My Favorite Fairies On Film

NUMBER ONE FAVORITE Fantasia (1940), Disney’s masterpiece showcases Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies with a swarm of fairies flying about a beautiful garden touching flowers with their magic and making for one of my favorite Disney moments ever. These fairies were illustrated by a Disney team who received an Honorary Academy Award in 1942 for their visuals put to classical music. This is one of the most memorable sequences in the movie and in all of Disney film history. Bright lights in candy colors dance across the screen; fairy ballerinas dusting spiderwebs with dew before dawn.

2 Legend (1985), directed by Ridley Scott. This fairy unnerves me. Oona is her name and she is played by Annabelle Lanyon. Her costume was designed by Academy Award nominee Charles Knode, who won a BAFTA for this movie in 1986. She’s a shapeshifting creature who feels so enchantingly desperate to me. She’s a little sad and so very wild. Even the icy look in her eyes feels more reptilian at times, or certainly other-worldly, so you can’t get totally comfortable in her presence. She’s got a fairy attitude at times, a kind of hot headed, intense, quiet fight and thus you know she’s a strong member of this team as they make their way into certain battle with Darkness.

3 Scrooged (1988), directed by Richard Donner. I know what you’re thinking. There are no fairies in this movie but you’re wrong. Carol Kane is a ghost fairy if ever I’ve seen one and so she takes third place behind a real fairy. That pink dress and those iridescent wings, designed by Wayne A. Finkelman, when she slams “A toaster!” into Bill Murray’s, Frank Cross’s, face. She’s a fairy come to teach you the hard way. Which I think is often an important theme for fairies in movies.

4 Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959), Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. This is probably my favorite Disney movie in that if I were home sick and had a craving for some childhood comfort chicken soup afternoon Disney movie, there’s a one in three chance I choose Sleeping Beauty. A big part of that love are these three fairies. They have such a dark and mysterious journey and I’ve always loved following them in this movie. Flora is dressed in red and her gift is Beauty. Fauna is dressed in green and her gift is Song. Merryweather is in blue and her gift is to break the curse with True Love's Kiss. I think they are the center of the movie in a way Princess Aurora never is. Verna Felton, Barbara Jo Allen and Barbara Luddy, everyone.

ALSO in 5th place Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959), Maleficent played by Eleanor Audley. The wicked fairy godmother is one of my favorite fairies on film. I love the Disney original - Angelina Joli in Maleficent (2014) is also a really good wicked fairy - but nothing is more intriguing to me than when Eleanor Audley cracks her staff in the castle in the great hall and her voice echoes “Listen well, all of you!” I get chills just thinking about it. This fairy summons the ultimate dark power, with her evil shapeshifting into a dragon. She sacrifices everything, ultimately dying in the process of trying to kill the prince and keep Aurora captive. That's some sad sack shit right there and I can't help but feel sorry for her evil crow friend. Who's going to feed him after she's gone? Maleficent (2014) gives us an opportunity to see why this fairy is so wicked and gives us a chance to love her - and I do love that about the reboot but my favorite Maleficent is the evil version through and through in the original animation.

6 Disney's Cinderella (1950), this fairy godmother reminds me of my grandma Midge. Not a bad bone in her body. She was voiced by Verna Felton (see also the voice of fairy Flora in Sleeping Beauty) and she’s the O.F.G. (Original Fairy Godmother). She comes to Cinderella's rescue and truly acts as a mother to Cinderella in a way we know she needs. My favorite version of her is in -

7 Cinderella, TV Movie (1965), directed by Charles S. Dubin. This fairy godmother’s peach chiffon is some 60’ era costume to die for, designed by George Wittaker and worn by Academy Award winner Celeste Holm. I love the music in this one, based on the original Rodgers and Hammerstein score. There is so much to love about the corny, sincere, perfect essence of this 60's TV broadcast. My mom remembers watching this on the family TV when she was 13. They didn't have a color tv so she didn't see the peach chiffon but she remembers it being a really big deal to stay up, eat popcorn and watch this broadcast on the living room carpet with her sisters.

