Tinker Bell

Saw this movie today (9/26/08) with my young nieces at a special El Capitan Theatre preview in Los Angeles. We were all delighted by Tink's excellent backstory, the ingenious story and the handsomely rendered 3-D animation. Cast is uniformly excellent, including Lucy Liu, Kristen Chenoweth and Anjelica Houston. This was much better than some of the theatrically released Disney animated films I've seen (notably "Atlantis"), making it among the best of the Mouse's direct-to-video titles. Well worth checking out with your kids, but don't be surprised if you find a tear in your own eye at the conclusion of this delightful surprise.

At first, I was not expecting much from Tinkerbell, but it was much better than I expected. While too short with some moments of insipid dialogue, Tinkerbell is a cute and entertaining movie that never tries to be anything more than it is.

The film looks surprisingly great, initially I was expecting something along along the lines of all gloss no depth, but the look is clean and quite warm with gorgeous colours and all the fairies look convincing.

The music I also loved. The score is somewhat Celtic-inspired, and it is really lovely and soothing and the tunes are memorable without being too twee. The story is very simple, but it is very sweet with a good message that doesn't feel forced or preachy.

The characters are really quite engaging. I have never hated Tinkerbell as much as others did in the Disney Peter Pan movie, which is not a Disney favourite but I like it very much for the music, but she is much more likable here and the fact that she isn't jealous or stubborn here will make her easy to relate for the younger crowd.

The voice work is on paper of high-calibre, and in the film they do do sterling jobs. Mae Whitman is very emotive and resourceful in the title role, but the standout for me was the immensely talented Anjelica Huston who is really quite excellent, also she is a presence that adults will thoroughly enjoy.

In conclusion, a cute and fun little movie. 8/10 Bethany Cox

The Bad:

Our title character has almost zero points in common with her character from Peter Pan, nor does Peter Pan seem to exist in this universe (we certainly never see him in any of the Tinker Bell series films). The plot is not terribly clever (and I don't feel that just because this is a film aimed at young kids that you need to be overly formulaic) and most of the fairies – who look so interesting – get very little screen time. Tinker Bell's "talent" feels like lazy writing rather than something clever (and, although this doesn't affect the rating on this movie, the rest of the series seems to mostly ignore this idea for Tinker Bell).

The Good:

Tinker Bell seems to have had a personality make-over (probably because she is actually so unlikable in Peter Pan). Now she has more emotions besides jealousy and anger. And she can speak! There's also a "village" beyond living with the lost boys – with more fairies! This is certainly the best part – all those other fairies have the potential to be so interesting! You want to get to know them and see their 'talents'. Tinker Bell's talent, is not a stereotyped "girl's skill", which is nice since this movie is heavily marketed towards little girls. The look of the film is nice. Although there has been much better CGI since this was made, it is still bright and colorful.

The Mom view:

There is nothing objectionable about the film and while predictable for an adult, a young child might not see the end coming and enjoy Tinker Bell's discovery along with her. The moral of the story – finding what you are good at and being happy in that – is not bad, but it might also be seen as "don't try things you aren't skilled at", which isn't as good of a lesson to absorb. I'd be willing to let my preschool/toddler kids see this – including the boys – but it's not the most interesting or well done movie out there for young kids. Uunless you have a child who absolutely loves fairies (NOT one who loves Peter Pan), this is pretty skip-able.

Tinker Bell was surprisingly entertaining, I appreciated the jokes and found that she was more than just Peter Pan "sidekick". Will watch all of the series like I did with Bhc and Garfield.

This was a wonderful movie! I think it was as good as anything Disney has done in last 15 years. What really set this apart from most of the DVD fare is the incredible score, with music from Loreena McKennit! I could really relate to Tink's desire to find who she is and why. I looked everywhere for MY Talent, and it's taken a long time for me to really be happy with myself just the way I am. That's one of the most important and easily forgotten things you can learn in your life, and I'm glad to see that in any movie. The only thing I would have changed was the addition of so much Pop in the soundtrack. I much prefer the orchestral and Choir work to the latest Tween princess crap. Give this a chance, at least a rental. Just enjoy it for what it is, and believe again.