Disney / Buena Vista | 2010 | 77 mins. | G
Generally speaking, direct to DVD films don’t inspire much confidence. One exception to the rule is Disney. Apparently understanding that parents with children occasionally love a good film with which to entertain the little ones, ‘The House of Mouse’ has made impressive use of the direct-to-video market.
Certainly, when I heard about plans for a series of home video releases about Tinker Bell and her friends at Pixie Hollow, I had my doubts. How many stories could there possible be? Regardless, would it be some really cheesy stuff, like those atrocious Aladdin sequels of the 1990’s?
To my surprise and delight, Disney created a home video franchise that was not only appealing to children it was also clever enough to appeal to the adults who too often find themselves stuck watching mindless cartoons with their kids.
In many ways, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue feels more like a direct sequel to Tinker Bell than Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure. Tinker Bell and her friends have traveled to London in the summertime to give nature a little help. Painting butterflies, drawing the lines on bees, helping tadpoles swim, you know, just average fairy stuff. Tinker Bell is warned by the other fairies that under no circumstances is she supposed to let a human being see her.
Lizzy and her father have just moved into a countryside cottage. Lizzy is obsessed with fairies and believes that they exist. Her father is very scientific and finds it ridiculous that her daughter would believe in such nonsense. Predictably, Tinker Bell finds herself face to face with Lizzy and becomes trapped. The other fairies rush to save her before something bad happens.
That is essentially the story in a nutshell, but it should also be noted that Disney has added a brilliant, potentially educational twist. Lizzy and Tinker Bell overcome problems and learn to communicate. Lizzy decides to create a field journal of fairies with the help of her new friend. The creativity of this may inspire young viewers to make their own field journals, as it looks like so much fun.
The video here is simply amazing. The CGI worlds look totally realistic! Colors are bold and bright, the level of detail is astounding, and the 3-dimensionality reminds you every step of the way that you´re watching a Blu-ray. The Great Fairy Rescue is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, “enhanced,” for big monitors.
The soundtrack is also remarkable, with a resonant English DTS-HD MA 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) audio driving sound far from the speaker source and the rear effects speakers nearly as active as the fairies themselves. The sound editing never prioritizes one element too much over the others, so it´s possible to play this Blu-ray at a lower volume and still have it make audio sense. Additional audio options are French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, with subtitles in English SDH, French, and Spanish.
The special features include a long sneak peek at Tangled, the upcoming full-length animated feature based on the Rapunzel fairy tale. There´s a substantial enough mix of clips to really give you a feel for the film, and filmmakers appear in interviews to talk about Tangled.
From Tink we get, there are five deleted scenes (approximately three minutes each) with optional intros from director Bradley Raymond and producer Helen Kalafatic; a “How to Believe” music video by Bridgit Mendler, a brief (under two minutes) Backstage Disney clip of kids at Epcot building fairy houses and talking about them; a Pixiehollow.com commercial; and the main “game,” a Fairy Field Guide Builder that combines a trivia quiz with storybook narration.
The Great Fairy Rescue is also BD-Live enabled.
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