Jab’s Builds! (Whomp 'Em! Plumbers Don't Wear Ties! ToeJam & Earl!)

[Jabroniville]

A quick Google Image search turns up some pics of said Margaret Kelly modelling for Tink.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

[Woodclaw]

The interesting thing about Peter is that he's, quite possibly, one of the most egregious cases of "adaptation diluition". In the original theatrical script by Barry, Peter had a very diabolical quality, in a way he was very much like the coach-driver from Pinocchio or the Krampus, stealing unruly children from their parents. As time went by, this element became more and more watered down, until he was more or less a pure kid-hero.

In this sense, I always that having the same actor performing Mr. Darling and Captain Hook served a double purpose: one, to save money; two, it provided a hint for the audience that Hook is, in fact, the only authority figure of Neverland. Pretty much all the other adult-ish characters from the book are more or less dominated by Peter or are just a backdrop for his adventures. Hook is the only character that dare defy the flying boy.

[Jabroniville]

I also forgot to mention Once Upon A Time In Wonderland, which was a spin-off of ABC's Once Upon A Time, which was then a REALLY hot show. Unfortunately, the spin-off bombed, and OUAT itself soon fell off the pop culture radar, leading to several weak seasons.

I think OUAT Suffered from a bad case of Heroes-itis,as the Seaons were fantastic when they had Maleficent/Rumple as Villian's(mostly due to the Actress/Actor OWNING that roll),but struggled with it's identity when they weren't(the Neverland season is a good example of this).

I really need to watch the early seasons. I keep finding new stuff to watch, so my backlog is ridiculous. A full 22-episode season of hour-long shows is insane to me now- I've owned these since two seasons ago, and now the show is off the air.

Speaking of Once Upon a Time, the best part of the last seasons was Regina's constant snark towards Hook, this time played by a pretty-boy Johnny Depp-type. Her snarky-ass "Captain Guyliner" remark was always a highlight .

[Jabroniville]

There was a pretty fun Peter Pan series that appeared on Fox (I believe it was called Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates) that was suppose to be very faithful to the original works.

Peter Pan is interesting in that he's definitely not your average good-natured, heroic Disney hero who at most will have a bit of a sense of humor. Peter Pan is this immature kid who enjoys getting into trouble, pulling pranks, and being kind of a jerk at times. He's very much a "fun personified" kind of character, but with no real sense of responsibility. Like Jab said, he's basically the embodiment of everything a little boy wants: he can fly, lives in a place with no adults, gets to go on all kinds of adventures, has a literal boys club, never has to grow up or take on any real responsibilities, and can enjoy being a general wise ass and jerk to whomever annoys him.

The Fox cartoon actually had several episode plots started by Peter causing trouble.

"What, this? Something I stole from the Snow Titan this morning, just to see if I could. Cause I'm awesome!"

*the harshest blizzard in the history of the universe hits Never Land like the fist of an angry god*

" . . . . I wonder if he noticed."

Oh man, that show is in that weird zone between when I watched tons of cartoons as a kid, and when I watched tons of cartoon as an adult- I watched TONS of it (it was on right after I got home from school), but I remember nothing. I dunno what it was, but the shows of my teens are a total blank. I remember being impressed, though- I wasn't that taken with Peter Pan as a kid, so I didn't expect the show to appeal to me, but the boisterous, loud, but still RESPECTABLE Captain Hook was a kick-ass villain. They really put out the sense that he was a menace in that show- a villain with some dignity is a really rare thing in kids' shows. Especially one who has to lose to CHILDREN all the time.

[HalloweenJack]

A quick Google Image search turns up some pics of said Margaret Kelly modelling for Tink.

I also saw one of Bobby Driscoll modeling Peter, and you can see both him in Peter and that he was just an older version of the kid from Song of the South

[Jabroniville]

haha, this is terrific: https://style.disney.com/living/2014/07 ... s-darling/

Some girl's blog devoted to Disney Style, and she has a whole post devoted to Mary Darling.

