Tinker Bell (Blu-ray) (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Ever Wonder Featurette-Magical Guide to Pixie Hollow Featurette-Creating Pixie Hollow Music Video Deleted Scenes
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	75:30
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Bradley Raymond
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Mae Whitman Kristin Chenoweth Raven-Symoné Lucy Liu America Ferrera Jane Horrocks Jesse McCartney Jeff Bennett
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	?	Music	Joel McNeely Ryan L. Carlson Niki Carras

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Linear PCM 48/24 5.1 (6912Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) Dutch Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) French DTS HD High Resolution Audio 5.1 Dutch DTS HD High Resolution Audio 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    After years of traipsing the moral high ground of being against straight-to-DVD cash ins of their many well known properties, Disney have embraced the cash cow over the last few years. The latest being their much publicised Peter Pan spin off Tinker Bell. the publicity is reasonably deserved this time around as this is certainly one of the better straight-to-DVD kids flicks you'll come across. I certainly didn't enjoy it as much as our DVD reviewer, but I can certainly concur that it is an above average babysitter. The animation certainly isn't quite of the standard you'd get with a tentpole theatrically-released flick, but it certainly gives the lower-rent theatrical flicks a run for their money. The story is halfway decent to boot.

    Tinker Bell tells the origin story to everyone's favourite fairy Tinker Bell, specifically how she came to appreciate her lot in life.

    After being created from a pool of magic fairy dust, Tink is magically told that her special talent is "tinkering" - fixing stuff and inventing. Disappointed at all the things that means she can't do in life, Tinker Bell sets about trying to learn all kinds of other skills, with dismal results. After a series of disasters, Tink learns to appreciate her skills and put them to good use.

    The moral of the story? Don't try anything that the powers that be tell you that you can't do. Maybe that is a cynical way to look at it, but after decade of the same "you can do anything you want if you really try" poppycock this is a surprising turn. The less cynical take would be "you can't be good at everything, so try hard at what you are good at". Maybe this is the reality check today's munchkins need. Then again, I've probably already read more into the plot of this babysitter than anyone needs to...

Video

    The film is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio in 1080p.

    The video looks very good for a straight to DVD kids movie. There really is nothing wrong with the video at all, though this is far from the most eye-popping film you are likely to see on Blu-ray.

    The image is sharp. There is no grain or low level noise noticeable in the image. The colours are rich and bold.

    There is no sign of compression artefacts or film artefacts at any point.

    English subtitles are present for the feature and appear to be accurate and well timed.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The disc features a plethora of audio options. The pick of the bunch is an English uncompressed PCM 5.1 track. French and Dutch DTS HD-MA 5.1 tracks are present as well as English, French and Dutch Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 Kbps) tracks.

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand. The audio is in reasonable enough sync with the video for a cartoon. A fairly routine Disney film score is well mixed in the soundtrack.

    The surrounds and subwoofer are used modestly and to fair effect. A good mix for a straight-to-DVD kids flick, but no more.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    All the extras are presented in 1080p.

Magical Guide to Pixie Hollow Featurette

    A series of short introductions to the various season-themed realms of Pixie Hollow, the land of the fairies.

Ever Wonder Featurette (3:16)

    Magic is real. Honest! It is all around us, or so this brief featurette will explain to viewers. Not bad for the kids.

Creating Pixie Hollow Featurette (9:47)

    A short "making of" style featurette that discusses how the producers designed the look of the movie, pitched a bit more at the parents than the other extras though still very kid-friendly.

Deleted Scenes

    A handful of deleted scenes, some animated to the same standard as the feature itself and others just storyboards, along with introductions form the director.

Music Video

    Disney channel bimbo in training Selena Gomez harps out a by-the-numbers Disney movie theme tune. This one will entertain the target demographic of the movie.

    The Australian Region B Blu-ray release is identical to the equivalent Region A edition in North America.

    The Blu-ray version features the same extras as the DVD edition, only in high-def rather than standard definition.

    A solid kids flick, with a different message to most.

    The video and audio are both very good but far from reference material. Simply put, it all looks good but it is not hard to find better.

    The extras will keep the kids busy for a little while beyond the movie, but are nothing too special.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall