As the winter approaches, Tinker Bell helps her friend Fawn take the animals to the Winter Woods to get them ready for hibernation. However, fairies from the warmer seasons are forbidden from crossing the border to the Woods as the cold can damage their wings, a law supposedly instated by Lord Milori. Out of curiosity, Tink crosses over, and her wings start to sparkle. Before she can investigate further, Fawn pulls her back. Tink researches sparkling wings but finds the page incomplete. The book's author, the Keeper, lives in the Woods.
Tucking her wings in a coat, Tinker Bell hides in a shipment of snowflake baskets. She gets picked up by a novice Owl who crash lands in the Woods, and the book falls out of her bag. The book is found by Lord Milori, who has it delivered to the Keeper. Tink secretly follows to the library and spots the Keeper, Dewey. Periwinkle, another winter fairy rushes into the room; her wings sparkle like Tink's. The two fairies have actually been born from the same laugh, making them sisters.
Peri shows Tink around the Woods. At Peri's home, Tink builds a fire which eventually causes the floor to melt and crumble beneath them. Dewey saves Tink, who cannot fly, having her wings tucked inside her coat. He advises that it is too dangerous for them to be together. The sisters say goodbye at the border but promise to meet again.
The next day, Tink arrives at the border with an ice-powered snowmaker. With the machine keeping her cool, Peri crosses over and Tink introduces her to her friends, showing her the warm side of Pixie Hollow. The machine eventually starts running out of ice and Peri’s wings begin to wilt. Tink and her friends rush her to the border and meet Lord Milori, who takes Peri back to the Woods. Queen Clarion later explains that she was the one who instated the law. Tink and Periwinkle say goodbye to each other forever. Lord Milori knocks the snow-maker into the stream under the bridge, where it gets caught by rocks.
Tink and Periwinkle are told, by Queen Clarion and Lord Milori respectively, the story of two fairies who fell in love, one from the warm seasons, the other from the Woods. As their romance grew, one of them crossed the border, resulting in them breaking a wing; a damage for which there was no known cure. Clarion declared the separation of the warm fairies from the winter fairies to prevent any similar incidents from happening again.
Receiving news of an emergency, Tink and Clarion return to the border and find that the snow-maker has been collecting ice from the stream, generating snow and causing a blizzard. Tink and her friends free the snow-maker, but a freeze that will engulf Pixie Hollow begins to spread, and will eventually reach the Pixie Dust tree. Tink notices that a Periwinkle flower that Peri had covered in frost is still alive and flies to the Woods. As she approaches the winter fairies, Tink's wings freeze and she crash lands. Peri's friends explain that frost keeps the warm air inside like a blanket and they return to the pixie dust tree to cover it in frost. The three fairies are joined by Milori, who brings reinforcements, and all the winter fairies work to frost as much of the warm seasons as possible. As the freeze approaches, Lord Milori warns the warm fairies to take cover, including Clarion whom he gives his cape, revealing one of his wings is broken.
The freeze subsides, the Tree is safe, and the fairies celebrate. However, Tink reveals that she broke a wing while flying to the Woods earlier. As the sisters say goodbye, Tink and Peri's wings touch and the broken wing heals. Clarion and Milori kiss, revealing themselves as the lovers from the story. The warm fairies can cross over the border by having their wings frosted and the two sisters never have to be apart again.
Anjelica Huston as Queen Clarion, the queen of all Pixie Hollow.
Matt Lanter as Sled, a frost fairy and Periwinkle's friend.
Release
The film was given a limited theatrical release in the United States between August 31, 2012, and September 13, 2012.[6] It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 23, 2012.[7] It was the first film in the Disney Fairies franchise that was released in 3D.[8] The Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD releases also include the short film Pixie Hollow Games as a "Bonus Adventure".[9]
The film was released theatrically in many countries and grossed $67,084,376 worldwide. [10]
Reception
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian rated it 2/5 stars and called it "machine-tooled for the tweenie sleepover market".[11] Mark Adams of Screen Daily suggested that young children may enjoy it though they are unlikely to be impressed.[12]
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes surveyed 21 reviews of the film and found 62% of them to be positive, with an average rating of 5.4/10.[13]
^McClintock, Pamela (April 3, 2014). "How Tinker Bell Became Disney's Stealthy $300 Million Franchise". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on April 24, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2014. ...each were made for $30 million to $35 million and together have grossed $225 million in U.S. DVD sales,...