[Jabroniville]

Doing the "About the Performer" stuff is great fun, though leads to a lot of "Bobby Driscoll"-type stories. There's some casting gags in the '60s stuff that were probably known to audiences of that decade, but are totally lost on us now. Since a lot of these are really "just re-posts", I felt the need to delve into the careers of the voice actors. Disney had a big repertory company going by the sixties, and celebrity stunt-casting was always kind of a thing (Eva & Zsa Zsa Gabor, etc.). And I had no idea that Captain Hook was also The Grinch.

oh, and while I was re-posting Disney Builds, and hit Peter Pan... you KNOW there was a certain spin-off that was inevitably going to have to be re-posted, right ? Sure, it was more recent (only a couple of years ago), but you KNOW how I hate posting related sets so far apart EVER so much.

[Jabroniville]

DISNEY FAIRIES (2005-2015):

You know, I pride myself on being attracted to older-looking women. The older I get, the less attractive very young types look, to the point where anyone under 25 just looks and acts like a baby to me. I think it's a healthy part of aging to be more into people in your own age group.

And then I go and see something like this (1:40)

And I am reminded that I am a DIRTY, DIRTY, DIRTY, DIRTY OLD MAN.


Seriously, though, that Vidia.

-Y'know, I really wasn't gonna watch these Straight-To-DVD Movies. I looked at the general concept and just found it to be a little TOO girly (and keep in mind I own Disney Princess Merchandise), and more of the usual Disney Corporate Machine's natural tendencies towards draining every last drop out of a franchise- the fact that this looked like it was constructed Entirely By Committee and not actual creative talent wasn't helping- the Multiracial Cast just comes off as cloying and goofy (John Kricfalusi joked "Are we sure we have one of every race yet?"). The various looks and dresses of the characters SCREAM that this is just "For the Merch", so they could sell dozens more Fashion Dolls of each personality (The dumb one! The mean one! The black one! The sporty one!). I caught The Secret of the Wings on TV once, and sorta half-watched it, and found it merely "okay", if a bit clever with some of the characters, and largely forgot about it. And the girls look cute, but a Fairy Fetish is nonsensical... you don't FIT together! What are you supposed to do, put them in your butt? ... So I wasn't gonna see any more.

However, The Pirate Fairy looked cute, and a friend of mine insisted it was this brilliant little world, and so I rented the movie. Surprise, surprise, it was actually good! But it wasn't until I saw them IN ORDER where I really appreciated certain aspects. They're actually surprisingly-funny, well-animated (no cheapy-CGI effects or weird movements of the characters so common to poor CGI works), and have some interesting characters (many don't get that much focus, though). The designs on some of them are pretty cool as well, and they've really got a unique society and world built up here.

Oddly, the whole thing started from an illustrated Children's Book series started in 2005 by Gail Carson Levine, a writer and J.M. Barrie fan who was hired by Disney to produce a series of spin-off books for Tinker Bell, herself the most-popular symbol of the Peter Pan film. The sassy little Fanservicey Fairy's been a huge part of Disney Iconography for decades, so it seemed a natural way to go- Levine filled out some backstory and created a little "world" in Pixie Hollow (part of Never Land), where Fairies have pre-selected Talents and train for them since birth (they're born as speaking adult-like creatures), in a perfect society with no money and ruled over by one all-powerful leade... oh shit, they're Communists.

THE BOOKS:
Fairy Dust and the Quest For The Egg came out in late 2005, setting off a huge marketing campaign, website, virtual world and more. Set after the 1953 Peter Pan movie, it starred an "Audience Surrogate" in the innocent Prilla, and a fairly grim quest to save all of Never Land when the egg of Mother Love, their "God" (whose egg keeps everyone on Never Land from aging), is broken during a hurricane. Tinker Bell appears as a major character showing Prilla around, but she doesn't feature into the major story; Levine is busy creating new stuff. Tink at least appears in-character- somewhat selfish, fighty and prone to lectures. A series of Chapter Books immediately followed, all of which are much lighter in tone- some are straight-up "slice of life" while others are more adventurous, but it's pretty light reading. Other books are are a combination of many things- some are just quickie versions of some stories from the movies, while others are totally-original. Most are short 20-40 page picture books with minimal text for small children, but some are full-ish sized Junior Novels. Some focus on random side-Fairies you'll never see anywhere else, with plenty of one-shots- in fact, most of them are like this, and only feature Tinker Bell herself as a SUPPORTING character, and that's if she appears at all!

