Transcending the Border: The Encounter with the Other in Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings

Abstract

This article explores the representation of borders and cosmopolitanism in the film Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings (2012), the fourth title in the Disney fairies franchise. The film tells the story of a world divided into two territories, the Winter Woods and Pixie Hollow. A ban on cross-border mobility prohibits any kind of interaction between the inhabitants of the two worlds. Tinker Bell, the main character in the film, feels the urge to break the law and cross to the other side, where she meets her twin sister and finds out the reason for the ban. Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings is a border film that deals with the processes of border construction and dissolution while also highlighting the potential, and some of the risks, of the dismantling of borders. This article analyses the film’s use of different spaces that, in line with the dual nature of borders theorised by, among others, Gloria Anzaldúa, work simultaneously as dividing lines and borderlands. Gerard Delanty’s concept of cosmopolitan moments is used to analyse the articulation of cross-border relationships in the film.