The Blue Fairy is a major character in the 1940Disney animated feature film Pinocchio. She's a magical being who, fulfilling Geppetto's wish, transforms Pinocchio into a living being. With the power to take multiple forms (including a wishing star and a white dove), the Blue Fairy aids Pinocchio and his conscience, Jiminy Cricket, throughout their adventures to fulfill the puppet's goal of becoming a real boy.
In a story meeting on January 12, 1939, Walt Disney specified that the Blue Fairy was to 'give the appearance of loveliness... (but not look like) a glamour girl'. Early model sheets and inspirational sketches reflect this concept, depicting the character as an ethereal beauty with swirling, billowing clothes and loose, unkempt hair (to reflect the fact that the fairy has literally flown in). At some point in development, this design changed to a less ethereal figure, with human proportions. This final version of the character, with her blue glittery dress, solid hair, and more human proportions, suggests the inspiration of Jean Harlow and thus ultimately resembled the 'glamour girl' Disney had initially been anxious to avoid; however, Disney seemed pleased with this version of the character, whose newly-found sexual allure worked on both Jiminy Cricket and the men working on the film, who reportedly whistled on first seeing a color test of the Blue Fairy.
Animation[]
Jack Campbell's animation of the Blue Fairy closely followed live-action footage of Marge Champion (who was also the performance model for Snow White) under the direction of Hamilton Luske. Oskar Fischinger, a famous abstract filmmaker from Germany who had been hired by Disney primarily to help with Fantasia's abstract Toccata and Fugue in D Minor segment, was responsible for the animation of the Blue Fairy's magic, including the effects surrounding her when she first enters the workshop and the beams of light emanating from her wand.
Personality[]
The Blue Fairy is angelic, kind, sweet, thoughtful, understanding, loving, magical, wise, motherly, imaginative, gracious, moral, smart, benevolent, and gentle.
Physical appearance[]
The Blue Fairy is a beautiful, slender, full-figured woman with fair skin, rosy cheeks, red lips, medium-length wavy blonde hair, light blue eyes adorned with purple eyeshadow, and two white wings on her back. She wears a blue glittery dress with long translucent sleeves that have fabric hanging below, a long blue ribbon tied around the waist with a heart tied like a buckle, and a blue oval pendant placed in the cleavage. She also has a blue headband and shoes, and carries a gold wand with a yellow star at the top end of it.
Powers and Abilities[]
The Blue Fairy is undoubtedly one of Disney's most powerful fairies, her greatest feat being her ability to breathe life into inanimate objects such as Pinocchio. She can also teleport through light and turn objects into humans. She also showed the power to enchant things, as shown when she enchanted Pinocchio's nose to make it grow every time he lied and shrink it every time he told the truth.
The wishing star is first referred to in the film's opening song (with the Blue Fairy herself perhaps referred to in the song as "Fate herself"). When Jiminy Cricket begins his story, the wishing star is looking over the village, and it and the other stars are 'shining like diamonds'. It is not mentioned again in the film until inside Geppetto's workshop. After Figaro has opened the window, Geppetto notices the Wishing Star and wishes that the marionette Pinocchio becomes a real boy. Everyone in the workshop falls asleep; soon, however, Jiminy is woken by an ethereal glow caused by the star as it moves closer and closer to the window. Eventually, the Blue Fairy herself appears in the workshop, stating that Geppetto deserves his wish after the happiness he has brought to others. She walks to Pinocchio and, tapping the puppet with her wand, grants him life, but his body is still made of wood. She tells him that he must learn the difference between right and wrong in order to become a real boy. When Pinocchio appears not to understand, Jiminy interrupts to explain, and the Blue Fairy offers him the position of conscience to Pinocchio. Somewhat dumbstruck by her beauty, he agrees and is granted a new suit befitting his status. The Blue Fairy then leaves, reminding Pinocchio to "be a good boy, and always let your conscience be your guide."
The Blue Fairy next appears after Stromboli has locked Pinocchio in a cage; the showman intends to use the wooden boy to make an enormous amount of money. Ashamed of doing the wrong thing, Pinocchio attempts to hide when he sees the wishing star approaching the caravan, though both he and Jiminy are spotted. The Blue Fairy asks Pinocchio why he did not attend school that day; lying, he concocts a ridiculous story that he was kidnapped by two monsters, who put him into a sack and threatened to chop him into firewood. As his lie grows, his nose becomes longer until it resembles a tree limb, complete with a bird's nest. The Blue Fairy informs him that "a lie keeps growing and growing until it's as plain as the nose on your face". When Pinocchio promises to tell the truth from then on, the Blue Fairy returns his nose to normal and frees him from the cage with a tap of her wand.
She does not appear in person for the rest of the film - in keeping with her 'warning' as she frees Pinocchio from the cage that this is the last time she can help him - although she offers some indirect assistance. When Pinocchio is on Pleasure Island, while other boys were being turned into donkeys and then sold to salt mines by the Coachman, Jiminy warns Pinocchio to follow his lead to prevent the curse from taking a foothold, with his role as the Fairy's proxy allowing Pinocchio to escape his own transformation going beyond him developing donkey ears, tail, and bray in his laugh.
After the two return home and see Geppetto's workshop, the Blue Fairy, in the form of a white dove, drops a message informing Jiminy and Pinocchio that Geppetto learned about Pleasure Island and set sail in order to rescue Pinocchio, but his boat was swallowed by Monstro the whale. Presumably, this "bonus help" was due to the fact that Pinocchio had gotten back on track by listening to Jiminy (as well as ceasing his bad-boy behavior unlike Lampwick) and that Jiminy would not have realized that Geppetto had been attacked by Monstro as they were making their way back to the village. Pinocchio's dangerous decision to try and rescue Geppetto (even over Jiminy's objections) was the final test in order to see whether he had what it takes to become a real boy.