The girls seen in her "Close Group" in the films also appear as tangential characters, at-best. There's running gags about some of the overly-specific Fairy Talents (Hole-In-Cheese-Punching Talent?), and more of the day-to-day habits of Pixie Hollow. The art is generally well-painted, though the Fairies themselves are given a more sketchy, pencil-outlined look that makes them stand out from the backgrounds (and even the animals and foreground!). Levine herself would write a pair of sequels- the final one coming out in 2010.

The books are... cute. They're simple and clever at times, and occasionally rather funny. Levine writes the character of Vidia as an INSANELY selfish, sarcastic, insincere bitch, and subsequent writers (the Chapter Books are done by four or five different women) each use her in at least one scene, largely where she arrives, gives insincere terms of endearment to the main character of the story, tries to hurt their self-esteem, then leaves. Levine's books are actually harrowing, life-or-death stuff.

THE MOVIES:
-The films, starting in 2008 and being MUCH more famous, are effectively an entirely different continuity, keeping SOME of Levine's work, but throwing out at least half of it- major characters Prilla, Rani and others from the books never appear, and the series is now set far in the past from Peter Pan. Mother Dove is not a thing in this universe, and fairy dust has a different origin entirely. Early "Merch" for the line resembles the book characters, but once Tinker Bell came out on DVD, you never saw those girls again- The movies keep a handful of originals (Queen Clarion, Vidia & Terence, basically), but dump the entirety of the rest of the cast to the curb. Some 2007-era book characters are turned into Tink's "Core Group" instead- Rosetta, Iridessa, Silvermist and Fawn. Notably, our "Audience Surrogate" is actually TINKER BELL, who is newly-born from a baby's first laugh. Tink... is very different from what we saw in Peter Pan. She's a bit tempermental and mischievous, but is not the type to try and murder a human girl out of jealousy, for example. They make her into much more of a "Lovable Girl Protagonist" character, being more naive and desperate to stand out.

Generally, the films ignore all the "Daily Life" stuff and focus on the adventure aspect, with Tink as the main character, and a small group of girls centred around her. The art is kind of neat, with a long of elongated, skinny Fairies and Sparrow Men (their name for the males of the species). The Crossover Merch extends mostly into books and toys, plus a few "Minigame" focused Video Games for the handheld systems, and an MMORPG that lasted a couple years (also based around Minigames).

The films started in 2008 (there were six, about one per year), and are basically The Tinker Bell Show (naturally), with the rest of her friends as hangers-on. There was supposed to be a movie sooner, but apparently the 2-D version done was "borderline unwatchable" according to John Lasseter, who demanded they scrap it and start over. Time has once again proven him right in his decision-making. Curiously, they more or less expect you to have watched them in order, because they don't bother explaining the characters or their relationships in any of the later ones- Tink's friends get little enough dialogue that you have to guess sometimes- having watched some of the later ones first, I was unaware of many of the interpersonal relationships, or the character traits of the girls until partway through. In the second film, Vidia gets a scene where she pouts for a bit when Tink does well, and you'd have NO IDEA WHY if you hadn't seen the first film.

The movies are also supplemented by a HUGE number of YouTube mini-clips, usually based around wacky antics or a cutesy gag. Some are very clever and even outright hilarious- some of the best Fairy stuff to show others are the goofy ones. It's actually very similar to Monster High and Ever After High in that regard- they too made use of the "3-minute clips to advertise the line, while big movies advertised the Big New Merch" thing.

Naturally, there's a lot of For The Merch stuff going on here, but anyone familiar with Disney is used to that- I pretty much learned to accept that eons ago (I love Disney's films, f'rinstance, despite their Cookie-Cutter tendencies at times). Never mind that absolutely every franchise we ever loved as kids was For The Merch, too. In this case, each new movie would focus on giving a minor outfit change for one or more of the Fairies, and the last three would do big-time Doll Releases of a new character (or, in the last movie's case, a redesign for Fawn). Disney's push was big enough that Tinker Bell's new outfit in the second film got mainstream recognition (Tink's look is damn near as iconic as SUPERMAN's, and I swear it got a similar reaction), and they even instituted a Pixie Hollow in the Disney Parks! Both Disney World and Disneyland got them, with DL replacing Ariel's Grotto with an attraction starring all the Disney Fairies! Initially it was just Tink and her friends, but The Great Fairy Rescue saw Vidia being added to the roster, which led to some fun, as she's one of the few Disney Face Characters allowed to be rude and/or snarky to guests.

