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She’s already settled into Pixie Hollow and .nightsandweekends.com/articles/09/NW0900551.php>hunted for lost treasure—but in Tinker Bell’s latest adventure, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, the headstrong fairy once again finds herself facing a new and completely unfamiliar challenge.
When Tink (Mae Whitman) is sent to the mainland for a summer at fairy camp, she can’t wait to see everything that the human world has to offer. But she gets a little too close—and she finds herself trapped and facing a real, live human.
While Vidia (Pamela Adlon) and the rest of Tink’s friends set out on a dangerous mission to rescue her, Tinker Bell finds that her captor isn’t all that bad. Lizzy (Lauren Mote) is a sweet little girl who loves everything about fairies—even though her father (Michael Sheen) is constantly telling her that her belief in fairies is ridiculous. So while Tink waits out the rain that keeps her from flying back to fairy camp, she decides to help Lizzy and her father.
Though it still features the same lovable characters as Tinker Bell’s first two movies, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue seems to be missing the spirit and the personality of its predecessors. Perhaps that’s because it focuses so much on the human side of the story that the fairies almost seem like an afterthought. Vidia and the others are such a minor role that you might forget they’re there—and once it’s clear that Tinker Bell isn’t in any real danger, the fairy story feels pretty weak.
The majority of the story, then, revolves around Lizzy and her stressed-out, butterfly-collecting, workaholic dad. Their relationship is pretty sad—and despite Tinker Bell’s attempts to lighten things up with her usual fairy antics, poor little Lizzy and her hard-nosed dad give the story somewhat dismal undertones. No matter what Tink and Lizzy do, they just can’t seem to soften his prickly personality—and it often makes the movie a bit depressing. Of course, it all comes together in a cheery ending—but, by then, the tone of the movie has already suffered.
Once again, though, the highlight of the film is its crisp animation. Disney animators continue to crank out a straight-to-home-video Tinker Bell release every year, yet they don’t seem to be cutting a whole lot of corners in the process. Sure, the film is short (clocking in at around 75 minutes), but the animation is still as magical as ever—especially in the end, when Tinker Bell and her friends take to the skies above London.
Of course, if you happen to know a little girl who loves fairies as much as Lizzy does, she’s sure to enjoy the latest Tinker Bell adventure. Even though the story’s a little depressing, she’ll love the thought of meeting (and having a tea party with) her very own fairy. For everyone else, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue is worth a look, if only for the stunning animation—but there’s no real need to go flying out of your way to pick up a copy.
Blu-ray Review:
The Blu-ray combo pack release of Tinker Bell’s third adventure includes many of the usual Disney Blu-ray extras, such as a sneak peek at the upcoming feature Tangled, five deleted scenes (featuring storyboards for an alternate opening) and Disney star Bridgit Mendler’s “How to Believe” music video. There’s also an interactive game, the Fairy Field Guild Builder, which tests players’ knowledge of fairy facts. Viewers who love all things Tinker Bell will enjoy this little trivia game, though anyone with a short attention span will get sick of answering questions long before the game ends.
While the special features aren’t exactly show-stoppers, though, the deleted scenes are worth a quick look—as is the Tangled sneak peek.
