Tinker Bell (Blu-ray)

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Video:
"Tinker Bell" looks superb in 1080p, presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratio and transferred to a BD-50 disc using AVC/MPEG-4 technology. Colors are cheery, with full saturation, and the animation is a pleasing combination of rounded faces and small objects rendered convincingly large through the use of precise detail and sharp edges. As I said, "Tinker Bell" may be about fairies, but in terms of animation and picture quality it blows the Barbie fairy movies out of the water. Make that "Havendish stream."

Audio:
The audio is also stellar, a robust English 5.1 PCM uncompressed (48kHz/24-bit) soundtrack that really has a striking clarity channels a lot of ambient sound and effects action to the rear speakers, but it does so in an unobtrusive way.

Extras:
There's no commentary track, and as if to further confirm that the audience is young ones, the longest feature is "Creating Pixie Hollow"--around 10 minutes. Here's where Lasseter & Co. talk about the research they did and what they were trying to achieve, and darned if in the span of 10 minutes they aren't able to make you appreciate this more. There are 10 and a half minutes of deleted scenes-six of them-with director Bradley Raymond ("Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World," "Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame II") and producer Jeannine Roussel telling why they were cut. There's an "Ever Wonder-Discover How Fairies Put the 'Wonder' in Natural Wonders" four-minute clip that seems cut from "Creating Pixie Hollow," an all-new music video performed by "Wizards of Waverly Place" star Selena Gomez, and a complicated three-tiered game, "Tinker Trainer."

To play "Tinker Trainer" is to rethink who the target audience is for this release. Phase one asks gamers to fly over lost things in a forest and press the number on the keypad that corresponds to the number on the object. You're shown several objects to find, but the thing of it is, you zip by so quickly it's tough to press ANY number key, and those darned numbers keep changing. One minute a thimble is a 6, and the next minute it's a 4. I can't imagine young children playing this and not getting frustrated. The second-stage counting game is ironically SLIGHTLY easier. Players are asked to count three containers as three separate "pours" go into them, and you're to remember how many of a given object made it into each of the three containers. This also moves pretty quickly, and it's going to take a lot of practice (and patience) for little ones to manage. Then there's the whole notion of using an abacus. Yes, an abacus. In this digital age, kids are being asked to use their remote to shift beads on an abacus to one side in order to record their tallies. On the one hand it's retro-cool; on the other hand, it's probably going to strike some kids as foreign. The third stage in this game asks kids to find pieces and assemble a puzzle. It's again, ironically, easier than the previous level, rather than the difficulty level rising every time. The positive is that the game is sufficiently difficult so that kids won't get bored with it . . . if, that is, they don't get angry or frustrated.

BD-Live features are so new that no one really knows what to do with them yet. Early attempts were just commercial-style downloads, but when the BD-Live features go "live" on October 28, family members and long-distance friends will be able to communicate together over this movie and players can win prizes. So we're finally getting past the free wallpaper stage.

Bottom Line:
"Tinker Bell" might not be as magical as some of the best Disney theatrical releases, and it follows a number of recognizable formulas. But it's still entertaining, largely because of some fantastic CGI animation and just enough film allusions (or "borrowings") to make it interesting. This one is mostly for little girls, but it looks pretty awesome in Blu-ray, which is almost a good enough excuse to buy it. For a kids' movie, it's probably an 8. But for a family film that adults could also appreciate, it's more a 6. That puts it in the 7 range, overall.

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