THE SIX(ish) FILMS:
Tinker Bell (2008): Tinker Bell is born from a baby's first laugh, and learns all about how fairies work. However, disliking her boring "Pots and Pans" tinker-talent, she attempts to learn other ones (from her multiracial band of new friends), disappointing her fellows. She must learn to accept her place in society like a good Communist.
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure (2009): Tink has a big falling out with her semi-platonic male friend Terence, and has to go on a Fetch Quest to fix the magic stone that gives the Fairies their pixie dust.
Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (2010): Antagonistic Vidia ends up getting Tink captured by humans, and does a Face Turn in helping out in the rescue, largely out of guilt. Tink befriends her human girl captor, and teaches her about Fairies, much to the chagrin of her "Fairies aren't real!" father.
The Pixie Hollow Games (2011): A small TV special, about the length of a regular TV show. It stars Rosetta as the main character, as her girlishnses and inability to play sports annoys her teammate Chloe, who wants to WIN the Games.
The Secret of the Wings (2012): A big advertising thing starred the introduction of Tinker Bell's TWIN SISTER, the Frost Fairy known as Periwinkle. A whole new cast comes out.
The Pirate Fairy (2014): A Dusty Fairy who got fired steals the "Blue Pixie Dust" and leads a pirate crew, including an Eton-educated young man named James.
Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2015): The final film in the series sees FAWN suddenly become the main character, getting a more toy-worthy redesign and a bit of a personality shift and new Voice Actor. She tries to defend a mysterious creature known as Gruff from the protective Scout Fairies, leading to a great prophecy about the destruction of Pixie Hollow!

THE END OF THINGS:
-Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Tragically, this was barely a YEAR after I got into the franchise, but they killed it off in 2015, after falling DVD sales (Secret of the Wings was actually the biggest one, though), and Merch sales had never met expectations. Any planned further pictures (the plans for them are unknown) were cancelled, and Pixie Hollow was soon removed from Disney World, with Tink now meeting guests on her lonesome. The book series had long since slowed down, with Levine's last book being five years earlier. Disney Fairies iconography disappeared from new merchandise, with a new Tink line coming out, just featuring her, before that too disappeared. Tink still appears on Merch, as one of Disney's most popular and iconic characters (in fact, she appears on more stuff than anyone short of the Princesses and Frozen girls!), but typically has to get in on other lines (the Animators' Collection "Girls as Babies" one, or the "Animators' Collection in Tiny Dollhouse" one), rather than have one of her own.

The Disney Fairies franchise was never that huge, and honestly, a lot of people just kind of snarked at it. Taking one popular character from a 50-year old movie and basing an entire franchise around her? With a stereotypical, often one-note group of friends? The fact that it was so clearly all about Merch was a turn-off, too. The DVDs did okay, and the target audience of little girls enjoyed it enough, I presume, as it lasted a good five years from beginning till end- 2005's first book saw the other books come out a year and a bit later, and the film followed in the next... so overall, it was about seven years. Given how short a toyline can really run as a fad (as the target audience grows out of it, and the new generation gets into something else new rather than coming in on the fifth year of something), that's not too shabby, though I'm sure Disney wanted more.

Our own Batgirl noted in 2015:

The reason for the downward trend in the Disney Faeries franchise is, IMHO, the inexorable march of time. The line kicked off in 2008 — seven years ago! So those girls aged 5-10 that it was targeting are 12-17 now! Even their little sisters who would have grown up with the franchise a permanent fixture on the family's Netflix Box will be starting to outgrow it. My young wards are eight and five, the eldest went from a total faerie-obsession last spring to rejecting all things "too princess-y" this spring.

