Monday Mouse Watch: Ariel meets her maker? Has Tinker Bell lost her voice?

Jim Hill

17 years ago

Have you ever heard the old saying that “Life imitates art” ?

Well, this past Wednesday night, master animator Glen Keane actually got to live that axiom. When — after attending a performance of Disney Theatrical‘s new musical, “The Little Mermaid” — Glen got to go backstage at the Lunt-Fontanne and meet Sierra Boggess. That 25-year-old actress who’s playing the character that Keane helped create nearly 20 years ago at Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Sierra Boggess, Ariel in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne
Theater and Glen Keane, the original animator for the character of “Ariel.”
Photo by Joseph Marzullo

Keane was in Manhattan this past week because he was originally supposed to be taking part in the pre-opening press for this new Broadway musical. But then — because this still-in-previews show had to miss nearly three weeks of performances due to the recent stagehand strike — Disney Theatrical officials decided to push back “Mermaid” ‘s opening date until after the holidays. So now this new musical will open on Thursday, January 10th.

Speaking of postponed projects, some interesting info about “The Tinker Bell Movie” could be found on that new ">"Pixie-Powered Edition" of "Disney’s Return to Neverland." Which was released to stores back on November 27th.

First of all, this film (Which has gone by a number of titles over the past two years. Including “Tinker Bell and the Ring of Belief”) has undergone yet another name change. Now it’s simply known as “Tinker Bell.”

And among the extra features found on the new “Return to Neverland” DVD were a trio of “Fairy Moments.” Translation: Three quick clips from this forthcoming home premiere. Which will hopefully whet the appetite of all those Disney Fairies fans out there.

Anyway … Among the bits of “Tinker Bell” that were tacked onto that “Return to Neverland” DVD was a sequence where Rosetta finally gets a stubborn flower to bloom …

… a brief vignette where Iridessa feeds moon beams to some very hungry lightning bugs …

And then there was a scene starring Tink herself. Where everyone’s favorite fairy first finds a bell hidden in a bird’s nest ….

Then this impertinent pixie amuses herself by making funny faces in the bell’s reflective surface.

This CG sequence then borrows a gag from the man who originally animated Tinker Bell, Disney Legend Marc Davis. In that Tink now turns around and tries to check out her silhouette in the reflection …

… only to get hopping mad because the bell’s curved surface makes her butt look a whole lot bigger than it actually is.

So this furious fairy now tries to take out her frustrations on that bell. Only to then have that bell eventually get the better of Ms. Bell.

All in all, this was a really wonderful little bit of character animation. Suggesting that — now that Walt Disney Home Entertainment is following John Lasseter’s story suggestions for “Tinker Bell” and making sure that this home premiere hues a whole lot closer to the style & tone established in Disney’s 1953 version of “Peter Pan” — this Fall 2008 release may actually be worth watching.

But where this gets interesting is that — while Rosetta (Who will be voiced by Tony Award-winner and “Pushing Daisies” co-star Kristen Chenoweth) spoke & Iridessa laughed in the “Pixie-Powered” previews that were shown on the “Return to Neverland” DVD — Tink stayed conspicuously silent in the clip that was shown from “Tinker Bell.”

Now given that Disney Consumer Products made a very big deal (back at the 2006 Licensing Show at NYC’s Javits Center) of announcing that actress Britney Murphy had been chosen to provide Tinker Bell’s voice for a quartet of home premieres that Disney Toon Studios would soon be producing …

Photo by Jeff Lange

… it just seems kind of odd that — out of all the clips that they could have chosen from “Tinker Bell” to help promote this project — the folks at Walt Disney Home Entertainment opted to go with a scene where Tinker Bell doesn’t talk at all. Could it be that Lasseter has convinced Disney Toon Studios to really stay true to the 1953 version of “Peter Pan” and thus create a Disney Fairies movie where Tink doesn’t talk at all?

Wouldn’t you know it? When I called Walt Disney Studios and asked it was true that Britney Murphy was no longer working on “Tinker Bell” (More importantly, if Tinker Bell was now a non-speaking role in this new series of home premieres), no one wanted to talk.

Getting back to Mr. Keane now and his forthcoming WDAS project, “Rapunzel” … How many of you caught that quick acknowledgment of this 2010 Walt Disney Pictures’ release that Kevin Lima managed to shoehorn into “Enchanted” ?

You can spot this brief tip-of-the-hat in that film’s “That’s How You Know” production number. Where Giselle is first shown onstage, sharing a castle tower with this pretty young girl who’s dressed as a princess.

As the camera then switches to a long shot, we now see the full stage. Where — once we take in the set as well as all the kids in costume — we realize that Giselle has invaded a children’s theater production of Rapunzel.

Mind you, the end credits for “Enchanted” also include a brief reference to the other fairy tale-based animated feature that Walt Disney Animation Studios currently has in production, “The Princess and the Frog” … But that’s a story that I should probably save ’til the “Enchanted” DVD officially hits store shelves on March 11, 2008.

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Happy Holidays!