The Pirate Fairy

The Pirate Fairy (alternatively known as Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy) is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated fantasy film directed by Peggy Holmes. It is the fifth direct-to-video feature-length animated film in the Disneytoon Studios' "Tinker Bell" film series and the "Disney Fairies" franchise, based on the character Tinker Bell from J. M. Barrie's "Peter and Wendy". The film features the voices of Mae Whitman, reprising her role of Tinker Bell, Christina Hendricks as a dust-keeper fairy named Zarina, and Tom Hiddleston as a much younger James Hook.
Plot.
Zarina (Christina Hendricks), a very smart and inquisitive pixie dust-keeper fairy, is amazed by the magic behind pixie dust and is determined to find out all that it is capable of. She secretly experiments with some blue pixie dust, creating various colors of pixie dust; however, when she creates the pink variant, things grow wildly out of control, causing an accident in Pixie Hollow. Her supervisor, Fairy Gary, prohibits her from being a dust-keeper or working with pixie dust in any capacity. In sorrow, Zarina takes her experiments and runs away from Pixie Hollow.
One year later, Pixie Hollow is celebrating the Four Seasons Festival, with performances from fairies of all the seasons. During the show, Tinker Bell (Mae Whitman), Silvermist (Lucy Liu), Iridessa (Raven-Symoné), Rosetta (Megan Hilty), Fawn (Angela Bartys), and Vidia (Pamela Adlon) spot Zarina flying around the audience and using pink pixie dust to summon several poppies that cause everyone to fall asleep, except Tink and her friends who take cover. After Zarina is gone, they realize that she stole all of the blue pixie dust, the only way to make the yellow dust that the fairies use to fly, so they go after her to get it back.
They follow Zarina to the coast, where it is revealed that she became the captain of a pirate crew, including a young James Hook (Tom Hiddleston), who is apparently the cabin boy. The fairies manage to retrieve the blue dust for a moment, but Zarina gets it back after throwing some multi-colored pixie dust at them that switches their talents. Tinker Bell becomes a water fairy, Silvermist a fast-flying fairy, Fawn a light fairy, Iridessa a garden fairy, Rosetta an animal fairy, and Vidia a tinker fairy (much to her horror and disgust). They struggle with their swapped talents as they search for Zarina and the pirate ship, in the process meeting a baby crocodile which takes a liking to Rosetta with her new animal talent.
They find the ship and sneak in, where they overhear Hook talking about how the pirates met Zarina after drifting off course, and she became the captain with the promise of making the ship fly so that they could plunder anything without getting caught. The ship arrives at Skull Rock, where the fairies discover the pirates' camp and a mysterious Pixie Dust Tree, which Zarina has grown using the pink pixie dust.
The fairies attempt to retrieve the blue pixie dust, but are caught when Iridessa loses control over her nature talent and reveals their location. Tink tries to convince Zarina to return home to Pixie Hollow, but she refuses as no one appreciated her unusual talents with dust. With the fairies now captured, the pirates begin making regular flying pixie dust. Hook, curious about what it's like to fly, convinces Zarina to use some on him, and he begins to fly. After joyfully flying around the cave, Hook double-crosses Zarina and traps her in a lantern, revealing he is the real captain of the pirate crew and that he has merely been using her to get the pixie dust for his own purposes.
Tinker Bell and the others attempt to escape their imprisonment without any success until the baby crocodile Rosetta befriended arrives and frees them. The fairies attempt once more to retrieve the blue pixie dust and almost succeed, before being confronted by Hook, who threatens to throw Zarina into the sea unless they hand the blue pixie dust over. Tink willingly gives it up, and Hook sprinkles it over the ship before throwing Zarina into the water anyway, leaving the fairies to rescue her.
