This was kind of amusing, albeit it would’ve made for a much better article had they actually included a photo of the specially-decorated Tinker Bell 737 instead of merely a flight attendant wearing pixie wings…
Southwest Adds Pixie Dust in Deal with Disney
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/nov/01/010000/bz-southwest-adds-pixie-dust-in-deal-with-disney/
Last week some changes were also made to Mickey’s Toontown Fair at the Magic Kingdom to help promote the new DVD with the addition of a Tinker Bell character meeting place called Pixie Hollow (apparently one of the lines in the Country Fair tent was converted from Fab Five characters over to Tink & Co. – not sure if/where Goofy, Donald and Pluto will be relocated to…).
I probably shouldn’t judge until I’ve seen the actual flick for myself, but so far I’m not really all that crazy about Disney’s efforts to market Tinker Bell and “the other fairies” like they did with the Princesses brand, for a couple of reasons:
A) Tinker Bell doesn’t talk and she’s very small. It’s conflicting for me to see her both life-size and giggling with guests as she takes pictures and autographs, and then later flying across the sky at the start of Wishes, all small and fairy-like again. And Tinker Bell’s friends?! Gimme a break…
B) I don’t like how Disney has turned sassy into sexy with this character, filling its gift shops with sparkly t-shirts and whatnots bearing all sorts of mildly suggestive phrases boasting of being naughty and spoiled. Color me old-fashioned, but although they may look cute and push the envelope a bit for the adults, I don’t think they’re appropriate for Disney’s parks.
C) And finally, just like all of their other straight-to-dvd efforts, this just feels like another shameless marketing ploy to make some bucks instead of an opportunity to tell a really good story … which is odd because I distinctly remember John Lasseter saying that he was going to put a stop to the bastardization of Disney’s characters with all of these cheap to produce, but profitable movies. Sure, they’re sufficient to throw in front of the kids so parents can have 90 minutes of peace and quiet, but so is Barney the obnoxious, purple dinosaur – Disney is supposed to be about quality.
Who knows, I guess I should probably Netflix Disney’s latest atrocity one of these days so that I can see for myself if there’s actually a watchable story for anyone older than 9 behind all of that pretty CGI, but in the meantime, I’m just going to keep cringing by default whenever I see the saucy fairy flaunting herself on t-shirts and hats and movie posters to a generation that’s never even heard of a little movie called Peter Pan.
Sorry, Tink, but I liked you better when you were all about pixie dust instead of, well, you know…