The Positives:
* Well-animated. It's a bit rough in the first movie, but by the end they're releasing quality stuff, albeit there's not a lot of full-bore mind-blowing Effects Porn sequences like you'll get in most Hollywood releases these days. It's basically somewhere between every CGI cartoon show on the air (from ReBoot to Sofia the First) and Feature Film CGI Animation.
* Quirky Characters- Tink herself maintains some edge and personality, and she's got a Dumb Friend, a Girly-Girl Friend, a Tomboy Friend and of course a Magnificent Bitch character.
* Fanservicey- for a movie series directed at mostly young children, it's nice to see they threw half the characters into the tiniest skirts imaginable. And since it's for kids you can't have chesty women, so naturally they go with the old standby of Hartman Hips to make every woman a supremely bottom-heavy Ass Goddess.
* VIDIA!!! Vidia is hilariously rude, snarky, sarcastic and mean. Vidia's the greatest. We're married.
* The Voice Acting is excellent- Pro Voice Actors (Mae "Katara" Whitman, Pamela "Bobby Hill" Adlon, Rob "Pinkie/'80s Raph/2010s Donnie" Paulsen, Jeff "Brooklyn" Bennett) make up a good chunk of the Main Cast, while actual celebrities (Angelica Huston, Kristin Chenoweth, Lucy Liu) feature into the others. We even get Christina Hendricks & Tom Hiddleston in The Pirate Fairy!
* Some of the Voice Actors are GORGEOUS. Cheno is a Goddess naturally, and her replacement- Megan Hilty- is EVEN HOTTER! Christina Hendricks plays Zarina in the latest one, too. Also, Bobby Hill is a hot piece of ass. Naturally, this has nothing to do with an ANIMATED FILM, but it's worth noting.
* It is a neat world created here- they use everyday objects from nature and the human world as tools to create Fairy-Sized equivalents to our tech (scissors, Mouse Chariots, etc.).
* While the books are largely based around small, personal problems (so & so loses something; so & so needs to bake a cake for some Fairy thing), the movies almost always feel like Big Dealings Afoot- Pixie Hollow itself is threatened in movies four through six, the Seasons are in danger in the first two, and Tink's life itself is threatened in five of the six.
* It's way funnier than I was expecting. The slapstick is actually surprisingly-amusing instead of eye-rolling.
* The films actually seem to get better as time goes on, and the characters get more fun. The Pirate Fairy is arguably the best one, and The Legend of the NeverBeast is a hell of a one to go out on.

The Negatives:
* Some of the character designs are a bit bland, even in the Main Cast of Fairies. Basically monochromatic dresses and regular old haircuts (Rosetta has red hair and a pink outfit; Silvermist has dark hair and wears light blue; etc.). It seems they're designed more to be PRETTY than to look cool or interesting at times, and are plain to avoid overshadowing Tink. This is odd, because the books' characters are often quite detailed, with elaborate floral-designed outfits. However, these characters tend to make TINKER BELL look like she's the plain one, so I think that's why the film versions are so much more drab.
* The Supporting Cast, while neat, is HORRIBLY under-written 90% of the time, with each girl getting a few decent lines per film, but often just sit around doing nothing while someone else gets all the focus. It's REALLY notable in the second movie, and in many of the latter ones, they're just kind of the Hangers-On who each do one thing, and have this same Generic Friendly Girl persona. It's to the point where I didn't even pick up on their distinct personalities until I went back and watched the FIRST movie! This means that their own interpersonal relationships don't really get touched on- they don't poke fun at each other or even argue that much, save for a couple dynamic personalities.
* Peculiarly, despite being a franchise targeted at girls, romance plays a VERY small part in the films- Rosetta seems a bit "flitterpated" (HO HO I AM THE FUNNEE) at the sight of a handsome Snow Fairy, but the rest of the time you'll see no interaction. It wouldn't be such a big thing (not EVERY Disney Thing needs to have a giant romantic plot riveted on to the main story), but seeing a BIT of it wouldn't be so bad. It seems like they gloss the entire thing over (to the point of hilarity in a later film).
* The songs kind of suck. Except for A Frigate That Flies from the fifth movie, the songs are all generic "woman singing in a light, sing-songy voice" types of songs. Just meaningless muzak to fill time for a montage of happy flying.
* They feel pretty short- being about 75 minutes long each, with little in the way of B-plots. Curiously, even Peter Pan was about this long so it's fitting, but a bit disappointing considering the aforementioned lack of dialogue from some characters.

