Disney has loved to take its classic animated movies and turn them into live-action remakes. This has seen some huge success over the years, with four of the releases (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, and Lilo & Stitch) making over $1 billion at the box office. The company has also taken characters from the animated classics and given them movies of their own, with the two biggest being Maleficent and Cruella. Now, in the same month that Disney decided to pass on the live-action Robin Hood remake, the company has greenlit a movie that has been in development for over a decade.
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Deadline reports that Disney is finally making a live-action Tinker Bell movie called Tink. The movie has been in development since 2015, but the new version will come from Liz Heldens and Bridget Carpenter. The two are writing and executive producing the new movie with former Disney Television President and Chief Creative Officer Gary Marsh as an executive producer. Heldens and Carpenter also worked together on Friday Night Lights.
Disney Has Seen Success With Live-Action Movies Based Onn Animated Characters
Tinker Bell first appeared in Disney Animation’s Peter Pan in 1953. However, over the years, Tinker Bell has actually surpassed Peter Pan in popularity, especially thanks to little girls who grew up with Disney Animated movies. Rather than the classic Disney Princesses, Tinker Bell was a rebellious little sprite, and her attitude and spunk spoke to an entire generation of kids. On her own, Tinker Bell has had six animated movies since 2008, with the last coming in 2015.
That same year, Reese Witherspoon signed on to play the lead in Tink, but that movie was shelved when new leadership came into Disney. In 2023. Black-ish star Yara Shahidi played Tinker Bell in a live-action movie called Peter Pan & Wendy. There is no word on who will play Tinker Bell in Tink, or what direction the storyline will go.
However, the chances for success are high. Maleficent hit theaters in 2014, bringing the Sleeping Beauty character to the big screen and showing her origin story. With Angelina Jolie in the lead, and Elle Fanning as Aurora, it was a massive success, making $759.8 million and garnering a sequel. In 2021, Emma Stone took on the role of Cruella de Vil in Cruella. The villain from 101 Dalmations got her own origin story, and it was a minor success in the post-COVID box office world.
Disney has proven that it can mine success from these live-action takes on classic animated characters. Even Lilo & Stitch, which is a strange choice for a live-action movie, broke the $1 billion mark last year, and Moana is coming soon. The only thing that might hold it back is that Deadline also reports that this might be an exclusive for Disney+ and not a theatrical release, which might mean a little less production value, although seeing the success of movies like the Zombies franchise could mean big things if Tink has a chance for more films in the future.
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