[grand, majestic instrumentals]
Let's finish up Disneycember with...
Tinkerbell!
Yeah...there was a strange while
where Tinker Bell was EXTREMELY popular.
It's weird, because the character's been around for years and years,
but only now did the popularity just...explode.
Was this movie the cause of it?
Maybe.
It opens literally with Tinker Bell's birth,
which is kind of like what they say in the book,
where a child laughs, that laugh goes to Neverland,
and then, suddenly, a fairy is born.
Only...she's not born like a little baby.
She's born fully grown.
I guess it's like Pinocchio,
where the personality is just...
in tact.
Oh, why am I analyzing it? It's FAIRY TALES,
and this is obviously made for little kids
who just want to see Tinkerbell fly around,
look pretty, do some magic, and...
yeah, that's about it.
The story is...pretty standard,
but you can tell it's written for little children.
Tinker Bell is looking for her place to belong,
and she's put with...the Tinker Fairies.
Yeah. Who would've thought?
Tinker Bell is really good at...tinkering.
Putting things together, figuring out gears and such.
Unfortunately, though,
her inventions don't always work out that well,
and that means that she can't join the group of fairies
that leave Neverland and go into the other world,
so Tinker Bell gets a group of fairies together,
and tries to have them teach her
how to do various other things that can get her into the other world.
Unfortunately, she doesn't seem very good at it.
She's only good at tinkering and making stuff,
annnnnd, even then, she's not that great, either.
Through hard work and determination,
she will...
make everything really bad. Yeah...
it's one of those stories where she screws up everything for everyone,
but...she also finds a way to make it better in the end,
and a nice little compromise is made.
Actually, that is one of the things I really admire about this movie:
the message of compromise.
That is to say, Tinker Bell eventually comes to terms with her gifts,
but she also pushes really hard to get what she wants
and what she feels is rightfully hers.
I admire films like "Wreck-It Ralph" or "Nightmare Before Christmas"
that sort of say "Just be happy with what you have,"
but I also like stories like this,
where it's 'be happy with what you have, but don't be afraid to go a little further, too.'
Fight for what you really want.
Sometimes, you get it. Sometimes, you don't,
and sometimes, it's halfway in between, like what we have here.
But...is there anything really that gripping for adults in this?
Not especially - this is something that's written for little, little kids,
but, for little, little kids, it's... innocent enough.
It definitely has a visual style. Some of the backgrounds are very nice.
The everyday items they use from flowers and raindrops and such are pretty clever,
and the movie IS trying to have a certain weight to it.
The music especially is trying to give this grand choir going
[imitating a falsetto singing voice ] "Ah, ah, ah, ah"
and make it seem really huge, and - you know what?
It's allowed.
I mean, look at this animation style.
This is clearly trying a lot harder than something like "Twice Upon a Christmas".
They WANT it to look whimsical. They want it to feel like these characters are alive,
and for the most part, they do a good job.
Outside of that, there's not really THAT much to get into for adults,
although I do love this one scene when she's testing her equipment.
[chuckling] Why does that crack me up so much?
But aside from that, it's not incredibly smart,
but it's not incredibly dumb, either.
It's a nice little innocent film to show your kids, and they'll get some creativity.
There are slow moments. There's times where they need the emotion to set in,
but there's also fast moments, and there's scenes where they throw in the little pop song and such.
I'm DEFINITELY not gonna put it on any time soon,
but if I had little kids, and they wanted to watch this,
I'd say it's a good thing to put on.
I don't have NEARLY enough time to look at the dozens of sequels that came out afterwards.
I know, it's ironic, seeing how this was sequel month, but...
like the movie said, "Compromise. It's a good thing."
And, with that said, that wraps up Disneycember with the direct-to-DVD sequels.
Was it as bad as I thought it was gonna be? Well...
In some areas, it was even worse,
but, in some areas, it was actually okay, and
surprisingly in others, I found myself having a good time.
You can definitely tell which films were just rushed out and they didn't really care about,
and which ones they wanted to put the extra time and effort into,
even when they didn't NEED to put in the extra time and effort.
I'm not gonna act like any of these were great,
but I was shocked to find those couple that were actually - well, not only tolerable,
but...some legitimately entertaining.
They were few, but I respected them.
And the ones that were bad - like REALLY bad...
Well...they'll bring us a lot of laughs and mockery in just how awful they are.
At least I can say I saw them all, and I gave them a fair shot, and...
though I was shocked with how bad some of them were,
I was shocked by how GOOD some of them were.
I guess sometimes, even when a company like Disney just wants to throw their table scraps at us,
you...can actually take those table scraps and turn it into a good meal.
It doesn't happen all the time, but enough times to get noticed.
Folks, I hope you enjoyed this year's Disneycember,
and if you're like me, you're anticipating what Disney has next to offer.
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next year.