[Jabroniville]

The Cast:
-The films have a pretty celebrity-heavy cast for something that's basically a yearly affair, but a couple of them drop out quickly. It might have been better to stick ALL of the recurring cast with "Authentic Voice Actors" who are less-likely to be busy or drop these for a bigger project (and to give work to Voice Actors, who are an underappreciated group of talent, as many will tell you). Wisely, the casting directors stuck the legit VAs on the bigger recurring roles (Tink is Mae "Katara" Whitman, Vidia is Pamela "Bobby Hill" Adlon). We lose the original Rosetta & Fawn very quickly (you'll never notice Fawn, though NOBODY could mimic Cheno's voice as "Ro"). Curiously, Lucy Liu, who I'd consider the biggest-name actress of the lot (I'm not a fan, but she's a much bigger name than the others), sticks around for every single film & appearance.

The Main Party:
Tinker Bell (Mae Whitman)- Our heroine. A much nicer, more positive character than the more diabolical, murderous character in the original film. She's adventurous, naiive, and a big risk-taker, which is the crux of a lot of the issues of the film series, as she gets herself into a ton of trouble. A "Tinker Talent", she's basically a craftworker and fixer, seen as a bit of an "underclass" that few really consider. She ends up being an Inventor-type.
Rosetta (Kristin Chenoweth, then Megan Hilty)- A Southern Belle-type "Garden Talent" Fairy who controls plants. Kind of a fussbudget "Princess"-type. Doesn't like dirt, mud or anything athletic.
Silvermist (Lucy Liu)- The Asian One. A "Water Talent" with low-end hydrokinesis. A complete space-case airhead, but probably the friendliest of the group.
Iridessa (Raven-Symone)- The Black One. A "Light Talent" who makes rainbows and reflects sunlight. Turns into a bit of a fraidy-cat, generally upset or worried about something. Kind of bland otherwise.
Fawn (America Ferrara, then Angela Bartys, then Ginnifer Goodwin)- ... Vaguely Latina-ish, I suppose? An "Animal Talent" who talks with the critters, and sort of acts like a tomboy. Suddenly becomes the main character of the final film.
Vidia (Pamela Adlon)- A "Fast-Flying Fairy", which is basically a Speedster/Air Control Archetype. A nasty, egotistical, manipulative bitch, softening into a crabby, easily-annoyed snarker. You get one guess as to who the most entertaining character is.

Other Fairies:
Clank & Bobble (Jeff Bennett & Rob Paulsen)- Clank is a big dumb guy, and Bobble is a goofy, exciteable, Absent-Minded Professor-type. Both are Tinker Fairies, and generally act as funny background "Those Two Guys" characters, and someone for Tink to talk to when she's actually doing her job.
Terrence (Jesse McCartney)- A "Dust-Keeper" Fairy who doles out Pixie Dust to the others. A generic pretty boy, and a major character in the second film.
Queen Clarion (Angelica Huston)- Sort of a Teleporting God to the Fairies, generally acting ultra-serene. She and the four Ministers of the Seasons appear much taller than the other Fairies, appearing to "hover" in a straight line with dresses & robes that fade away before touching ground.
Periwinkle (Lucy Hale)- A "Frost Fairy", and Tinker Bell's sister (it was ADVERTISED like this; it's not a spoiler).
The Frost Fairies- We meet a bunch of them alongside Peri, especially their grim, stern King Milori (Timothy Dalton). There's also the generic handsome Sled, the manic Gliss & the lazy, snarky Spike.
Zarina (Christina Hendricks)- "The Pirate Fairy". Got her own film- an outsider-ish sort like Tink.

[BriarThrone]

"Bobby Hill is a hot piece of ass." - Jabroniville, 2018.

[Jabroniville]

"Bobby Hill is a hot piece of ass." - Jabroniville, 2018.

BUT IT’S TRUE!!! IT’S TRUUUUUE!!!!

[BriarThrone]

Pamela Adlon is gorgeous, sure. But without context, it doesn't sound like you're talking about her. And context, sir, is dead.

[Jabroniville]

MY FAIRY BUILDS:
-Though my Disney Fandom was no doubt known to many, as I'd done a set in 2013, people were naturally a bit prone to joking about my doing Disney Fairies builds.

In November of 2014, I made the following question:

Next Up: A brief stop-over between Avengers villains for the moment- this batch WILL feature a super-powered team of brave heroes, though. Super-Speed, Light Control, Plant Control, Animal Communication, Water Control and a technical genius- only ONE of whom has ever been built on an incarnation of the Think Tank!

