Twinkle Toes is a Direct to Video animated film released in 2012.
It's a Merchandise-Driven cartoon made to advertise those kid's shoes with the twinkling lights. Specifically, Skechers' then-new "Twinkle Toes" brand of such shoes. Yes, it wasn’t even born from a toyline. Just shoes.
Despite its rather cynical origin story, it's a cute and quirky film in its own right. It centers around a girl named Grace, who's recently gained entry into a high school of the performing arts, despite the fact that she can only dance when she's sure that no one's watching. In preparation for her first day at school, she glues flashing lights to her shoes, gaining her the nickname "Twinkle Toes."
It was followed by a 2016 sequel, Twinkle Toes Lights Up New York.
For the clumsy, bumbling carrier pigeon from Gulliver's Travels who enjoyed his own short-lived spinoff series of cartoons, go here.
For a certain Stone-Age family man known as "Twinkletoes" for his amazing bowling skills, see aqui.
Twinkle Toes contains examples of:
- Alliterative Title: Twinkle Toes.
- Alpha Bitch: Brittany Fairlawn.
- Amplified Animal Aptitude: Walter is treated as a regular pet rabbit, but he's clearly entirely aware of the plot's events and has a knack for technology.
- Character as Himself: The credits feature Walter the Bunny credited in this manner.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Pretty Tall, despite being central to the plot of the first film, is inexplicably absent in the second film and isn't even mentioned by the other characters.
- Huge Schoolgirl: Pretty Tall had ambitions to be a ballerina until she hit a growth spurt that left her over six feet tall.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Brittany secretly films Grace passing out on the first day of school. Once the video's uploaded online, Grace almost instantly becomes a laughingstock among her fellow Performing Arts Academy classmates.
- Merchandise-Driven: As mentioned above, the film was made to sell Skechers' new Twinkle Toes brand of light-up shoes. If anything, the scene that introduces the shoes encourages kids to use their creativity to decorate their own shoes rather than buy Skechers.
- Missing Mom: Grace has a single dad. It's later revealed that her mom passed away some time before the events of the movie.
- The Nicknamer: It's Mr. Koslovsky who bestows the names Twinkle Toes and Pretty Tall, though Sporty Shorty introduces herself as such.
- Performance Anxiety: Grace gets extreme stage fright in front of everyone except Walter.
- Statuesque Stunner: Pretty Tall. That's why they call her that.
- Those Two Guys: Pretty Tall and Sporty Shorty. As their nicknames suggest, they also fit Big Guy, Little Guy (Tall and Shorty) and Tomboy and Girly Girl (Sporty and Pretty).
- Unabashed B-Movie Fan: Grace and her dad partake in a weekly tradition called "Mac and Cheese Monday," in which they eat macaroni (the Mac) and watch 50s B-movies (the Cheese). They find the movies a total crack-up.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Throughout the film, Miss Theodora is constantly encouraging Grace to pursue her passion for dancing and telling her she's far more talented than she realizes.
