Tinker Bell is a 2008 movie produced by Disney Toons Studios. It is the first in a series of spinoffs starring the famous Peter Pan character. It is animated at Prana Studios in India.

This movie establishes the mythology of the Tinker Bell spinoffs. We learn that fairies bring nature to the world. They do things like paint flowers, train wild animals and make rainbows. It’s quite poetic. We also learn that fairies are born from a baby’s laugh. On the day Tinker Bell comes to life, she is greeted by the queen fairy and invited to choose a job – it’s like a Sorting Hat ceremony. A hammer glows brightly for Tinker Bell, indicating she is going to be a tinker. Tinkers are the ones who build tools for the other fairies. They make things like pots, wheelbarrows and baskets.

I love that Tinker Bell is an engineer/mechanic. I was not expecting this from a movie about fairies. What a nice surprise! The strongest moment of the film is when Tinker Bell falls in love with lost things (ie. human-made objects) and starts tinkering with them. It’s once again very poetic when she pioneers the fairy tradition of repairing children’s toys and bringing them back to their owners. She fixes a beautiful music box and brings it back to a little girl called Wendy. The ending is quite visually striking as the fairies bring spring to our world.

What’s unfortunate is that Tinker Bell spends most of the movie hating on tinkers. Then, right at the end, she single-handedly builds machines that can make in a matter of hours what took the other fairies months to do. I love her machines, but automatisation doesn’t happen overnight! Tinker Bell seems way too overpowered. But what bothers me the most is a scene where Tinker Bell’s male colleagues (a fat guy and a bespectacled nerd) leer at her sexy dress. What is that cliche supposed to teach little girls?

Anyway, Tinker Bell is still a respectable kids’ movie about the power of engineering. It shows great appreciation for nature’s beauty and it includes some cool Celtic music.

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