Fifinella
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Fifinella was a female
gremlin A gremlin is a mischievous fictional creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft, and later in other machinery, processes, and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widely. ...
designed by
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
for a proposed film from Roald Dahl's book ''
The Gremlins ''The Gremlins'' is a children's novel written by British author Roald Dahl and published in 1943. In writing the book, Dahl draws on his own experience as a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot during the Second World War. The story's principal chara ...
''. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the
Women Airforce Service Pilots The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became t ...
(WASP) asked permission to use the image as their official
mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...
, and the Disney Company granted them the rights.


Origins

The story of Fifinella began in 1942 when
Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime Flying ace, fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies ...
, who had been removed from flying with the RAF due to injury, wrote ''
The Gremlins ''The Gremlins'' is a children's novel written by British author Roald Dahl and published in 1943. In writing the book, Dahl draws on his own experience as a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot during the Second World War. The story's principal chara ...
'', a
fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...
about the hazards of combat flying; in this incarnation, the word "fifinella" only refers to female gremlins as opposed to any specific one. Dahl took the name from the great "flying"
filly A filly is a female horse that is too young to be called a mare. There are two specific definitions in use: *In most cases, a ''filly'' is a female horse under four years old. *In some nations, such as the United Kingdom and the United States ...
,
Fifinella Fifinella was a female gremlin designed by Walt Disney for a proposed film from Roald Dahl, Roald Dahl's book ''The Gremlins''. During World War II, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) asked permission to use the image as their official mas ...
, who won The Derby and
Epsom Oaks The Oaks Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs over a distance of 1 mile, 4 furlongs and 6 ya ...
in 1916, the year Dahl was born. As an RAF-trained pilot, he was familiar with prewar RAF folklore about the
Gremlin A gremlin is a mischievous fictional creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft, and later in other machinery, processes, and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widely. ...
, the mischievous source of any unknown problem. Although gremlins predated
Murphy's Law Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." Though similar statements and concepts have been made over the course of history, the law itself was coined by, and named after, Americ ...
that "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong," they were obviously motivated by the same principles.


''The Gremlins''

''The Gremlins'' is a
children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...
, written by
Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime Flying ace, fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies ...
. It was published in 1943 by Random House for Walt Disney and serialized in ''
Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...
''. It was Dahl's first children's book, and was written for
Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
, as a promotional device for a feature-length animated film that was never made. With Dahl's assistance, a series of
gremlin A gremlin is a mischievous fictional creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft, and later in other machinery, processes, and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widely. ...
characters was developed, and although pre-production began, the film project was eventually abandoned, in part because the studio could not establish the precise rights of the "gremlin" story, and in part because the British Air Ministry, which was heavily involved in the production because Dahl was on leave from his wartime Washington posting, insisted on final approval of script and production. The publication of ''The Gremlins'' by Random House consisted of a 50,000 run for the U.S. market with Dahl ordering 50 copies for himself as promotional material, handing them out to everyone he knew, including
Lord Halifax Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as the Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and the Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a British Conservative politician of the 1930s. He h ...
and First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( ; October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D ...
, who read the book to her grandchildren. The book was considered an international success with 30,000 more sold in Australia but initial efforts to reprint the book were precluded by a wartime paper shortage. Reviewed in major publications, Dahl was considered a writer-of-note and his appearances in Hollywood to follow up with the film project were met with notices in Hedda Hopper's columns. Facing copyright problems and realizing that the Air Ministry's "Clause 12" in the original film contract would restrict the studio,
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
, who had a personal interest in ''The Gremlins'', reluctantly began to "wind down" the project. By August 1943, Disney had even reconsidered an animated "short" based on ''The Gremlins'' and indicated to Dahl by correspondence that further work would not continue. After a year of story conferences and related research, Dahl realized that his book would be the only tangible product emanating from the aborted film.Conant 2008, p. 173.


Design

The original design had the small winged figure coming in for a landing with a red circle in the background; she is portrayed with horns, a yellow flight cap, a red top, yellow slacks, long black gloves, red high-top boots, and goggles. The WASPs, however, rather than having the figure in a landing pose, added a large bomb astride which the figure sat. They dressed her in a red coat and purple trousers and added a dark blue circle for extra impact. Still, there were many custom patches made, so form and color varied from patch to patch.


Use

Dahl's gremlins were subsequently used by
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
in several World War II cartoons, some involving
Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is a cartoon character created in the late 1930s at Warner Bros. Cartoons (originally Leon Schlesinger, Leon Schlesinger Productions) and Voice acting, voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his featured roles in the ' ...
and another called '' Russian Rhapsody'', which featured scores of
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
-accented "Gremlins from the Kremlin" attacking an aircraft piloted by
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
. Fifinella put in appearances on WASP flight jackets and in many variations on the noses of bombers. One B-17G Flying Fortress, ''Fifinella'' (Serial #42-107030) of the
91st Bomb Group The 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy) was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. Classified as a USAAF bombardment group, heavy bombardment group, the 91st operated Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft ...
, was named after her. ''Fifinella'' was lost on August 13, 1944, on a bombing raid at Le Manoir, France. During the
Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
there was also a
B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined Propeller (aeronautics), propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to ...
(Serial #42-6569) of the 19th Bomb Group named ''Fifinella''."Noseart: Fifinella."
''comcast.net.'' Retrieved: October 12, 2010.


See also

*
Gremlin A gremlin is a mischievous fictional creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft, and later in other machinery, processes, and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widely. ...
*
Women Airforce Service Pilots The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became t ...


References

;Notes ;Citations ;Bibliography * Conant, Jennet. ''The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. . * Dahl, Flight Lieutenant Roald. ''The Gremlins: The Lost Walt Disney Production.'' Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books, 2006 (reprint and updated copy of 1943 original publication). . * De La Rue, Keith
"Gremlins."
''delarue.net,'' updated August 23, 2004. Retrieved: October 11, 2010.

''Fantastic Fiction, a British online book site/biography source.'' Retrieved: October 11, 2010. * Sturrock, Donald. ''Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. . {{Refend


External links


The Gremlins: A Royal Air Force Story Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the U.S. Air Force, the Army Air Force Exchange Service distributed a limited edition of the 1943 children's book

Sample Disney Fifinella mascot at USAF National Museum





Women's Pilot Training Patch at National Museum of American History

Letter from Walt Disney with a design for the WASP insignia
Fictional characters introduced in 1943 Disney animated characters American mascots Fictional female soldiers Gremlins