Tinker Bell And The Pirate Fairy (2014)
Certified: U
Duration: 78 minutes
Directed by: Peggy Holmes
Voices of: Mae Whitman, Christina Hendricks, Tom Hiddleston, Lucy Liu, Raven-Symoné, Megan Hilty, Pamela Adlon, Angela Bartys, Jim Cummings, Carlos Ponce, Mick Wingert, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jane Horrocks, Anjelica Huston
KRS release
Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy, aka The Pirate Fairy, is the fifth film in Disney’s Tinker Bell series, with each film being both an improvement on the first and a solidification of the primary fan base, young girls.
I am positive that Disney was not making this movie with me in mind, but while young girls will lap this one up voraciously, there are many positive things showing that the company is not playing to the lowest common denominator.
In fact, this nifty film has an excellent voice cast and the animation has been given quite a sprinkle of fairy dust, making the visuals look quite lively. Disney has managed to bring some good-natured, swashbuckling element into the story and increased the adventure aspect beyond the ‘cute’ factor. The connection to the Peter Pan story gives the film some extra baggage.
It also plays as an origin story for Captain Hook, who is one of the film’s best touches as voiced by Tom Hiddleston. The actor seems to be making it his prerogative to play legendary villains, as he is fresh from playing Loki from the Thor and Avengers movies and a vampire in Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive.
The other spot-on voicing choice is that of Christina Hendricks, who is well renowned for her role as the redhead bombshell Joan from The Mad Men TV series. Here she brings Zarina to life, making this fairy a total opposite – both in look and demeanour – to the perennially-cute Tinker Bell, who is appropriately voiced by Mae Whitman.
As expected from this franchise, the film comes packed with its fair share of family-friendly messages, which are well sugar-coated.
Zarina is a fairy dust keeper who likes to bend the rules. One of her experiments with blue pixie dust ends up badly and this results in her leaving from Pixie Hollow.
A year later, she returns from disgrace looking for vengeance and with a new wild hairdo (that really fits Hendricks’s characterisation). She manages to steal Pixie Hollow’s supply of blue pixie dust with the intention of helping young James Hook (Tom Hiddleston) and the band of pirates make a flying ship and escape from Neverland.
Tinker Bell and friends Fawn (Angela Bartys), Iridessa (Raven-Symoné), Rosetta (Megan Hilty), Silvermist (Lucy Liu) and Vidia (Pamela Adlon), give chase but they soon end up in trouble when Zarina manages to switch and jumble up all their fairy talents.
Meanwhile, the pirates are not all that happy with Zarina’s leadership, and a mutiny may well be on the horizon.