The Pirate Fairy

Released theatrically in 2014, “The Pirate Fairy” is an engaging, perfectly done animated film that earned over $8 million in Britain theatrically since it premiered on Valentine’s Day in the U.K., and another four or five million in so many other foreign countries. Leslie Felperin said in her review, “That’s chump change when compared to the earnings of, say, Disney’s own Frozen or The Lego Movie, or even Mr. Peabody & Sherman whose recent underperformance may cause a write-down of DreamWorks Animation. Nevertheless, The Pirate Fairy is still a film worth noting given its quality, its feisty emphasis on female solidarity (it passes the Bechdel test with flying colors), and the fact that it features Tom Hiddleston as the voice of young Captain Hook, a character only marginally less scheming and evil than his Loki in Thor: The Dark World.”

Felperin continued, “Moreover, as a brand, Tinker Bell keeps just getting bigger, which is pretty impressive given it began as a series of home-entertainment tie-in titles (there have been four features before this, plus a 21-minute short) that have never had more than limited theatrical exposure Stateside, although they’re shown in frequent rotation on Disney’s cable channels. If you believe this might be evidence of the waning centrality of four-wall exhibition and the rising power of the family demographic, clap your hands.”

Felperin went on, “Tinker Bell started out as literally nothing more than a darting stage light in the original 1904 theatrical version of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, who famously dies in the play and gets resurrected during each performance by applause from all those who believe in fairies.” A decade later, thanks to applause and so much love of children all over who love fairies, she’s starring alongside the protagonist, and a lot nicer and smarter than the jealous fairy who tried to get Wendy killed in the 1953 animated Disney movie. Felperin noted, “But more importantly, Tink and her fairy friends are the anchors in a line of licensed entertainment character merchandise, Disney Fairies, which was valued at $435m in 2013. That’s a lot of DVDs, dolls and lunchboxes, and for comparison Disney Fairies is worth less than Disney Princess ($1.6 billion) or Star Wars ($1.5 billion), but more than Angry Birds ($250m) or Barbie ($242m).”

For those who many not know the story that was built in the last four movies (starting with “Tinker Bell: A Fairy’s Tale” in 2007), the main character, voiced by Mae Whitman, lives in Pixie Hollow, a fairy world where the grouping of fairies is decided at birth when a fairy’s specific “talent” – whether it’s working with animals, plants, or, in Tinker Bell’s case, making and fixing things – is shown. Having done different missions in the past, Tinker Bell is now close friends with five other fairies: garden fairy Rosetta (Megan Hilty), whose prissy ways make her a comic relief, water fairy Silvermist (Lucy Liu), animal fairy Fawn (Angela Bartys), light fairy Iridessa (Raven-Symone), and constant fighting wind fairy Vidia (Pamela Adlon).

A new friend, Zarina, voiced by Christina Hendricks, is a dustkeeper, assisting in the creation of the fairy dust that gives the fairies, people and objects the ability to fly. In her free time, Zarina tries banned experiments with the rare blue dust that has strange, alchemical abilities when combined with other ingredients. However, a lab accident fails miserably and Zarina leaves Pixie Hollow in shame, taking the blue dust with her.

Tinker Bell and her five friends go to get back the blue dust, and during one fight, a dust-related incident switches around the fairies abilities, now Vidia becomes a tinker fairy, Rosetta an animal fairy, etc. Felperin noted, “Soldiering on, they eventually track Zarina down and find that she’s become the captain of a band of pirates and had a makeover to give her a pirate swashbuckling look, complete with rock-star hair and thigh-high dominatrix boots.” In the crew is an evil cabin boy named James, voiced by Tom Hiddleston, who has a secret plan of his own. Felperin noted, “It’s only in the third act that the film reveals that James’ last name is Hook, but viewers savvy with Peter Pan, not to mention Disney’s Jake and the Neverland Pirates cable series, will figure out the connection early on, especially given the introduction of a baby crocodile into the story.” This is where you can say “The Pirate Fairy” is a “Peter Pan” prequel.

Felperin said, “Director Peggy Holmes and producer Jenni Magee-Cook, heads of crew list that features a higher proportion of women’s names than most animated features, are clearly working with a much more modest budget compared Disney Animation’s other, top-tier productions. Even so, the craftsmanship standards are high here, from the CG-modelled animation, to the character expressions, to the musical choices and editing.” John Lasseter is the executive credit, and he gives this a Pixar-like attention to detail all around. Actually, you could figure this out better than the inferior “Cars” spin-off “Planes,” but then again, the filmmakers had a much nicer, more well-known origin story to work with in the first place.

This is another good installment in the “Tinker Bell” franchise. If you liked all the past entries, you should check this one out because it is different from the rest. Before, it would be Tinker Bell causing some sort of mistake that she would have to repair, but this time around, she doesn’t do anything. Check it out and have a great time watching it.

Look out tomorrow when we wrap up the franchise in the final sequel in “Disney Month 2020.”