Tinker Bell runs out of pixie dust
Tinker Bell And The Legend Of The Never Beast (U) Verdict: Derivative The Snow Queen: Magic Of The Ice Mirror Verdict: Charming
THIS is the seventh instalment of the animated Tinker Bell series, or what is known in the smoke-filled or more likely smoke- f ree rooms of the Disney Corporation as the Disney Fairy Franchise.
However, the rumour swirling out of Glendale, California, is that there may not be any more on account of disappointing merchandise sales. The sorority of fairies, it seems, has finally been wrung dry.
In this slick but shamelessly derivative film, which owes far more to Beauty And The Beast and The Gruffalo than anything J. M. Barrie ever wrote, the writing is on the wall in glittering pixie dust. Tinker Bell herself has only a supporting role, suggesting that they’ve rather run out of story ideas.
I nstead, her gossamer-winged colleague Fawn takes centre stage.
Fawn ( voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) is a kind-hearted soul, who can’t resist a wounded animal, and takes pity on a curious monster with a thorn in his foot.
But the movers and shakers in Pixie Hollow — Queen Clarion (Anjelica Huston) and her feisty lieutenants Nyx ( Rosario Dawson) and Fury (none other than Mel B) — don’t want a beast in their midst. Especially when it appears that this one, a Gruffalo lookalike whom Fawn names, erm, Gruff, is bent on destroying Pixie Hollow after being woken up, by a passing comet, from a 1,000year slumber.
But really he’s a sweetheart, with only good intentions. The message for children is that one might be saddled with horns, no eyeballs and an unfortunate underbite, but real beauty radiates from within. For adults, the message is that those duvet covers and lunchboxes might soon be going cheap.
THE Snow Queen: Magic Of
The Ice Mirror is another animated children’s film with a thoroughly misleading title; it really has next to nothing to do with the Snow Queen and is all about a proboscisally-challenged troll called Orm (Sharlto Copley), who is as feckless as he is cute and hatches a plan to marry a princess.
Hans Christian Andersen must be turning in his grave, but this Russian-made film, a sequel to The Snow Queen (2012), has a certain jaunty charm.