Tink tells the boys that Peter ordered it, and he banishes her when he learns the truth, a grudge Captain Hook later plays on to find Peter's hideout.

How does Tinker Bell save Peter from Hook's trap in the 1953 Disney film?

Snatches away a bomb: Hook's pirates leave it ticking in the hideout, Tink grabs it from Peter just as it goes off, and he has to dig her out of the rubble.

Which star was wrongly rumoured to be the model for Disney's Tinker Bell, really dancer Margaret Kerry?

Marilyn Monroe is the name the legend attached to Tink, but animator Marc Davis worked from film of Margaret Kerry, who spent six months miming the fairy's every move on a soundstage.

In 1961, Tinker Bell began flying above Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland to launch what?

The fireworks: a costumed performer rode a wire down from the top of the Matterhorn above the crowd, and the show called Fantasy in the Sky burst out as she passed the castle.

Who plays Tinker Bell in Steven Spielberg's 1991 film Hook?

Julia Roberts's Tink spends 'the only wish I ever wished for myself' on growing to human size to kiss the grown-up Peter, only to hear him say that he loves his wife.

In Hook, Tinker Bell bargains with Captain Hook for three days to do what?

Get Peter in shape to fight: Tink asks for a week to turn the middle-aged lawyer back into Pan, Hook offers two days, she counters with four, and they settle on three.

Which French actress played Tinker Bell in the 2003 live-action film Peter Pan?

Ludivine Sagnier changed the film-makers' minds: they had planned a fully computer-animated fairy, but her performance won her the part, played live with digitally created wings.

Who played Tinker Bell in Disney's 2023 film Peter Pan & Wendy?

Yara Shahidi's Tink breaks with tradition: she is never jealous of Wendy, befriends her instead, and ends the film thanking Wendy for being the one who listened to her.

In 1929, Barrie gave the Peter Pan rights to which London hospital?

Great Ormond Street Hospital did not lose the gift when the copyright ran out: Parliament added a special clause to the 1988 copyright act giving it royalties from Peter Pan in the UK for ever.

Tiny Kline, Disneyland's first flying Tinker Bell at around 70, had spent her career as what?

A circus aerialist: Kline's signature stunt was the 'slide for life', gliding down a wire while hanging by her teeth; at Disneyland she rode one from the Matterhorn towards the castle.

According to the Disney Fairies franchise, how is a Never fairy born?

From a baby's first laugh, an idea borrowed from Barrie: Peter tells Wendy that the first baby's laugh 'broke into a thousand pieces' that went skipping about, 'and that was the beginning of fairies'.

What is the name of the fairies' home in the Disney Fairies films?

Pixie Hollow is Disney's own invention: Barrie's Tink lives in a curtained hole in the wall of Peter's underground home, 'the size of a band-box'.

Who voices Tinker Bell in the Disney Fairies films, from 2008 to 2015?

Mae Whitman gave Tink her first spoken lines in a Disney film: for the 55 years since Peter Pan the fairy had only jingled and mimed on screen.

At the end of Disney's 2008 film Tinker Bell, what does Tink repair and return to a young Wendy?

A music box: Tink pieces it together from parts washed up on the beach, which shows her that her own talent is worth having, and she is trusted to deliver it to its owner herself.

In Disney's first Tinker Bell film, what does Tink learn that tinker fairies never get to do?

Visit the mainland: only nature-talent fairies travel to the human world to bring the seasons, so Tink tries to swap talents, and every attempt ends in disaster.

Which of Tinker Bell's fairy friends is the water fairy?

Silvermist is the water fairy: in the first film she takes Tink to the ponds to teach her to place dewdrops on spider webs, a lesson that fails completely.

Which ill-tempered fast-flying fairy dislikes Tinker Bell from the start?

Vidia tricks Tink into chasing the sprinting thistles and then sets them loose, wrecking the fairies' work for spring; her punishment is to round up every thistle herself.

Which pop singer voices Tinker Bell's friend Terence in the Disney Fairies films?

Jesse McCartney voices Terence, whose quarrel with Tink drives the second film: she flies off alone in a home-made balloon, and he follows her across the sea to put things right.

In Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, what does Tink shatter that the fairies need to make blue pixie dust?

A moonstone: every eight years a blue harvest moon shines through it to make the dust that renews the Pixie Dust Tree, and Tink, trusted to build its sceptre, smashes the stone in a temper.

In Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, what is the name of the human girl who befriends Tink?

Lizzy, short for Elizabeth Griffiths, has built a fairy house and finds Tink stuck inside it, then fills a journal with everything the fairy teaches her.

What is the name of Tinker Bell's twin sister, whom she meets in Secret of the Wings?

Periwinkle is a frost fairy from the Winter Woods; the sisters had never met because fairies of the warm seasons are forbidden to cross the border, where the cold can break their wings.