As the pirates sail towards the Second Star to start their thieving, the fairies return and use their switched talents to defeat the pirates and turn the ship. Zarina attempts to retrieve the blue pixie dust from Hook, who chases after her. Zarina manages to gain a speck of blue pixie dust which she then throws at Hook, who starts flying crazily as the two kinds of pixie dust react to each other. As the fairies fly away, Hook swears revenge on them and is attacked by the baby crocodile. Zarina returns the blue pixie dust to Tink and her friends, before preparing to leave. However, Tinker Bell offers her a chance to return to Pixie Hollow and she accepts, helping her friends sail the ship back to Pixie Hollow, where the other fairies are waking up with no recollection of what happened.
Zarina is about to promise not to tamper with pixie dust again, but is instead convinced by Tink to show off her astoundingly profound pixie dust abilities, giving Tink and her friends back their original fairy talents and allowing them to put on a beautiful performance for the audience at the Festival. Everyone rushes over to congratulate them, particularly Zarina, whose unusually strong and rare talent of pixie dust alchemy is finally accepted so that she can be who she really is.
In an extra scene during the end credits of the film, a drifting Captain Hook comes across a ship named The Jolly Roger. One of the crew members, Mr. Smee, rescues him.
Production.
The film was originally titled "Quest for the Queen". Peggy Holmes, co-director of "Secret of the Wings" signed on to direct the film. It introduced new characters, Zarina, voiced by Christina Hendricks, and James aka young Captain Hook, voiced by Tom Hiddleston. Carlos Ponce also lent his voice to one of the characters in the film.
Disney announced in January 2014 that former "Project Runway" winner and fashion designer Christian Siriano would be in charge of creating the ensemble costumes for the fairies, specifically Zarina. Siriano stated that "I loved the challenge of this project. I haven't designed for an animated character before, and I'm excited to take my skills into Zarina's world. She's a unique and new character and I wanted to help make her memorable and iconic. Disney characters are everlasting and I'm so happy as a young designer to help create a bit of Disney history."
Release.
The film was released internationally in theaters with the title "Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy" on February 13, 2014 and later dates, with 2D and 3D screenings available. In the United States the screenings took place exclusively at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, from February 28 to March 19, 2014. It was originally scheduled for Fall 2013, before another DisneyToon Studios film, "Planes", took its place, delaying the film to Spring 2014.
Marketing.
A trailer for the film was released on the "Secret of the Wings" Blu-ray and DVD on October 23, 2012.
"The Pirate Fairy" is the first film of the Tinker Bell series not to allude to the Disney Fairies brand in promotional material and not to display the brand logo at the beginning of the film, showing instead the DisneyToon Studios logo.
Home media.
The film was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on April 1, 2014, and in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2014.
Bonus features of the DVD include a documentary and two animated shorts. The Blu-ray contains the bonus features of the DVD and additions such as deleted scenes, sing-along songs and a making-of clip of "The Frigate That Flies" song with actor Tom Hiddleston.
During the pre-order period of the "combo pack" with the DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Copy versions of the film, a limited edition set of four lithographs featuring shots from the film would be included with the order.
Several stores also released exclusive sets which bundled the combo pack with a certain item of the Disney Fairies merchandise, such as a bonus DVD with the animated short "Pixie Hollow Bake Off" and 10 other mini-shorts, the story book and read-along CD of "The Pirate Fairy" film, a set of six wall decal sheets, and a glitter brush.
Reception.
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 81% based on 21 reviews, with an average score of 6.39/10.
Soundtrack.
The film was scored by Joel McNeely, who has also scored the previous films in the "Tinker Bell" series.
Songs.
The soundtrack features an original song titled "Who I Am," performed by Natasha Bedingfield, as well as Bedingfield's previously released song, "Weightless," which was initially used on the film's scratch recording but so well received, director Peggy Holmes decided to make it permanent.
Another original song, "The Frigate That Flies," with music by Gaby Alter and lyrics by Gaby Alter and Itamar Moses, is performed in the film by the pirate crew as a musical number.