"Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Neverbeast" (The Guardian 12/12/14)

Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Neverbeast **

Dir: Steve Loter. Animation with the voices of: Ginnifer Goodwin, Lucy Liu, Mae Whitman. 76 mins. Cert: U

Disney’s fairy franchise flitters on, weaning youngsters on indifferent product so they won’t feel so bad about future Star Wars sequels. This instalment’s Valley Girl Aesop, with the irritatingly diminutised “Tink” plucking a thorn from, and thereafter domesticating, a fearsome cat-creature. Though our heroine remains more self-reliant than most Disney princesses, the film’s too mild to constitute any kind of statement; the animation’s blandly functional, while KT Tunstall’s songs fly straight between the ears. Better than last year’s pirate one, but it still feels like a short padded to feature-length so as to extract more of that sweet 3D surcharge from parents’ pockets. 

Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Neverbeast is now playing in cinemas nationwide.