This CGI feature from Disney tells the origin of Tinker Bell. The fact that the Tinker Bell shown here is nothing like Barrie's is neither here nor there - neither was the Tinker Bell in the original animated feature. Likewise the fact that the visual look is very clean and simple, without the multiple rendering passes for adding levels of texture - this doesn't matter.

Because Tinker Bell is primarily a film for relatively small children. On that level, it is absolutely perfect. The story is simple, serviceable and easy to follow. The animation is good, but unsophisticated. The colours are bright, primary colours. The voice casting is relatively high profile, although I suspect it doesn't need to have been.

The tinies will thoroughly enjoy it.

I had seen the original 1953 Disney animated film Peter Pan, and its sequel made nearly fifty years later, and I guess a film focusing on the famous pixie fairy sounded relatively interesting, so I watched it. Basically, the story is set in the world of fairies, who create the four seasons of the year and all components of them, such as the colour of leaves, snow, and much more. Born into this world as a fairy herself is Tinker Bell (Independence Day's Mae Whitman),who before settling in has to find her skill and talent, like all the fairies have, and she is selected by her tool as a "tinker". The tinker fairies are responsible for fixing things for all the four seasons such as the contraptions that help make things and stuff, specifically for Spring, but this job isn't as important as the other fairies talents. Tinker Bell is fascinated hearing about the Main Land, i.e. the human world, but she is disheartened to find out that as a tinker she cannot go to the Main Land. She knows the only way to be able to go is to have a talent that would be useful in the human world, so she tries her hand at using new skills in the four season lands, with no success. Her friends Rosetta (RV: Runaway Vacation's Kristin Chenoweth),Silvermist (Lucy Liu),Fawn (Ugly Betty's America Ferrera) and Iridessa (Raven-Symoné) are supportive, but Vidia (Pamela Adlon) is mean and keen to see her fail, and makes her mess up big time. Overseer Fairy Mary (Jane Horrocks),and of course Queen Clarion (Anjelica Huston) are devastated to see all the preparations for Spring have been ruined by the disastrous events caused by Tinker Bell, but she redeems herself by helping to fix everything. In the end, Vidia gets what she deserves for being mean, and Tinker Bell proves herself the hero by saving the Spring season ready for the Main Land, and as reward she is allowed to see it, and return a toy spinning ballerina back to its owner, a little girl named Wendy (of course). Also starring Jesse McCartney as Terence, Jeff Bennett as Clank, Rob Paulsen as Bobble and Loreena McKennitt as Narrator. The voice casting is not bad, the Scottish fairy with glasses and the fat one are obvious comic relief, the computer animation is relatively good for straight to video, and it is an okay story, so all in all, not a bad family animated adventure. Worth watching!

At first, I was not expecting much from Tinkerbell, but it was much better than I expected. While too short with some moments of insipid dialogue, Tinkerbell is a cute and entertaining movie that never tries to be anything more than it is.

The film looks surprisingly great, initially I was expecting something along along the lines of all gloss no depth, but the look is clean and quite warm with gorgeous colours and all the fairies look convincing.

The music I also loved. The score is somewhat Celtic-inspired, and it is really lovely and soothing and the tunes are memorable without being too twee. The story is very simple, but it is very sweet with a good message that doesn't feel forced or preachy.

The characters are really quite engaging. I have never hated Tinkerbell as much as others did in the Disney Peter Pan movie, which is not a Disney favourite but I like it very much for the music, but she is much more likable here and the fact that she isn't jealous or stubborn here will make her easy to relate for the younger crowd.

The voice work is on paper of high-calibre, and in the film they do do sterling jobs. Mae Whitman is very emotive and resourceful in the title role, but the standout for me was the immensely talented Anjelica Huston who is really quite excellent, also she is a presence that adults will thoroughly enjoy.

In conclusion, a cute and fun little movie. 8/10 Bethany Cox