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First, I apologize. I promised the review weeks ago but I've found myself lazy and uninspired to write it to be blunt. I was all geared up to write and write and write and then I watched the film and it just about drained every drop of inspiration out of me. But here I am. So here we go.
Not to suggest it's a bad film, it's not. Then again, the Tinker Bell movie project has been nothing but plagued with troubles since it was first talked about, so after cleaning house and keeping several watchful eyes over the project, it'd be all but impossible to fail. But more on that later. First we start with what really matters: the advertising.
Included with the DVD is a booklet titled "Magic Inside." One can't help but notice that the back cover features an ad for the next installment in the Disney fairy series, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, promised for Fall 2009. The other standout in the ads is the multi-page advertisement for Blu-Ray and Sleeping Beauty. Still being absent a Blu-Ray DVD player myself, I couldn't help but drool over the bonus features that BD Live offers - chatting with friends anywhere while watching the movie as well as competing in games against other people on the network.
So pop in the DVD and after selecting our language of choice comes the beloved FastPlay. First, a rather lengthy promotion for the 70th anniversary platinum edition of Pinocchio, to be released in both DVD and Blu-Ray formats in Spring 2009. Followed by a trailers for Bolt, a teaser for Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure and a promo the direct-to-dvd Space Buddies.
And then... the movie.
Here's where you'll really have to forgive me. It's been weeks since I've seen the film and I realize this is horribly irresponsible waiting so long to offer my review of it, but short of perhaps missing a few details here and there, I think I'll be able to manage alright. At least I can fill up a lot of otherwise empty space with apologies.
So let's start with the obvious: This is one beautiful film. The animation is superb compared to most CG productions, let alone direct to video. It's very stylized, vibrant in color and I can't help but wonder how much time and money went into the R&D to make sure the fairies had just the perfect nose. Even their flesh has a darling soft vinyl plastic look to them which makes them easily portable to the doll market.
As to the content, I'm just going to bottom line it. This is easily the most nonoffensive film I've ever seen. Relative to other direct to video releases, this one is a gem. But honestly, that's not saying much. And if anything doesn't say much, it's this movie. At points, it's so downright formulaic, you'd be able to plug in anyone else's name and you'd have yourself another movie. It's almost as if writing this movie was a chore rather than tapping into what must be an infinite universe of ideas to explore with this new (and not so new) property. Not to say it's all bad either.
The movie starts with Tinker Bell being born and being introduced to Pixie Hollow. Fortunately for Disney, a slight modification of J.M. Barrie's own description on how fairies come to enter the world prevent Tink from having a mother. Tink is born at what appears to be 14 or so in human years and is all the sassy for it. It's not clear if fairies age in pixie hollow, but it is clear that there are older fairies, exclusively in positions of authority, such as Tink's boss Fairy Mary and members of the council. Tink's first task is to find out what she's destined to do for the rest of her fairy life and with little surprise, she's a tinkerer. This faction of the fairy workforce is responsible for engineering and repairing innovative items using every day objects in nature (and sometimes not so natural) to benefit fairies in other disciplines.
This is fabulous for Tink until she meets her contemporaries who are nature fairies: Fawn talks and works with animals, Iridessa works with light, Silvermist works with water, Rosetta is a garden fairy and Vidia controls the wind. Tink has arrived at just the right time as the season in the main land (that's where we are and they are not) is about to turn from winter to spring and everyfairy is in a rush to get things done on time. When all the preparations are made, the nature fairies will head off to the mainland and decorate the country with the freshness of spring.
Of course our darling Tinker Bell who has spent the first day of her life yearning for much more can't wait to head to the main land and literally just rambles on endlessly for her plans in front of the very fairy Queen herself before she learns life's harshest lesson: she's a tinker fairy and only nature fairies get to venture out to the great and fabulous main land. This sends Tink into a fairy tizzy and with the help of her new nature fairy friends, she tries to change her disposition in life. And fails. Miserably. The only fairy she doesn't seek assistance from is Rosetta but that's so she can spend more time with Vidia. Vidia turns out to be the inexplicable arch nemesis of Tinker Bell. Why? Because the formula requires some opposition of course - the heck with any kind of logic. Needless to say that under false pretenses, Vidia gets Tink into a whole heap of trouble. Ultimately Tink ends up ruining every bit of preparation for spring and sets back the fairies indefinitely - spring won't be coming to the main land any time soon. But rather than convince the groundhog to see his shadow, Tink takes it upon herself to save the day and not only does spring come in on time, but every fairy gets to go to the main land to make it happen.
Ultimately this movie just starts on a bunch of cliches and finishes only one: stick with the status quo (go wildcats!). As I mentioned before, the script is fairly bland and for the most part nothing spectacular. There are some very funny moments (I'm a fan of the lightning bugs), but they are few and far between. Most of the time it just seems to trying to stretch itself very thinly to the 70 minute mark.
Overall, I'd give it a 3 out of 5. Better than most attempts, but it definitely has lots of room for improvement. I had heard the film was being retooled for the tween market, but I think if that's really the case, it's failed. This movie would work best for the 10 & under crowd, probably around 4-8.
Bonus features include:
Magical Guide to Pixie Hollow - Choose an area of Pixie Hollow (there are several areas, but only 3 seem to work) and Tink will give you some more details about what goes on there.
Tinker Trainer (DVD-ROM) - You'll need to pop the DVD into your computer for this (Windows or Mac). It's a flash based game that runs you through a series of mini-games involving sorting and counting skills. The keyboard controls are a bit awkward to conquer at first, but after a game or 2 (fortunately the game has different play each time), you're bound to get the hang of it.
Ever Wonder - A short little film mixing live action with animated fairies designed to whet the appetite.
Fly To Your Heart Music Video featuring Selena Gomez (of Disney Channel's the Wizards of Waverly Place)
Then it gets tricky. The box promotes a making of film and deleted scenes in a section called The Mainland. That'd be great, except... WHERE IS IT?
Maybe it's just my DVD and nobody else will have this issue, but the To The Mainland section is *hidden.* And I'm ashamed to admit it took me way too long to find it, but it's right next to the music video (to the right of it). It's only visible when you go to select it.
Once we finally squeeze into it, we have the aforementioned two offerings: A very short (about 10 minutes) film titled Creating Pixie Hollow featuring John Lasseter, director Bradley Raymond and producer Jeannine Roussel. Truth be told, this could have really been a great selling point for the film as far as Disney enthusiasts go. It really goes into the animators researching how the fairy world would be and the influence of nature on the fairies, right down to the clothes they were. The only downside is that it's just too short.
For the deleted scenes, Raymond and Roussel introduce each of the clips (one fully animated, several in pre-CG animated storyboard formats). Here we learn that Vidia isn't all that well liked by any of the popular fairies, although we still have no clue why. Another interesting thing to note is how much the direction of the movie remained in question, even up to the final product.
Finally, a section entitled Sneak Peeks offers us commercials/ads/trailers for the films from the Fast Play as well as The Secret of the Magic Gourd, the re-release of Little Mermaid II, the Wizards of Waverly Place and the Disney theme parks.
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