Secret of the Wings (G)
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Caution: potential spoilers.
This is the fourth movie in the Tinker Bell franchise; fifth if you count the TV special Pixie Hollow Games, which is included as a bonus feature on this DVD. (Megan Hilty now voices Rosetta, a role she first took over in Pixie Hollow Games.) Anyway, it begins with the tinker fairies making baskets that snowy owls will transport to the Winter portion of Pixie Hollow. (In case I hadn't mentioned it in an earlier review, Pixie Hollow is made up of four separate areas, each of which is always one particular season.) Tinker Bell, ever-curious fairy that she is, wishes she could visit the Winter Woods, and of course her desire to explore that area only increases when she learns that it's forbidden for warm weather fairies (who live in any of the three areas other than Winter) to go there, or for Winter fairies to go to the rest of Pixie Hollow. So... she breaks the rule, and crosses the border. While there, her wings begin to sparkle.
Fawn pulls her back across the border, and all her friends think she's crazy when she talks about what happened to her wings. But she decides to study the nature of wings at the library. The book she finds seems to have some information, but part of it has been eaten by a caterpillar. So she decides to make herself some warm clothes, and stow away in the next day's shipment of baskets that are going to the Winter Woods. She wants to meet the book's author, "The Keeper" (Jeff Bennett), who lives there. Once she finds him, a Winter fairy named Periwinkle (Lucy Hale) also shows up, all excited about how the other day she was near the border, and her wings started sparkling. And now they do so again, as do Tink's wings. It turns out Tink and Peri had been near each other the other day without even knowing it, and their proximity caused this strange phenomenon. The Keeper (whose real name is Dewey) wants to help them figure things out, and... they soon determine that they're sisters. So of course they're overjoyed to have found each other, and want to learn all about each other. It seems they have a lot in common. And Tink meets Peri's friends, Gliss (Grey DeLisle) and Spike. (Spike instantly reminded me of Vidia.)
But before long, Tink has to return home. She makes secret plans with Peri to meet again the next day, at the border. When she goes home, she gets Clank, Bobble, and the rest of her friends to help build a snow-making machine to keep Peri cool so she could visit the warm areas of Pixie Hollow. Things go really well, until Peri's wings start to wither, and they have to rush to get back to her side of the border. Then the lord of winter, Lord Milori (Timothy Dalton) shows up, as does Queen Clarion. They both tell the girls that they can't see each other again, for their own protection, because neither can survive for long in the other's world. So they part ways, but before they've even had time to deal with their sorrow at losing each other so soon after finding each other... a major crisis arises, that threatens all the warm seasons. I don't want to spoil exactly what that crisis is, but eventually Tinker Bell comes up with a plan to avert it, with the help of the Winter fairies. A plan which will not only avert the crisis, but also help with her and Peri's own problem....
That's all I really want to reveal of the plot, but it has a happy ending. In fact, most of the movie was pretty happy, I thought. And there was a lot of humor, and it was all very sweet and fun. As always, the animation was beautiful, and the music worked very well with the feel of the story (The Great Divide totally became my jam). Um... I have to say, the underlying premise that kept the sisters apart didn't fully make sense to me. I mean, we've seen the Minister of Winter in the main part of Pixie Hollow before. I'm not sure why it didn't seem to hurt her. (I also don't think she was in this movie, probably to avoid having to explain that issue.) Also I should mention there were a couple of male Winter fairies who helped Peri and Tink, named Sled and Slush. It would've been nice to see more of them... Slush kind of seemed like a Valley dude or something, and Sled... well, I can't think of anything to say about him, but he may become important to one of Tink's friends (and I came up with a pretty cool shipping name for them, IMHO). Also, the movie has a minor yet touching subplot for Clarion and Milori. But mostly I love the movie for the infectious joy of watching Tink and Peri's happiness at having met each other. And... I hope I'm not forgetting anything I wanted to say.