Tinker Bell was never a favorite of mine. I guess she’s a cutie, but I always preferred the villainous Captain Hook. That old codfish wasn’t given his own direct-to-video film series though.
This time around Tink is out to find a treasure that will fix some troubles she’s gotten herself into.
Tinker Bell (Mae Whitman) is quite the inventor. She’s working on a boat, but she also has a habit of breaking her inventions. Tink is called before Queen Clarion (Angelica Huston) and she thinks she’s in trouble.
That is not the case as Fairy Mary (Jane Horrocks) has recommended her to the Queen and the Minister of Autumn (John Di Maggio) to make a scepter to hold the rare and fragile moonstone during the Autumn Revelry.
This autumn is a special time and when the moonbeams go through the scepter it will make blue pixie dust and rejuvenate the pixie dust tree, so it’s a high honor for her. She and her best friend Terrence (Jesse McCarthy) start to work on fashioning the scepter but he soon starts to get on her nerves.
When her scepter is broken Tink yells at Terrence and tells him to leave, her frustration at the accident also ends with the moonstone being broken. Tink is devastated because this could spell the end of Pixie Hollow since the pixie dust tree will fade without rejuvenating. She attends the fairy tale theater and hears a tale of the magical Mirror of Incanta.
The mirror had the ability to grant the bearer three wishes and was taken by pirates. They used two wishes, but never used the third and final wish. Tink sees this as the solution to her moonstone problem and goes on a quest to find the mirror and wish the moonstone back.
It’s all about friendship and girl power as Tink is tasked with making the scepter for the autumn celebration. Nearly everyone at my house was enthralled at Tink’s adventure. I guess I was the only grumbly one who wished that Captain Hook would appear, but the rest of the household fit more into the target group (girls or kids) than I.
From my standpoint, it was an okay little adventure. I was entertained, but it didn’t stop me from getting up occasionally for a trip into the kitchen without bothering to hit the pause button. When someone else left it was after bellowing “pause” as I’m in charge of the mystical Blu-ray remote. I thought he story wasn’t too complicated and we just know that Tink will see the errors of her selfish ways and it will all work out in the end. Saccharine and syrupy? Sure, but the kids liked it.
The CGI animation is top notch and looks really good in high definition. It was a bit odd for me to have Tink actually talk (she was silent in the film Peter Pan and a spotlight in the stage versions) but I guess that today’s kids couldn’t appreciate the creativity of having to come up with character traits without using the “speech” option.
Everybody needs a franchise these days and this film has a “Disney Fairies” title card before it with another adventure coming in 2010. I found it passable, but the kids liked it more. I’d expect that to happen in your house as well, if you’re a grumpy old sod like me.
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.78:1). Special features are presented in high definition and include the 5 minute short “Magical Guide to Pixie Hollow.” The 20 minute “Scenes you never saw” has bloopers and cut scenes introduced by director Klay Hall and producer Sean Lurie. The 8 minute “Backstage Disney: Pixie Hollow comes to Walt Disney World” shows an attraction opening to promote the series.
There’s also a 3 minute “The Gift of a Friend” music video by Demi Lovato and trailers for other Disney titles. The disc is also BD-Live enhanced and disc two is a DVD copy of the film.
Tinker (now with a space) Bell and the Lost Treasure is a passable adventure for the kids (better if they’re girls). I still can’t imagine Tink with a voice, but I’m way out of the target audience for this one.
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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