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Monday, April 7, 2014

Disney's The Pirate Fairy Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Jami Ferguson
From the world of “Peter Pan” comes The Pirate Fairy, a swashbuckling new adventure about Zarina (voice of Christina Hendricks), a smart and ambitious dust-keeper fairy who’s captivated by Blue Pixie Dust and its endless possibilities. When Zarina’s wild ideas get her into trouble, she flees Pixie Hollow and joins forces with the scheming pirates of Skull Rock, who make her captain of their ship. Tinker Bell (voice of Mae Whitman) and her friends must embark on an epic adventure to find Zarina, and together they go sword-to-sword with the band of pirates led by a cabin boy named James (voice of Tom Hiddleston), who’ll soon be known as Captain Hook himself. 
Film (4 out of 5 stars)
Zarina (voiced by Christina Hendricks) isn’t quite like the other fairies in Pixie Hollow.  She often runs out of Pixie Dust, and strolls when her fairy friends always fly.  She works as a Pixie Dust.  She asks questions like why does fairy dust do what it does?  The boss, Fairy Gary, reluctantly allows Zarina to assist him in placing the 26 blue dust specs required. 

Fairy Gary says that Zarina is one of the most inquisitive fairies he’s ever met. He calls her the Tinkerbell of dust keepers.  Zarina asks If there is blue dust, why can’t there be other colors like purple or pink and what if they do different things?.  Instead of finding the new dust, she wants to create it.  Fairy Gary warns that a Dustkeepers responsibilities are only to nurture, maintain, measure, package and distribute the dust.  Although she was warned not to tamper with the Pixie Dust, Zarina can’t help herself.  She begins to experiment and has soon created orange dust, which bends light.  Next she makes purple, which gives her fast flying talent. Manufactured Pink Pixie Dust gives her garden talent. 

By this point, Zarina was quite satisfied with her creations and she thought that she had changed dust keeping forever, but when the dust is accidentally combined the results are disastrous which causes damage to many structures including the depot where she worked. Although she wants to fix her mess, she loses her job as dustkeeper because it's decided that she is just too dangerous. Zarina grabs her things, including some dust and runs away. A full year passes with no word from her and soon enough it's time for the Four Seasons Festival where all the realms of Pixie Hollow gather. 

The Winter Fairies show off their talents while a new mysterious fairy places poppies around the arena. With long, wild hair the fairies barely recognize Zarina. She opens the poppies, which puts the crowd to sleep. Only Tinkerbell and a few other fairies are able to escape the sleepy pollen. It's not long before Zarina steals the blue pixie dust that allows the creation of pixie dust which means that with it gone, no one will be able to fly. 

The remaining pixies track Zarina back to a pirate ship where her friends assume is the place where she has been captured, but it turns out she’s the Captain leading a human pirate crew. On her crew is a cabin boy named James (voiced by Tom Hiddleston) who will grow up to become the infamous Captain Hook. Because the fairies have their talents switched, they will have to learn how to use their new abilities to save their friend from a bad situation and to restore everything as it was before.

I am admittedly not the biggest Disney fan in our house and I’m even less fond of Fairies. However, I truly enjoyed The Pirate Fairy for a variety of reasons. For one, at 78 minutes long, it’s the perfect length and for another, as a mom I am always looking for a film that’s highly entertaining for both my son and me, and this film was great on both points. Another bonus for me, is the fact that Tom Hiddleston has one of my favorite voices and he can thankfully hold a tune. All the voice actors in this film did a great job bringing these animated characters to life.  The story was interesting and I’m glad we are able to add it to our Blu-ray collection. 
Video (4 out of 5 stars)
Disney’s The Pirate Fairy is presented on blu ray in 1080p high definition with a widescreen 1.78:1 ratio.  The level of detail is excellent.  The fairy clothing made of leaves shows many different patterns. You have to remind yourself that everything you see is computer generated, including the various textures. Colors are bright and bold and everything you see, including flying fairies is believable. 
Audio (4 out of 5 stars) 
The Pirate Fairy’s English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio presentation is outstanding.  Whether it’s dialogue, pirate songs or the background music, the audio quality does not disappoint.  Everything you hear sounds genuine and is at an appropriate level. 
Extras (4 out of 5 stars)
The Pirate Fairy Blu-ray contains an impressive list of special features that are well thought out and interesting. 
  • Second Star to the Right: The Legacy of Never Land – The filmmaking team takes a look at Never Land origin and history. 
  • Croc-u-mentary – An informational documentary featuring real life crocodiles and “crocky” from the film. 
  • Deleted Scenes – Rough deleted scenes with introductions by Directory Peggy Holmes and Producer Jennifer Magee-Cook. Can be selected individually or with a play all feature. 
  • The Making of “The Frigate That Flies” –  A behind the scenes look as Tom Hiddleston and Carlos Ponce record dialogue and their pirate song. 
  • Animated Shorts - “Aaarrgh” and “Treasure chest.”
  • Sing Along Songs  Sings alongs with on screen lyrics for “Who I Am”,  and “The Frigate That Flies”.   
Summary (4 out of 5 stars) 
The Pirate Fairy was an unexpected surprise.  My six year old son enjoyed both the fairies and the pirates.  Just because it’s about fairies, it’s definitely not just a “girl movie.”  It’s interesting to see new aspects of the world of Peter Pan and it’s got something for everyone.  The audio and video quality are excellent and it has a nice group of special features.   I would highly recommend this for any boy or girl’s Easter basket. 


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