Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure is the second computer-animated adventure involving Peter Pan’s sidekick and her fairy buddies in a place called Pixie Hollow in Neverland. If you didn’t catch the first one…consider yourself lucky! Seriously, though, this movie does pretty much stand alone, although all of the first movie’s characters reappear here.
Tink, voiced by Arrested Development alumnus Mae Whitman, is asked by Queen Clarion (Anjelica Huston) to build a scepter that will hold a precious moonstone. The moonstone catches the rays of a blue moon that comes along every eight years and is critical for replenishing the pixie dust tree…somehow. Although there is only one in existence and Tinker Bell is a known klutz, they hand over the fragile moonstone to her to build the scepter. Everyone notes how rare and fragile it is over and over, so guess what happens to the moonstone? Right.
Tink, voiced by Arrested Development alumnus Mae Whitman, is asked by Queen Clarion (Anjelica Huston) to build a scepter that will hold a precious moonstone. The moonstone catches the rays of a blue moon that comes along every eight years and is critical for replenishing the pixie dust tree…somehow. Although there is only one in existence and Tinker Bell is a known klutz, they hand over the fragile moonstone to her to build the scepter. Everyone notes how rare and fragile it is over and over, so guess what happens to the moonstone? Right.
Now that Tink is up poop creek without a paddle, she does what makes the most sense: tells the truth and deals with the consequences. No, that would be good on the moral side but boring on the kid-entertaining-and-selling-merchandise side. Instead, she goes searching for a magic mirror that grants wishes! This takes her outside of Neverland, where she runs into all sorts of cwazy mischief! She meets a new plush toy...err, firefly...named Blaze and is also helped by her friend Terence (Jesse McCartney), who partially caused the original moonstone disaster. Thus teaching us all about friendship and whatnot.
This is a kid’s movie. Not a family movie -- a kid’s movie to be enjoyed by pre-tweens. The visual look, which is in the round-faced computer-animation style, is pretty impressive. They clearly spent some bucks on this and tried their best to make Neverland and Pixie Hollow interesting to look at. It worked. The backgrounds are not static and boring but lush and alive. There is a good attention to detail in the characters and materials, as well. Kids, young kids, will probably enjoy this world.
They will also enjoy the story, which focuses on adventure, silly gags, and overarching themes of forgiveness, tolerance, and perseverance. It’s got the usual Saturday-morning morals, wrapped up in a prettier package. There is definitely an attempt to make the story more exciting with more thrills and, again with the caveat that it will mostly be exciting only to the very young, that succeeds.
Some of the characters who played a big role in the first movie are relegated to cameos here. Tink’s rainbow coalition of friends, Rosetta (Kristin Chenoweth), Iridessa (Raven-Symoné), Silvermist (Lucy Liu), and Fawn (Angela Bartys replacing America Ferrera), drop in to remind everyone that you can buy books, dolls, and other stuff with their picture on it, but don’t contribute much to the story. It’s really Tink and Terence who carry the bulk of the story duties, and if you’re not too demanding in thinking about what’s happening (or you’re six), it works ok.
This is a kid’s movie. Not a family movie -- a kid’s movie to be enjoyed by pre-tweens. The visual look, which is in the round-faced computer-animation style, is pretty impressive. They clearly spent some bucks on this and tried their best to make Neverland and Pixie Hollow interesting to look at. It worked. The backgrounds are not static and boring but lush and alive. There is a good attention to detail in the characters and materials, as well. Kids, young kids, will probably enjoy this world.
They will also enjoy the story, which focuses on adventure, silly gags, and overarching themes of forgiveness, tolerance, and perseverance. It’s got the usual Saturday-morning morals, wrapped up in a prettier package. There is definitely an attempt to make the story more exciting with more thrills and, again with the caveat that it will mostly be exciting only to the very young, that succeeds.
Some of the characters who played a big role in the first movie are relegated to cameos here. Tink’s rainbow coalition of friends, Rosetta (Kristin Chenoweth), Iridessa (Raven-Symoné), Silvermist (Lucy Liu), and Fawn (Angela Bartys replacing America Ferrera), drop in to remind everyone that you can buy books, dolls, and other stuff with their picture on it, but don’t contribute much to the story. It’s really Tink and Terence who carry the bulk of the story duties, and if you’re not too demanding in thinking about what’s happening (or you’re six), it works ok.
I can’t, in good conscience, recommend this movie to anyone over the age of 10. But younger kids will like this, and the animation is worth a quick look. If you are an adult with a fully developed set of faculties and no children, don’t bother.
