Tinker Bell And The Lost Treasure – Blu-ray Review
Blu-ray Review: Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure
I’ll watch essentially anything The Mouse House churns out, within reason. Most of their live-action catalogue can be done without, but at the end of the day the Disney is that childhood friend you ultimately can’t turn your back to. I’ll even suffer through some Disney Channel schlock because my old friend and I go way, way back. For this reason, and because I’m in love with Disneyland, is why I chose to sit through Tinker Bell And The Lost Treasure. Quite honestly, I’d almost say I’m glad I did as the direct-to-DVD/Blu-ray movie turned out much better than expected.
The main reason this Tinker Bell adventure isn’t terrible is due in large part to the effort that’s on display. The writing isn’t particularly sharp, but the writers have turned in something that actually expands the mythology of Tink and Pixie Hollow. They’ve also chosen to give a backbone to their characters and have things actually build up to the inciting incident. Also clever are the comedy bits that are sprinkled in the film, my favorite being a comment Fairy Gary makes about his kilt.
Yet the most surprising aspect of this release is how well done the animation is. Maybe I’m blind, but the animation here is just as good as the animation found in Monsters Vs. Aliens. That’s more a compliment to Disney’s incredible animation department and not a knock on DreamWorks. Lost Treasure could have easily been a theatrical release based on the animation alone. Complimenting this marvelous animation is some solid voice work from Mae Whitman as the title character. Her voice is solid and captures the spirit of what Tink is truly about.
I didn’t expect to like Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure but came away impressed with what was given to me. Little girls should as well as this is who it’s catered to. The writing is well done with a good moral lesson in there and the animation is spectacular for a film of this caliber. Even adults might be mildly impressed with the overall product as there’s real effort at work on this project.
7 out of 10
The Video
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure comes to us on a 1.78:1 image that is glorious from beginning to end. This is theater quality like prestige here as the image is crystal clear. No problems popped up at all as colors were very rich and vibrant with details not appearing muddled or hazy. That’s a great thing for a film that builds a decent amount of atmosphere like this one does. Just another solid job from the folks in Disney’s Blu-ray department. I feel a little silly doing this, but I’m giving this transfer a perfect score.
10 out of 10
The Audio
We get a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track that is just as pristine as image it compliments. The voice acting comes in clear throughout the pictured and continues to stay centered throughout the duration of the film. The surrounds don’t kick in unless there’s music or big sound effects (i.e. – pixie dust) but all of it sounds flawless. Again, just another solid job from Disney Blu-ray.
9 out of 10
The Extras And Packaging
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure graces us in a standard Blu-ray case with a slipsleeve covering.
“Magical Guide to Pixie Hollow” runs around four minutes and uses paper cutouts as Tinker Bell and Terrance take you on a tour of their home. It’s entertaining at least, and will work for the audience it’s for.
“Scenes You Never Saw” is a cute little blooper reel compiled of some “outtakes” from the film. The bulk of these are chuckle-worthy and is definitely worth a look.
A selection of deleted scenes crop up next and they all feature introductions by director Klay Hall and producer Sean Lurie. These are presented as motion storyboards with mostly finished music and voice acting. There’s some good stuff here as well as some useful information as to why they didn’t make the final cut.
“Backstage Disney – Pixie Hollow Comes to Walt Disney World” runs roughly about eight minutes and details how the Walt Disney World crew helped recreate Pixie Hollow at EPCOT complete with grass models of the Disney Fairies. It’s a decent watch, as it goes into detail of how the crew created the attraction.
Finally, Demi Lovato’s music video for “Gift of a Friend” finishes us off. Yeah, only one reason to watch this.
The disc is BD-Live enabled, but as of this time there is no way to utilize this. Maybe in the future.
Also included is a DVD that features the film and all the above extras.
Once again, this disc continues to impress with some fairly good extras. “Just another solid job from Disney Blu-ray.”
6 out of 10
Overall
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure could have been exactly that had I not bothered to take a look at it. I did, and I came away impressed with what I’d seen. The animation goes above and beyond the call of duty while the writing and voice acting is better than what’s expected for this type of picture. The Blu-ray features flawless video, pristine audio and a decent batch of extras. Anyone on the fence about picking this up for their kid or just in general, buy it. You’ll be glad you did.
Blu-ray Overall Rating – 8 out of 10
I thought it was pretty good. i was laso impressed with the animation.