DVD Review: Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue
Tinker Bell is back! Being one of my wife's favorite fictional characters, there was no way we were going to miss Tinker Bell's third full-length computer animated feature. And like last time, we didn't even have to put it on our Netflix queue, because I got sent a review copy, which was a 2-disc DVD/Blu-ray combo pack. Of course, since we still don't have a Blu-ray player, we could only watch the DVD copy. According to the back of the box, both discs contain the same bonus features, so I guess the only thing we're missing out on is the high-definition. But our DVD player does a great job of upconverting, so I don't even mind.
In the first film, we saw Tinker Bell's birth and watched as she struggled to fit in with her new community of fairies. The second film starting out showing her as being rather well known and liked, and ended with her being loved and admired by everyone for what she accomplished. Now in this third film, little Tink has the great honor of being the first Tinker Fairy to find herself on the mainland, away from Fairy Island, with the other fairies to help usher in the new season. Now, the one main rule on the mainland is to always stay away from humans... but we all know Tink, and so do the other fairies, which is why they ask her to promise to stay away from the humans. Her response is "define 'stay away'".
Well, it doesn't take our pretty little fairy long before she's off following a car over to a human house, where she sees a father and his nine year old daughter, Lizzy. As soon as they're in the house, she heads on over to check out the motorized vehicle, with Vidia right beside her trying to convince lil' miss curious to leave. Eventually they do, but because of a slight mishap, Vidia has to walk back, being unable to fly with wet wings and all. That part was a bit confusing because I thought they used fairy dust to fly. But anyway, because they had to walk back, they eventually run into a little fairy house nearby. Vidia is suspicious, but Tink flies right in, and one more accident later finds Tinkerbell trapped in the house, which Lizzy is carrying back to the house.
Vidia follows, but is unable to gain entrance to Lizzy's house, and can only watch helplessly outside as Tink is first chased by a cat, and then trapped in a birdcage. So she rushes back to the other fairies to bring help. But if only it were that easy. Due to the rain, they can't all just fly over and help, and so the other two tinker fairies (yeah, I guess they got to come to the mainland as well for some reason) build a boat to help traverse the path which is now flooded from heavy rain. Meanwhile, while they're on their adventure to get to the house, Tinker Bell makes friends with Lizzy, and Tink teaches her all about fairies. From here it becomes an adventure not just to rescue Tinker Bell, but for Tinker Bell to help get Lizzy's father to spend more time with his daughter.
Like the other two films, both my wife and I enjoyed it. There's not a whole lot of uniqueness to the story, but overall it's still a lot of fun. This film is a good time for kids and adults as it's filled with entertaining characters, emotionally relatable situations, and absolutely gorgeous visuals. Yes, once again the animation was very nice, with various color palettes used for different situations to help get the emotional impact of the scene across. I think it would have played spectacularly in 3D, and could probably have been released in the theater for just this reason. Tinker Bell seems like she'd be perfect for the 3D universe. Who knows, maybe they'll do the next one like that.
The extra features on the DVD include:
- Deleted Scenes
- All-New Music Video "How To Believe" by Bridgit Mendler
- Design A Fairy House
- Fairy Field Guide Builder
This was a really nice, entertaining, and beautiful film that's definitely worth checking out.
Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, released by Disney, is available starting September 21, 2010. Check out the official website.