Batgirl's guess: I keep trying to guess, but every group I think of doesn't cover all these bases: the Planeteers didn't have a speedster; the Thundercats didn't have a plant-controller; the Power Rangers have had all of these, some more than once. But never all of them on the same Ranger team.

Horsenhero: Doesn't sound like the subs. The subs didn't have a speedster...or a technical genius that I'm aware of, plus I think Jab has built all the subs before. What kind of powersets were in the Fallen Angels? We had a technical genius, a guy with two pet lobsters, the Vanisher (whom Jab has built) and...umm...some other kids. I dunno, I'm stumped.

And the Power Rangers had super-powers besides HKAT style martial arts and giant robots? Huh. I guess I should've paid more attention.

Batgirl again: Super-Speed, was part of Comet Queen's power set; Light Control, could refer to Color Kid; Plant Control, would be Chlorophyll Kid; Animal Communication, is a stretch, but I'd say the Legion of Super-Pets count; Water Control would be Polar Boy. The technical genius could be Polar Boy, Bouncing Boy, or any of them really. But those two were generally the brains.

My response: I've also already statted the entire Legion and the Planeteers . Here's another hint- they all have wings.

Poor Kenmadragon noted: And suddenly I'm scared. Very scared. Fearing for my life scared.

Batgirl pretty much immediately guessed it, and Psistrike joined in thereafter saying they all fit.


People were, of course, a bit suspicious. Some good-natured jibes were had. A few watched some YouTube clips and pointed out some amusing things.



My good buddy Skavenger noted, from back on Ronin Army, before he sadly and mysteriously disappeared:

Having just marathoned the Fairy movies in the past week, man. I got weepy at the end of Neverbeast. Well done building that relationship between Fawn and the creature.
I blame you! I BLAAAME YOUUUUU!

So I'm sitting here with a few Fairy books trying to sort out a coherent timeline. Tink remembers "her time camping out with Peter Pan" in one story and scares the other fairies (none of the movie cast, it's important to note) with "the legend of the mean pirate."
"He had a hook for a hand!" "GASP!"
I'm left wondering why Tink left Peter behind, and then I started thinking about Hook, and how we see Tink bring Peter to Neverland, and I had a theory.
Suppose, if you will, that when a fairy is born from a baby's laugh, they're forever linked to that baby? It's only when that one person grows up and gets old and stops believing in fairies that they're at risk of dying.
So, Tink gets the idea to find the baby whose laugh she was born from, bring the baby to Neverland or that island to the north where the magic mirror was so he'll age a bit first), and help it grow and mature to the point where, with some sword training and other help, it would learn to survive on its own. They clearly have the means to see into the past in the Secret of the Wings to trace the laugh Tink was born from, they have Zarina around to teach the kid to sword fight while flying, and there's another pixie dust tree that could, presumably, be moved and grown into the tree Peter lives in, using just a smidgen of blue dust so Peter has his own supply and never runs out.
It explains why she's so upset by the presence of Wendy (a girl who can lure Peter back to the regular world before Tink's work is complete), and also why she endangers herself by drinking poison (depending on which Peter Pan) you've seen, to cement Peter's desire to have her not die and that he'll "always believe in fairies."
Which, of course, portrays Tink as a bit of a sociopath, except she isn't doing all this for her, she's doing it because she's one of the only fairies with a twin sister, and she'd do ANYTHING to keep her sister alive, including risk her own death via poison, Hook, or other means, as long as it means Peter a) survives and b) never stops believing.
Once Peter defeats Hook and doesn't need her any more, Tink just leaves him behind, which explains the ending of the book when Wendy asks Peter how Tink is and he doesn't remember her but suspects she's dead, and Wendy agrees because they "have such short life spans" ... Unless they're essentially immortal because their laughing baby never ages and never stops believing.
It also explains how Tink can be old enough where she's talking about the "legend" of Hook and nobody knows who she's talking about. I mean, they parked that frigate that flies right outside Pixie Hollow, you'd think people would remember that.
...I think I might be overthinking this.

Re: Silvermist and The Lady Bug Curse

So, at my neighborhood new/used bookstore, I stumbled upon some Disney Fairies books marked wayyyyyyyy down (like around $3 each) so I snagged a few. Still searching for Vidia and the crown, but I did sit down and read Silvermist and the Ladybug Curse.

