The Pirate Fairy

One of Disney's most popular (and best) spin-offs, the candy-colored CGI-animated Tinker Bell franchise starring the beloved fairy from Peter Pan returns with a fifth feature-length outing—albeit one that has a disquieting start since several minutes pass before everyone's favorite sprite even appears onscreen. Instead, we follow Zarina (voiced by Christina Hendricks), an inquisitive but also headstrong fairy who exiles herself after she is shamed when her unauthorized experiments with pixie dust go horribly wrong. Zarina returns, however, with a vengeance—putting most of the residents of Pixie Hollow to sleep while absconding with the all-important blue pixie dust that is used to generate the yellow stuff that enables fairies to fly. Fortunately, Tinker Bell (Mae Whitman) and her friends escape the mass slumber party and track Zarina to a pirate ship where the latter is serving as the diminutive captain and helping with plans to make the vessel airborne (with pixie dust) for the purposes of long-distance international thieving. Or so she thinks: it turns out that a young pirate named James (Tom Hiddleston)—a somewhat familiar figure with black hair who has a red coat—has been stringing Zarina along…until she can make the ship fly. It's up to Tinker Bell and her compadres to reclaim both the blue pixie dust and their wayward friend. Returning voice cast members include Anjelica Huston, Lucy Liu, and Raven-Symoné in this entertaining film from director Peggy Holmes that cleverly incorporates aspects of the Peter Pan mythology into the story. Also featuring the catchy tunes “Who I Am” (performed by Natasha Bedingfield) and the boisterous “The Frigate That Flies,” the sure-to-be-popular The Pirate Fairy is recommended. (R. Pitman)