If you've ever seen Disney's 1953 animated classic Peter Pan, particularly when you were a child, Tinker Bell was a charming character that probably made a big impact on your young psyche. Fifty-five years later, Disney released a direct-to-DVD animated feature titled Tinker Bell which chronicles her life from the very beginning.

As someone who grew up on a steady diet of The Wonderful World of Disney, classic Disney animation was a regular staple of my viewing and while it took a wee bit of getting used to the 3D version of Tinker Bell, I quickly came to cherish her as much as the wonderful handcrafted 2D original. While the tools of the artist have changed from pen and ink to computers, the love they express in their work shows. This generation has taken up the torch passed along from Disney's Nine Old Men, the fabled core animators who created much of the classical Disney library. Ollie Johnston, the last of the Nine passed away on April 14, 2008.