Disney Fairies

[Violet CLM]

I fear they might be a bit too childish to me.

Hard to say! I mean, I don't think being "childish" is inherently a bad thing, but I don't know what does or doesn't trigger bad reactions for you. Compared to MLP episodes, the Tink movies have the arguable advantage that the problems are always the main character's fault. There aren't any giant megamonsters of the week for everyone to defeat through the power of friendship with no ethical dilemmas to speak of. And I think Pirate Fairy in particular tells a surprisingly mature story if you look past the obvious fantastical elements. But yes, they're absolutely children's movies, and part of their appeal is that they're sort of a safe spot. A retreat. A prettier (and they truly are very pretty movies), happier existence, even if they do have to keep saving the world. If that's not what you're personally looking for then that's probably not what you should be watching... and that's fine.

(Not that any of that kept me from writing 30,000 words about a couple of fairies falling in love despite together getting maybe five minutes of canon  screentime. But then this is the internet.)

EDIT: This video's not on YouTube that I know of, so I'm linking it here so I can keep track of it. It's a deleted scene from an earlier plot for the first movie, but it's fully animated and very cute.

[Violet CLM]

Extended Sneak Peek! 6 full minutes of Neverbeast. March isn't feeling any closer.

(Meanwhile, I am slowly accumulating a collection of dolls gathered from sales and cheap eBay prices. Picture/s to come sometime when a cat isn't asleep on my lap and so limiting my mobility.)

[True]

I actually enjoyed reading all of that. But I'm also a little sad about it lol. I honestly was NEVER interested in Tink lol and I think I got tired of seeing her tattooed all over people haha.

That being said. My 11 year old son as no fear of admitting that he loves the movies, and hes probably more upset then i am to see the decline. His favorite movie is Pirate fairy's, funnily enough its on right now, and of course hes watching it, probably for the 50th time lol.

[Darker]

I fear they might be a bit too childish to me.

Hard to say! I mean, I don't think being "childish" is inherently a bad thing, but I don't know what does or doesn't trigger bad reactions for you. Compared to MLP episodes, the Tink movies have the arguable advantage that the problems are always the main character's fault. There aren't any giant megamonsters of the week for everyone to defeat through the power of friendship with no ethical dilemmas to speak of. And I think Pirate Fairy in particular tells a surprisingly mature story if you look past the obvious fantastical elements. But yes, they're absolutely children's movies, and part of their appeal is that they're sort of a safe spot. A retreat. A prettier (and they truly are very pretty movies), happier existence, even if they do have to keep saving the world. If that's not what you're personally looking for then that's probably not what you should be watching... and that's fine.

(Not that any of that kept me from writing 30,000 words about a couple of fairies falling in love despite together getting maybe five minutes of canon  screentime. But then this is the internet.)

EDIT: This video's not on YouTube that I know of, so I'm linking it here so I can keep track of it. It's a deleted scene from an earlier plot for the first movie, but it's fully animated and very cute.

Yeah, maybe I'll give them a try, but only if I have the luck to find one on TV anytime. They don't sound like my kind of movies, but eh, I've got nothing to lose.

[Violet CLM]

So Legend of the Neverbeast leaked to the interwebs sometime last week, and it turned out I was too weak to wait any longer. :# So, on with the spoiler tags...

Spoiler

Pirate Fairy was better.

Beyond that I'm not sure yet. I'd need to watch it again to get a better sense of how I'd rank it relative to the rest, but Pirate Fairy hit so many right notes and Neverbeast falls short of that. The problem I felt while watching it is that it sacrifices the ensemble nature of the fairy cast. Inasmuch as that meant making Tinkerbell not the main character, and in fact a distant second (or third if you count Gruff), that was really cool. But inasmuch as that meant many long sequences with Fawn and only Fawn, and the other girls not getting much more dialogue than needed to assure us that yes, the writers didn't forget which one is which... that part I was less excited about. What intercharacter moments there were, worked well (<3 Silvermist!), but there just weren't enough of them for my tastes.