Which Pretty Little Liars star voices Tink's sister in Secret of the Wings?

Lucy Hale voices the frost fairy, whose wings begin to glow when Tink crosses into the Winter Woods, the first sign that the two of them are sisters.

What is Zarina's fairy talent at the start of Disney's The Pirate Fairy?

Dust-keeping: Zarina is thrown out of the job when her secret experiments on blue pixie dust cause an accident, so she runs away and comes back as captain of a pirate crew.

Which Marvel star voices James, the future Captain Hook, in The Pirate Fairy?

Tom Hiddleston's James passes himself off as the pirates' cabin boy until Zarina has given him what he wants, then turns on her and reveals that he was the real captain all along.

What is the name of the creature Fawn befriends in Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast?

Gruff is feared as the monster of an old legend, but his rock towers turn out to draw a deadly storm's lightning into himself, saving the fairies before he sleeps for another thousand years.

Which Once Upon a Time actress took over as the voice of Fawn in Legend of the NeverBeast?

Ginnifer Goodwin took over Fawn from Angela Bartys just as the animal fairy became the lead: it is Fawn, not Tink, who befriends the beast and guides him into the heart of the storm.

Which fairy takes the lead instead of Tinker Bell in Disney's 2011 TV special about the fairies' sporting games?

Rosetta, a garden fairy with a horror of dirt, is pushed into the games beside the keen newcomer Chloe and ends up driving through a mudslide to win her team its first title.

In the official 2006 sequel Peter Pan in Scarlet, whom does Tinker Bell end up marrying?

Fireflyer, a blue fairy famous for the size of his lies, wishes Tink back into the story from Hook's treasure chest; she cannot stand him at first, yet they end up married and selling dreams.

In the Peter and the Starcatchers books, what was Tinker Bell before she became a fairy?

A bird: at the end of the first book Lord Aster uses starstuff, the magical dust that falls from the heavens, to turn it into a fairy who will watch over Peter.

In 2010, Tinker Bell joined Mickey Mouse and Snow White in receiving which Hollywood honour?

A star on the Walk of Fame, unveiled on Hollywood Boulevard in September 2010: it honours a film career in which, for more than half a century, she never spoke a word.

Which actress was announced as Tinker Bell's voice for the 2008 film but replaced before its release?

Brittany Murphy was unveiled as Tink's voice in June 2006 for a film due the next year; after two dozen script versions and several directors it arrived in 2008 with a new lead.

Which Oscar-winning actress voices Queen Clarion in the Disney Fairies films?

Anjelica Huston's Queen Clarion greets the newborn Tink, and in the fourth film turns out to have a secret of her own: a long-forbidden romance with Lord Milori, ruler of the winter fairies.

Which Welsh actor voices Dr. Griffiths, the sceptical scientist father, in Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue?

Michael Sheen's Dr. Griffiths pins butterflies in the name of science and dismisses his daughter's fairies as nonsense, right up until he traps one in a jar in his own house.

Which former James Bond voices Lord Milori, leader of the Winter fairies, in Secret of the Wings?

Timothy Dalton's Lord Milori hides a broken wing under his cape: it snapped when he crossed the border for love long ago, and that injury is the reason the two realms were kept apart.

Which Project Runway winner designed Zarina's costumes for The Pirate Fairy?

Christian Siriano was hired by Disney to dress its newest fairy and said he wanted to make Zarina 'memorable and iconic', and to help 'create a bit of Disney history'.

Which actress played Tink in season three of ABC's Once Upon a Time?

Rose McIver's Tink is a fairy in disgrace: she stole pixie dust to guide Regina, the Evil Queen, to her true love, and the Blue Fairy punished her by taking away her wings.

Tinker Bell closes which 1988 film by sprinkling fairy dust after Porky Pig says 'That's all, folks'?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit let Disney and Warner Bros. characters share the screen, so Porky Pig stutters out his sign-off and Tinker Bell sprinkles the picture to black.

In Disney's Return to Never Land, why does Tinker Bell's light begin to fade?

Jane says she doesn't believe in fairies, and Tink sickens at once; to save her, Peter and the Lost Boys set about turning Wendy's sceptical daughter into one of their own.

The fictitious 'Jane Wren' credited as Tinker Bell in theatre programmes once received a demand from whom?

H.M. Inspector of Taxes: the name was a joke that kept up the mystique of a fairy no actress played, and it worked well enough for the tax office to send the invented performer a demand note.

Which singer performed 'Fly to Your Heart' on the soundtrack of the 2008 Tinker Bell film?

Selena Gomez soon played the fairy herself: months after the film came out, her Wizards of Waverly Place character Alex had to step in as Tinker Bell in a school production of Peter Pan.