"How can you interview for a three-and-a-half-inch fairy who doesn't talk?"

The fairy in question here, is Tinker Bell, and the query, made by the lady who actually got the part as the live action model for Tinker Bell in Disney's 1953 film, Peter Pan, Margaret Kerry. Margaret, an adorable lady who still has that Tinker Bell spark about her, was part of the Peter Pan opening night panel discussion at the El Capitan last night.

The discussion panel.

A friend recently said to me, "You're lucky to live so close to the El Capitan." Yep, I have to concur. But it's not just me who's lucky, it's everyone in the vicinity of this great old movie house. With each film the El Capitan folks work hard to bring us all little treasures to savor. Frequently, the treasure is a panel discussion featuring folks who worked on the films we all love. Such was the case with Peter Pan, which runs at the El Capitan for just two short weeks.

Panel host Don Hahn.

As he has in the past, Don Hahn (producer of one of my favorite Disney films, Hunchback of Notre Dame and this year's Oscar nominated short, The Little Match Girl), assumed moderator duties and did a fine job infusing his personality on the evening and also drawing great anecdotes out of the folks who worked on the film.

Bringing out the first panelist, Don confessed to having fallen in love with Wendy when he first saw Peter Pan, "and I still am kind of in love with Wendy," he sheepishly added as he introduced us to the lovely Kathryn Beaumont, the voice and action model for Wendy.

Left to right: June Foray, Kathryn Beaumont and Don Hahn.

Next up, June Foray, that wonderful voice actor with a resume four miles long. Who knew she worked on Peter Pan? I always think of her as the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel (and sure enough, Don begged her forgiveness but pleaded with her to treat us to just a touch of Rocky and she kindly obliged).

Don described June as a legend in animation and she is that to be sure. In addition to the zillion other things this talented woman has done, she was a mermaid in Peter Pan (and told a story about how they tied her legs together to simulate the mermaid's tail and had her climb all over plywood "rocks" all day to get the character's movements down. She went home thoroughly bruised from head to toe).

The next guest, "Has not seen these people since the movie was made," Don said. The voice of John Darling in the film, Paul Collins took his seat next to June Foray, followed by Margaret Kerry. "She was the live action model for the character who's got to be one of my favorite characters and along side of Mickey Mouse, maybe one of the greatest characters the Disney Studio has ever created, Tinker Bell," Don added.

Left to right: Eric Goldberg, Margaret Kerry and Paul Collins.

We learned a lot about Don. He loves Wendy (she is adorable), thinks Tink is a great character (well she is), and with a few simple words he clued us in to what he thinks is genius in animation as he introduced the last panelist, Eric Goldberg, "He animated a spectacular character on Aladdin. This .. is the Genie. This is the man who animated the Genie in Aladdin with his own hands, and his own pencil."

Okay, so now that we've got all the evening's introductions down, I'm sure you've still got that question burning in your brain. Just how do you interview for a three-and-a-half-inch fairy who doesn't talk? The answer came when Don said to Margaret Kerry, "In so many ways, you are Tinker Bell...How did you get this job?"

Before the panel started Rob Richards wowed the audience on the Mighty Wurlitzer.

"I was working at Fox. I was assistant dance director on a movie there and I got a call that said they were interviewing for this three-and-a-half-inch fairy who didn't talk and was I interested in going over to Disney? That was the word, Disney. And I thought, how can you interview for a three-and-a-half-inch fairy who doesn't talk? Which is ironic, because I never shut up, but anyway... So I got a 45 record, and that night I choreographed a pantomime of fixing breakfast. You know, like juggling eggs and dropping one and sliding and closing the refrigerator."

"So the next morning I took my player and my 45 and I walked into the tiniest room I've ever seen in my life...I did my pantomime and they said, 'What we want you to do,' they showed me the story board, 'is to step on the mirror and preen herself.' Oh," Margaret turned into Tinker Bell at that moment and showed us what she did the morning of the interview, "she liked what she saw, until...she was not happy with her hips." And then she became Margaret again, "The next morning I got a call that said, 'Would it be convenient for you to come to work next Tuesday?' "

And that's how you interview for a three-and-a-half-inch fairy who doesn't talk.

There were so many more stories told all evening that it would take me forever to relate all of them to you dear readers, so let me leave you with just a few more highlights from the evening.

We saw a really great old clip of a 1952 TV Christmas Special with Walt Disney (below) introducing the new film the Studio was working on, Peter Pan. Eric Goldberg talked about the relationship between animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas (two of the Nine Old Men), and how their own relationship kind of seeps through into the characters they created (Mr. Smee and Captain Hook).

He also explained how the animators go about animating all that physical movement: "The process is called rotoscope and basically they shoot live action reference of Paul (Collins), and of June (Foray), and of Kathryn (Beaumont) and of Margaret (Kerry), and study it frame for frame. They would project it up on a kind of piece of glass and trace off the actual body shapes of the characters. You can do that in a kind of slavish way, and it doesn't look very good. Or, you can suffuse it with a lot of personality and make certain adaptations. The heart of a lot of animation is caricature so they had the basic nuts and bolts of the movement and the performance from the live action and then they would caricature."

Richard Sherman.

Lastly, we got a real treat, and were told we were the first audience to see it, when Richard Sherman came out on stage and introduced a short video (that's included in the upcoming Peter Pan DVD release March 6th) with a story behind a brand new song he wrote (Never Land) which was sung by Paige O'Hara (below, the voice of Belle from Beauty and the Beast).

Apparently the lyrics for an unused song (author unknown) were recently rediscovered, and the home video executives then asked Richard if he wouldn't mind finally composing a melody for them. It took a while, but with a simple repeat of a word he finally was able to complete the song. It's a rare treat to get to hear something new from a favorite Disney composer, and the audience responded quite warmly to it.

The last performers of the evening were Disney Channel/Radio fixtures T-Squad. Their version of "The Second Star to the Right" is included as a bonus video on the upcoming DVD (linked above).

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