Pinocchio's selflessness in rescuing Geppetto from Monstro costs him his life, as he drowns from the violent wave that washed him and Geppetto on shore. As Geppetto, Jiminy, Figaro, and Cleo mourn Pinocchio's death, the Blue Fairy appears, saying that Pinocchio has proven his heroism and rewards him by returning him to life, reversing the Coachman's donkey curse, and ultimately changing him into a real human boy. She also gives Jiminy a golden badge, declaring him Pinocchio's official conscience.
In the animated series House of Mouse, the Blue Fairy makes occasional appearances.
Her most notable appearance in the series is in the episode "Jiminy Cricket", where Pain and Panic try to lead Pinocchio down the path of evil. When Jiminy becomes convinced that he is no good at being Pinocchio's conscience, Mickey Mouse wishes to help, resulting in the Blue Fairy reassigning Jiminy to be Mickey's conscience. In the end, when Jiminy and Pinocchio are reunited, Pain and Panic mock the moment until the Blue Fairy reappears and turns them into ashes.
Other appearances[]
The Blue Fairy makes a few cameos in the Teacher's Petmovie in Spot Helperman's dreams. Due to the show's art style, the Blue Fairy looks noticeably different than her past appearances.
She appears in the novel as a student of the Fairylands Academy when Maleficent was a teenager. She is one of the students along with Maleficent, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather that are taking their final exams to see if they are capable of wish-granting by helping someone. She is the only fairy at the academy who is kind to Maleficent, unlike the other fairies.
She appears in the novel as the story tells the back-story of the fairy. It shows how she came to be a fairy and the troubles she faced. It also introduces her family and a rift with her sister plays a big part in the story. She is given the name Chiara Belmagio and then she becomes The Blue Fairy.
The Blue Fairy's role is minor in the game. After Jiminy removes the happy ending pages so he can tell the unseen and unheard player how each story ends, resulting in the four villains of the stories almost getting their hands on the pages, the Blue Fairy appears. She tells Jiminy and the player that when the happy endings were removed, the villains have started to change the stories so that they end in their favor. She tells them they must go into the stories and fix them, allowing the player to enter after she enchants the book.
When the player does something wrong or loses in a certain way in a story's game, they are returned to the room where the Blue Fairy offers them tips or tells them to do the right thing. Once they have completed the four stories, defeated the villains for a second time when they successfully steal the happy ending pages, and recover the pages, The Blue Fairy shows a fifth story was added to the storybook of their adventures and enchants a few toys in the room as mini-games. She also says the player can return to the book and replay the stories as many times as they wish before vanishing completely.
The Blue Fairy makes an appearance in her homeworld Prankster's Paradise, where she arrives at the scene and gently scolds Pinocchio for lying to Jiminy. Pleading for the Blue Fairy to help his nose return to normal, Pinocchio promises to never lie again. The Blue Fairy forgives him, but before returning his nose to normal and releasing him from the cage, she warns he will remain a puppet forever if he keeps lying. She later appears before Sora to tell him that Geppetto had been swallowed by Monstro and that Pinocchio and Jiminy ran off to find the whale to save him.
She is voiced by Rosalyn Landor in English and Miyuki Ichijo in Japanese.
The Blue Fairy appears occasionally in Disney Parks around the world. She is most commonly found in Disneyland.
For many years, the Blue Fairy's most prominent role in the Disney Parks was not as a meet-and-greet character, but as the leading float in the popular Main Street Electrical Parade. She appeared in all versions of the parade until 2009, when she was retired from the American version (which at that time was running at Disney California Adventure) and replaced by a Tinker Bell float. However, she continues to appear in Tokyo Disneyland's variant of the parade, the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights. In 2022, she returned to the American version of the parade as the leader of the new It's a Small World finale unit, created to celebrate the parade's 50th anniversary at Disneyland.
In the nighttime spectacular Wishes: A Magical Gathering of Disney Dreams, the Blue Fairy hosted along with Jiminy Cricket. In contrast to Jiminy, she only makes a few speaking appearances.
In Jubilation!, the Blue Fairy could be seen in an extremely tall standard in the parade. She rides in a carriage driven by Pegasus. She also made a quick appearance in the opening montage of Once Upon a Time bringing Pinocchio to life with her wand.
The Blue Fairy is the opposite in the appearance of the Fairy in Carlo Collodi's original story. In the story, the Fairy has turquoise hair, giving her the name, but wears normal clothing; she lives at first in a cottage in the woods and later in a house on Busy Bee Island, and has no connection to a wishing star. Additionally, she is mostly depicted as youthful and childlike and Pinocchio considered her to be his mother.
In the original story, the Blue Fairy has no role in Pinocchio coming to life: his own wood was already magical and capable of speaking and moving. She still retains her role of giving him a human body.
The Blue Fairy is the only major female character in the movie other than Cleo, but the latter has no speaking parts.
Although not part of the Disney Princess franchise, she was present in an early image of the franchise, along with the Disney Princesses.
Most of her facial expressions are very similar to Snow White's, no doubt because she shared the same live model for the animators, Marge Champion. Some of her facial expressions were also used as an inspiration for Cinderella.
Unlike all the other characters in the film, the Blue Fairy was animated via rotoscoping rather than by freehand.
