Tinker Bell is back on this high-def release that just might please fairy princesses as much as their home theater enthusiast parents....
Buena Vista / 75 Minutes / 2012 / Rated G / Street Date: October 23, 2012
Disney clearly has the market cornered on these things. Secret of the Wings is, for lack of a better descriptor, yet another in a line of painfully mediocre straight-to-video fairy princess one-offs, but two things are striking about this 3D Blu-ray release of the picture: 1) It stands to be a pretty massive sales success, and 2) It's technically a marvel.
I suppose it's a boon for Blu-ray as a format when Disney invests the time and effort into not just unloading a standard-def edition of the movie on the market, but goes through the rigors of encoding both a Blu-ray version and a 3D Blu-ray version for families with fairy-loving kids to enjoy. Of course, these releases come with various formats so kids can enjoy them ad nauseum in the car while mom and dad can find a modicum of enjoyment in its 1080p glory at home on ye olde high-def player, but truth be told: Disney knows how to pull off releases like this one.
That helps, too, because as a film, Secret of the Wings isn't exactly a stunner. We have battling pixie queens (Anjelica Huston) and 'frost lords' (Timothy Dalton), and a particularly inquisitive Tinker Bell (Mae Whitman) who betrays the rule of the land to never enter the Winter Woods (from fear of fairy-wing-freezing death!) only to discover that there is a magical land there to enjoy, and new acquaintances there to be made. But can Tinker Bell avoid the guillotine (just kidding) as she continues to defy authority in the name of friendship?
As flippant as it might sound, kids will eat Secret of the Wings right up. Its look and feel in high-def is nothing short of exceptional, and it's short enough that even if its heart-on-a-sleeve sensibilities become too precious and cutesy to stand, it reaches its end before any major beefs can be officially logged. Parents will likely get sick of it after the first five or six times, but again: it's pretty wonderful that Disney has gone all out in terms of high-def for a movie they absolutely didn't need to do so with. Maybe there's a market for Blu-ray Discs after all....