Geezus, Vidia, why don't you just Gaslight the poor girl?

However, I feel the need to point out something I found pretty remarkable is that so often when there's an animated or live action adaptation I feel such a disconnect from the source material that I can't picture the actors/animated characters doing the things I'm reading about. In these books, I can completely picture how the animated movie version would look.

The whole story starts when the fairies are carrying supplies to a small island for a picnic. Silvermist is just slowly paddling along, enjoying the day, when Vidia lands on the tip of her canoe and taunts her for going so slow. Hijinks happen, and Vidia winds up falling into the water ("Help! Help!" Iris shouted. "My picnic flowers are ruined - and Vidia's drowning!"). It winds up being only hip deep, so the fairies mock Vidia for "not just standing up" but Silvermist, being Silvermist, tries to comfort and help Vidia, and you can imagine how well that goes over, especially since Vidia blames Silvermist for "rocking the boat" (which she didn't do)

Later, a white ladybug lands on Silvermist's head, and word spreads about a bad luck curse linked to it. Vidia takes advantage of this to constantly "show up" around Silvermist and talk up the curse (which Silvermist doesn't believe in) but things keep going wrong.

It gets to where Silvermist and Fira (who I swear would be her totally gay lover in any other book series, "Silvermist smiled at Fira. Some fairies thought it odd that they were friends. The two were so different. Fira was quick-tempered and fiery, while Silvermist was calm and quiet. They were opposites, but they were drawn to each other.") spend a lot of time trying to find a good luck charm to break the curse before a sporting event, but they fail and Silvermist winds up sleeping on the beach crying. Vidia's right there the next morning sitting next to her on the sand.

"Good morning, darling. You seem to have overslept. Good thing I decided to be your own personal wake-up fairy. I would never want you to miss an important event like the waterball contest. The tournament begins in ten minutes, sweetie. Everyone is expecting you."
"I don't think anyone wants me there. Fairies fly in the other direction when they see me coming now."
"That may be. Really, who could blame them?"

Of course, at the end Silvermist realizes it was all just her being rattled from Vidia's taunts and egging her on, and calms herself down enough to rock at waterball.

Some great moments:
"And there was that sparrow man who broke some sea glass," Vidia went on. "He had seven hundred years of bad luck. At least, that's what everyone thinks. But no one ever saw him again after year five hundred thirty-nine."

Silvermist turned. Her sing brushed against a pitcher. The pitcher tipped and fell against another pitcher. Then that pitcher tipped, knocking over a third, which fell against a fourth, which tumbled into a fifth. Silvermist tried to catch them, but she wasn't quick enough. Pitcher after pitcher toppled. And fast-flying Vidia didn't move a muscle to help. She just sat there, smiling.

Her voice trailed off. She didn't have the strength to finish the sentence. A lone tear fell from her eye, then another and another. Soon Silvermist's tears flowed faster and faster. Silvermist - the water-talent fairy who hardly ever cried - was sobbing.

(After Silvermist finds a five-leaf clover towards the end during a waterfall match) "Don't get rattled now, darling," Vidia called from her seat on a branch. Her voice was syrupy. "Finding a clover is all well and good. But how can it compete with a powerful curse?"

I blame the effectiveness of those movies that when I read the words "Silvermist was sobbing" my heart broke.

A certain someone who shall remain nameless, so I don't embarrass Spectrum, said about The Legend of the NeverBeast:

Darn you! Darn you!
I'm not supposed to get something in my throat on a stupid fairy movie!

[FuzzyBoots]

Going back to Alice in Wonderland, I always thought that the behind-the-scenes photos of Kathryn Beaumont were pretty amazing. As I understand it, she was hired just as the voice actress for the part, but her look was so iconic that they used her as a model for the animation, much as with the image posted of Margaret Kelly as Tink. Looking at the pictures reminds me of what we wind up these days when people have to act to a green ball representing a computer model.




I know, not the cheesecake we usually feature for the Disney Princesses here...

[Spectrum]

A certain someone who shall remain nameless, so I don't embarrass Spectrum, said about The Legend of the NeverBeast:

Darn you! Darn you!
I'm not supposed to get something in my throat on a stupid fairy movie!

*sniffs at the memory* Shuddup, you don't.. don't.. know what you're talking about.