Tinkerbell
So the other night Disney channel aired their 2008 straight-to-video CGI movie Tinkerbell.

Now, it is true that I watch a lot more kids' programming than a 40-year-old guy should probably be comfortable admitting, but what the heck, I enjoy it. Nevertheless Tinkerbell would not have been on my radar had not one of my friends, who has a daughter who is squarely in the Disney demographic, told me that she actually liked it. Her description intrigued me enough that I decided to see what it was about.

What it's really about is a new line of "Disney Fairies" marketing, but set that aside for the moment. Fairies, it seems, come in a variety of "talents" -- water talent, light talent, nature talent, etc., each with their own job to do. Tinkerbell is a "tinker talent" fairy; i.e., she builds things. But some of the other fairies make fun of her because she's "just" a tinker fairy, and so she decides that she's going to learn to do something else.

From that point on, the plot is subtle and filled with nuance by the numbers: Tinkerbell fails comically at all the other jobs, but then a crisis arises (the fairies might have to cancel Spring) and Tinkerbell has to save the day by using her tinker talents. Be true to yourself, yay.

But here's the point my friend likes, and about which after seeing the movie I agree with her: the message of the movie is that if you're a girl, and you would like to be an engineer, and other kids make fun of you for that, then #*&$ them; go ahead and be an engineer. Or, to paraphrase the movie more succinctly: girl geeks rule.

And I can approve of that.


Also, Loreena McKennitt is the narrator, Anjelica Huston is the voice of the fairy queen, and Máiréad Nesbitt played celtic violin on the soundtrack. So that's cool too.