Disney Movie Review: The Pirate Fairy

Unfortunately we don’t live in Chicago, Orlando or Los Angeles, so we didn’t get to preview the latest release in the Tinker Bell/Disney Fairies franchise, The Pirate Fairy in theaters.  It came out on DVD/BluRay yesterday though, so today we have our review for you!

Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) and Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers, Thor) join an already star-studded voice cast of Fairies.  Spunky, curious new character Zarina (a dust fairy who incidentally is always out of pixie dust) learns how to make orange dust, and excitedly moves forward trying to create other colors – only to discover that tampering with dust was as dangerous as Fairy Gary had warned.

Fast forward a year, when all the blue pixie dust is stolen from the Pixie Dust Tree.  Tink and her friends must track Zarina down to rescue her from the Neverland pirates… or so they think.

When they wake up from a run-in with the Pirate Fairy and a burst of rainbow pixie dust, they find their talents have been switched.  A bit of hilarity ensues as they try to work out their newfound “talents”.  It makes for an interesting race against the clock as they convince Zarina to come home and try to recover the blue dust.

The movie sets up a perfect good versus evil moral choice but the Pirate Fairy never has to make it.  That’s probably fine for this franchise (and certainly doesn’t take away from the movie!), but it makes you wonder.  A character you may recognize (though it’ll take a little while!) makes the choice an easy one for her.  It’s a lovely story and one you should check out right away if you have Fairies fans!

Some other notes…

I absolutely loved the moments building on the Fairies franchise and leading into the Peter Pan story.  From a touching sister moment with Tink and Peri to flying pirate ships and the tower of London, the second star to the right, fairies in lanterns and an aversion to ticking clocks – this movie is chock full of bonuses for Disney fans of all ages.  Be sure to stick around through the credits for one last fun appearance!

Catch a sneak peek of The Legend of the Neverbeast – next in the franchise, slated for a December 2014 release.

The soundtrack is excellent, as I’ve found to be true with all of the Disney Fairies movies.  The show opens with beautiful song “Who I Am”, sung by Natasha Bedingfield as we see the fairies do their respective tasks – always enjoyable!  The whole score has the same Pixie Hollow feel as the previous movies, and there is a second Natasha Bedingfield song, “Weightless”, featured later in the movie.  The pirate song, “The Frigate that Flies” had us moving and smiling!

Bonus Features…

Second Star to the Right: The Legacy of Never Land has conversations with the writer, director and producer about their opportunity to expand on the world of Peter Pan.  They talk about how they went from knowing they wanted the story of a rogue fairy to the idea of pirates, with a little help from one John Lassetter.

Croc-u-mentary is a “fairy’s eye view of one of nature’s most versatile and surprising creatures”.  A cute, quick look at crocodiles on the mainland featuring live action footage as well as clips from the movie.  There’s even a “Charlie Bit my Finger – auto tune” moment.  It’s kind of fabulous.

Like most DVD/Blu-ray releases, The Pirate Fairy includes a handful of deleted scenes.  They’re all rough sketches and honestly, nothing I’d write home about.  So I’m not writing much here about it, either 🙂  The only thing I have to say is that a few of them really write Zarina as an outcast.  I’m happy they didn’t go that route, but rather went a misunderstood “Tink-like” big personality.

The Making of “The Frigate that Flies” is a behind-the-scenes look at the aforementioned pirate song.  You see the voice actors working, singing and talking about their experiences.  I always enjoy seeing voice actors do their work, especially alongside the animation.  This feature was very nicely done.

Two animated shorts are super fun and, in my opinion, a bit out of character for these DVDs.  I hope they continue to do more!  There are also two sing-along features, which I know we’ll end up watching over and over.

All in all?  Buy the DVD/Blu-Ray.  It’s well worth it!

Disclaimer: We bought the movie full price, and had no requests to review it.  Just felt like it… so there you go. 🙂