8 Hook (1991) directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell. She’s such an innocent fairy who has a heart bigger than anyone - even Peter Pan - in this film. It’s also empowering to see Tink poof into human size and try on that dress, which I always thought she looked very pretty but also unnatural in. I wonder if that was on purpose?

Almost like Tink was trying on a look that is a little too grown up for Neverland... and I’m just not sure how I feel about it. The person to ask would be Anthony Powell who got an Oscar nomination in 1992 for his work on this movie. Julia Roberts is so bright and lovable here and her Tinker Bell makes me smile.

9 Disney’s Peter Pan (1953) had a Tink who was a little more angry at times. Hot headed is the way Disney put it. She was also a fighter but, like a lot of fairies, there’s something so fragile about her. In this version Tink never speaks, which I also find sad in a way. Margaret Kerry was used as a model to draw Tinker Bell for Disney.

10 Labyrinth (1986), directed by Jim Henson, has fairies all over the labyrinth. Jennifer Connelly, who plays Sarah, picks one up off the ground and right off the bat we learn to just stay away from the fairies. They bite. That said, I’ve always felt Hoggle was cold-hearted the way he is fumigating the place. He sprays one down and then actually kicks sand onto it. What does he know about fairies that we don’t know? We never learn except he says to Sarah “What did you expect fairies to do?” To which Sarah replies, “I thought they did nice things like granting wishes.” Hoggle says, “Shows you what you know, don't it.” and sprays his 58th fairy dead.

11 A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), by William Shakespeare directed by duo, William Dieterie and Max Reinhardt, and starring Mickey Rooney as Puck. I stumbled upon this late one night perusing TCM and ended up really identifying with this weird, little fairy. Mickey Rooney rolls around like a grumbling, sparkly baby. This black and white film is really pretty to watch and I always find myself enchanted by it, if not falling asleep. In a good way!

12 Brave (2012) Disney, Pixar. I love the fairies that lead Merida into the forest even though they are kind of little, asshole tricksters for doing so. Not sure you should follow a fairy line deep into the woods but then again we wouldn’t have a movie here if she hadn’t. Again, my favorite fairies in movies are often innocent and eerie, and they seem to have a theme of leading to a truth even if it means following a path into the darkness to get there (they also often save the day). Ultimately that’s a theme I love in fairy tales.

13 Pinocchio (1940), Evelyn Veneable played the Blue Fairy in this Disney classic. She’s so beautiful and enters the scene (to save the day - or at least point Pinocchio in the right direction) as Disney’s early fairies seemed to always be there to make everything ok. This scene is so calming. The song by Cliff Edwards is one of Disney’s most classic moments of all time.

When you wish upon a star

Makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires

Will come to you…

Sigh…

14 Beetlejuice (1988) directed by Tim Burton. I know what you’re thinking. There aren't any fairies in this movie. There is however one dead receptionist who to me looks like Miss. Argentina, dressed as a Fairy, died on Halloween night. Her hair, her blue skin, her dress, her costume, looks like fairy wings. She might be a ghost in a fairy costume. This look designed by Aggie Guerard Rodgers and worn by Patrice Martinez is such a great Tim Burton moment and one of the most memorable in the whole movie and it's definitely a fairy look.

15 I wanted to include an on-screen version of The Nutcracker, the dance of the Sugar Plum fairy of course, but you know what, the Gelsey Kirkland, Barishnikov (1977, TV) moooovie cut out a sugar plum fairy. Why did this happen? Do I need to re read Gelsey's autobiography and comb it for details? Gelsey and Mikhail dance briefly to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy music but then transition into new music and dance away as Clara and the Prince Nutcracker. No Sugar Plum Fairy on film here but the ballerina sugar plum fairies everywhere know she's still one of the all time best.