But! I'm not saying I didn't like the movie. The scout fairies' outfits are gorgeous, and I wish we got to know more about them beyond their leader because they have some really pretty character designs too. All the stuff with the baby hawk before Gruff finally appears worked really well, setting up both Fawn's conflicts both external (Nyx) and internal in a way that felt completely organic. The series' running theme of all Pixie Hollow being on the brink of destruction because of the main character's actions was maintained and maintained perfectly. Some of the action sequences looked really good (especially the climax and some of the scout fairy stuff), and Fawn's antics were genuinely amusing/endearing. I enjoyed some of the character callbacks, though I felt the missing ones... I didn't expect any Zarina, but there was ample opportunity for Periwinkle, and I don't remember even a hint of Fairy Mary or the Ministers. Weird.

It's a thoroughly competent movie. It's got solid visuals, a straightforward plot with consistent characterization, and all sorts of plot twists you easily can see coming. If I had to sum up my complaint, it'd be that it doesn't feel like it needs to be a Disney Fairies movie specifically. Most of the existing cast doesn't get much to do, and there's very little discussion of fairies' role in changing the seasons and so on. There's just wings and pixie dust. And those are both fine, but I feel the movie should have been aimed more toward the franchise's most distinctive features, the ones it's put in time to build up over the years. At least have Tink and the girls be drafted as volunteer scout fairies to sell dolls with movie-themed outfits.

Oh and I'd be remiss if I didn't say anything about the ending: it tore me apart. That definitely felt like a scene written after the studio had learned this would be the final movie in the series. That giant fluffy grumpy monster thing made an excellent audience surrogate and yes, I'll miss you too, girls.

Also, since these are toy-oriented forums, have a crossposted photo of my growing assortment:
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All from eBay, except for the Pirate Fairy set of standing figures, which came direct from Disney. The Fawn doll is probably temporary... I like her outfit well enough, but she doesn't have any wings and she's shorter than everyone else. Silvermist's outfit isn't very exciting and she's got one bent wing and one taped together, but none of the Silvermist dolls out there honestly do a very good job at capturing her facial structure anyway, so she'll probably stick around. Rosetta and Iridessa look amazing. Tink and Peri are just the low-priced TRU-exclusive set, but honestly they look fine except for Peri's pink shoes. I'm missing Zarina, Vidya, Chloe, and Spike (if there are other dolls, I don't know about them), but they promise to be a lot harder to find cheap copies of than the ones I've found so far...

[Sprinklecupcake]

^Oh wow what a CUTE collection!

I have some DS dolls, I have the 3 LE dolls and I have the basic Peri and Tink. LE Fawn is still on her way, delayed because the weather here has been awful.

[barbgirl1999]

I've always been a HUGE Tink fan, and I'm very sad that the series is ending...I actually really liked the movies too.  I definitely think Disney will keep her around in the parks, I mean, she introduces the "Wishes" fireworks show every night at WDW when she flies over the crowd.  They can't do away with that!

And, because we like pictures....
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Rearranging by barbgirl1999, on Flickr

[Tilas]

I was never a big fan of Peter Pan, but the Disney Faeries franchise made me really like Tinkerbell.  A little sad to see it coming to an end, but on the flip side I'm kinda glad they're not dragging it through the dirt well past its prime like so many kids series *coughpokemoncough* .

I think that intrigues me about the Disney Faeries series (and maybe this is just me reading FAR to much into it but...) is that it makes Tink a very tragic character if you look at the Disney Faeries and Peter Pan to be the same universe. The Disney Faeries is about her youth, her "childhood" as it were. We see her born, we see her grow. She's happy, energetic, kind and gentle.

Then there is an unknown time gap between that and the events of Peter Pan, and when we see her again, she's sour, bitter, and almost human hating. Why? It makes me think something tragic happened between Disney Faeries and Peter Pan, most likely the destruction of Pixie Hollow and the other faeries, which soured Tink's outlook on life. It gives her a lot of character development.

