"Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy" (The Guardian 14/02/14)

Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy **

Dir: Peggy Holmes. With the voices of: Tom Hiddleston, Christina Hendricks, Lucy Liu, Mae Whitman. 78 mins. Cert: U

This latest in the series that began as euphemistically termed “DVD exclusives” before 3D made it theatrically profitable strives to merge Neverland with another Disney franchise by pitting Tinker Bell against a flying Jacqueline Sparrow. The girl-power swashbuckling that follows might be cheering if it went beyond sixty minutes, or could offer anything more than smoothly indifferent animation and a new Natasha Bedingfield song. Business concerns sit close to the surface throughout, unmasked by much in the way of artistry: one image of its heroines hovering around a conveyor belt, stuffing pixie dust into jars, encapsulates something of the series entire, and Disney’s apparently ceaseless ability to industrialise magic.

Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy is in cinemas nationwide.