Directed by Bobs Gannaway and Peggy Holmes. Voices of Mae Whitman, Anjelica Huston, Lucy Hale, Lucy Liu, Angela Bartys, Raven-Symoné, Megan Hilty, Timothy Dalton G cert, general release, 75 min
It’s all kicking off in Tinkers’ Nook, where the proletariat fairies are frantically producing the snowflake baskets for export to the Winter Woods. Their labour will not be rewarded by a visit to the snowy kingdom on the other side of Pixie Hollow; rather, the controlling bourgeoisie has imposed strict border controls and a relentless regime of super-exploitation.
Undeterred by the ruling capitalist order, Tinker “Che” Bell (Mae Whitman), stows away with a border-crossing snow owl, one of this film’s many unfortunate beasts of burden. She uncovers a second, colder world of producers and passive wee folk owners – and her own doppelganger.
Will Tink and her newfound twin, Periwinkle (Lucy Hale), find a way around the ruling elite so that they may skip merrily together though the forest? Will their small revolt escalate into a Pixie Dust production crisis and bring the entire system down? Possibly not, but there’s definitely something up between reigning sunnyside monarch Queen Clarion (Anjelica Huston) and the winter-bound Lord Milori (Timothy Dalton).
Tinker Bell’s third big screen outing keeps it cutsey-pie. The 3D is shiny; the fairies are pretty; the efficient plotting might have come from Robert McKee’s stopwatch.
As ever, it would be nice if the fairies weren’t quite so wasp-waisted, but any film that prizes sisterly love so highly is to be commended. In Tink’s world, girls who like girls are trustworthy and girls who chase boys are idiots.
Never mind the petal frocks – we’re sticking with a Marxist-feminist reading all the way to the revolutionary denouement.
Unhappily for little boys who have already watched Rise of the Guardians twice, this is the only new animation for the Christmas season. Be brave, chaps.