Or I could just be conspiracy theorizing.

[LittleSpiffy]

I haven't finished watching the movie, but I feel the Neverbeast was strongly inspired by Labyrinth's Ludo.  The face...and the rocks...I can't help but think of Ludo!

[Violet CLM]

Tilas: It's a pretty unavoidable subject and one I keep coming back to, so no worries about conspiracy theorizing... not that I'd be the best person to tell you off for such anyway. I obviously take continuity far more seriously than I should.

So, here's the most official timeline I know about. It leaves out Winda Quickwing, but details about her are sparse, so calling the movies the "earliest era" seems mostly reasonable. The timeline doesn't say what happens to change the "eras," but there are various clues scattered throughout the books to suggest there was at least one major disaster: a volcano erupted. This destroyed much of Pixie Hollow, including the Pixie Dust Tree, and the fairies were only saved by the appearance of Mother Dove.

(I'm making this out to sound a little more internally consistent than it actually is... the books suggest that the time of the Pixie Dust Tree was a long time ago, longer than Tink should have been around. But there she is. And the respective ages of Wendy Darling and Captain Hook in Peter Pan, vs. their ages in Tinkerbell (movie) and The Pirate Fairy, don't seem right. Also you kind of have to pretend that either Lost Treasure (movie) or Tink North of Neverland (book) didn't happen, since they pretty much share the same plot yet take place on opposite sides of the whole Peter thing.)

So what traumatic event made Tink lose her happiness? Here are some possibilities:

• As you say, Pixie Hollow suffered a major disaster, which would be enough to unhinge anyone. Since Vidia in the books has also reverted to cruelty, this is the easiest explanation, since it would be reasonable for it to affect all the fairies.
  
• The volcano may not have been the only disaster: Captain Hook may have come back to Pixie Hollow. This would explain negative fairy attitudes toward humans ("clumsies") in the later years, and offers various possible explanations for what happens to Zarina, who should otherwise have been able to create a new Pixie Dust Tree even after the old one got destroyed. (Or maybe she was killed trying to protect it. Either works.)
• Smaller scale: Peter Pan himself is simply not very nice to Tink. Maybe he's what changed her.
• Even worse: there's no Winter Woods in the smaller Pixie Hollow, and no mention of winter fairies either. (Instead the water-talent fairies seem to have picked up some of their old abilities.) Winter fairies suffer serious health effects in warmer weather. That means Tink almost certainly lost her sister, and, well, that can't be good.

[LittleSpiffy]

Violet, do you think that what happens in "Neverbeast" is the first of many disasters?

[Violet CLM]

LittleSpiffy:

Spoiler

I have no idea. On the one hand, nothing very bad ends up happening, because Gruff is able to stop the lightning after only a few things catch on fire. On the other, I don't think it's made clear why the lightning happens in the first place--well, because of the comet, I guess, but that just shifts the question one step farther back. So maybe the comet has multiple effects and the lightning is just the first, and later the volcano erupts as part of the same causally connected chain of events, but I really can't think of anything to suggest that is or is not the case.

[Tilas]

So I'm not totally off the mark about my theory LOL. I never read the books, I'm judging strictly but animated stuff lol.

Smaller scale: Peter Pan himself is simply not very nice to Tink. Maybe he's what changed her.

Now this I have always believed. I never found him to be a nice or "whimsical" character. He's an all out jerk in my mind. He treated her like crap in the movie too, so I can only imagine how long she's suffered under that. 

[Violet CLM]

Neverbeast is out on DVD and digitally now; have some exclusive concept art at The Mary Sue to celebrate! Including this gorgeous shot of Nyx:
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[barbgirl1999]

LOVE that art!  She's a gorgeous girl.  I know they've made some dolls from this movie, and I hope they at least make her before they fade away!