I love fairies even if they are portrayed quite differently than what folklore says about them. I can enjoy a good movie or picture no matter what. One fairy of course is the famous Tinkerbell and the movies that were made with the Disney fairies’ franchise.
While most of the movies had a message of hope and love – mostly dealing with friendships – there was one that I found particularly fulfilling in that hope. I was surprised that what was essentially a children’s movie had such a very profound message at the end.
Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure was released in 2009. If you’re not familiar with the movie referenced above, Tinkerbell is given a very important task. She has to make a staff that, with the full blue moon in fall (and surprisingly we have one coming up), she can make blue pixie dust. This is then used to make new yellow pixie dust, needed so that the fairies can work magic and fly. This staff has to be just right, with a very special and fragile moonstone at the top.
In the course of preparing the staff, her friend Terrance helps, but here is when things begin to go wrong and they have a falling out. Tinkerbell has a bit of temper to her, and in her frustration, she ends up accidentally breaking the moonstone – which is irreplaceable.
Learning of a magic mirror far away which contains one last wish, she sets off to find it so that she can wish for a new moonstone. Along the way there are various disasters, but she ends up befriending a firefly and is helped by other creatures. At last, she finds the mirror, but accidentally uses the last wish when the firefly bothers her. She gets angry but then realizes that it was she that made all the mistakes and, still holding the mirror, pours her heart out and wishes that her friend Terrance was with her. He shows up in the mirror and Tinkerbell thinks that it is just her imagination, until finally he puts his hand on her shoulder. He tells her he was wrong and she, in return, admits that she was wrong and stupid to behave as she had. One always wonders if there was really one more wish left in the mirror at all?
Eventually, they all get back to Pixie Hollow, just in time for the rising of the fall blue moon. Arranging the pieces of the moonstone on the staff causes everyone to all but faint. The full blue moon rises, and the diamond from the magic mirror sets off beams through the broken pieces, transmuting the light into the largest amount of blue pixie dust ever seen.
The fairies then troop back to the main Pixie Dust tree and, let me tell you, in my opinion this is one of the best scenes that has ever been done and is fairly close to existing folklore about trooping fairies. However, at the end, Tinkerbell, Terrance, and the firefly all hold the staff and there is a bit of narration that goes like this:
“The greatest treasures are not gold, nor jewels, nor works of art. They cannot be held in your hands. They’re held within your heart. For worldly things will fade away as seasons come and go. But the treasure of true friendship will never lose its glow.”
While the Tinkerbell movies always center on friendship, they are much more childlike, which is the movie audience they were intended for. However, this narration, to me, is much more profound than that; it speaks to a much deeper meaning of life – much deeper than a simple ‘it is good to make friends’ meaning and ‘be nice.’
In other words, physical treasures – no matter what kind they are – are not what is worthy in the end. They are ultimately temporary. It’s what is within your heart, your faith, your friendship to others, that are the most important treasures; treasures that cannot be held within your hands, but only in your heart and, by extension, your soul/spirit. While, again, the narration speaks of friendship at the very end, the tone and message, to me, is easily extended to say that it is not ultimately a physical path, an Earthly accumulation of treasures, that is worthy, but rather a spiritual path centered on what we learn in our time on this Earth. For those of us that believe in karma and rebirth, it’s a profound reminder, but even for those who do not, the same message is there – it is the treasures of the heart and by extension the soul which really count.
This may be a simple children’s movie, but the message struck me very deeply. The greatest treasures are not gold, nor jewels, nor works of art. They cannot be held in your hands. They’re held within your heart. For worldly things will fade away as seasons come and go. Bendithion disglair i bawb, or Bright blessings to all. No matter our path, may it be one leading to treasures not of the world but of the heart, our faith, our spirit, and our soul.