Tinkerbell, Old and New

Sofie and I have watched the original Peter Pan together a few times now.  One thing that always strikes me is Tinkerbell's lack of morality.  In the movie she tries to get Wendy killed, and reveals the location of Peter Pan's hideout in another attempt to get Wendy out of the picture.  Her murderous jealousy is a stark contrast to her cute demeanor.  She comes around in the end, but who knew fairies were sociopaths?

Disney has found it in their wisdom to release an entire movie based on the origin of Tinkerbell.  It went straight to video, which is always a bad sign, but the trailers looked well made.  Disney also showed it on the Disney Channel in HD over the weekend.  I saw it as a great opportunity to screen it with Sofie before we go buy it.  So Monday morning we fired up the DVR and began viewing the movie.

We made it to the first commercial break (about 20 minutes) before Sofie lost interest.  She is usually able to watch long movies without getting bored, but this one did not hold her attention.  The CG in the movie is excellent.  The writing is okay.  The voice acting is good.  But Tinkerbell herself is so different, she may as well use a different name. 

So where we once had an image of a jealous little mute pixie, there is now a very talkative young fairy, that likes to interrupt, has a strong talent for inventing fairy tools, and is capable of tailoring her own clothes out of leaves.   I am not sure if the sociopathic side of her comes out at any point later in the movie.  It's still in the DVR, so if we ever find out, I'll let you know.

UPDATE:

Took a couple more sittings, but we got through the whole thing.  It's not terrible.  I think it would be great for little girls aged 4-10.  The message I took away from it is "Be yourself, but don't try to go beyond your capabilities.  Know your limits, and don't rock the boat."  Maybe that's not the best message for little girls to hear.