| Secret of the Wings | |
| Director: | Peggy Holmes |
| Producer: | Makul Wigert |
| Screenplay: |
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| Narrator: | Anjelica Huston |
| Starring: |
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| Music: | Joel McNeely |
| Editing: | Mark Rosenbaum |
| Studio: | DisneyToon Studios[1] |
| Distributor: | Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (DVD) Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (Theatrical) |
| Runtime: | 75 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $30—35 million[2] |
| Gross: | $67.5 million[3] |
Secret of the Wings (originally titled as Tinker Bell and the Mysterious Winter Woods or alternatively Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings) is a 2012 American animated fantasy film, and the fourth installment in the Disney Fairies franchise, produced by Disneytoon Studios. It revolves around Tinker Bell, a fairy character created by J. M. Barrie in his 1904 play, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, and featured in subsequent adaptations, especially in Disney's animated works, and how she ventures to the Winter Woods and meets her twin sister, Periwinkle, who is a frost fairy. The film was directed by Peggy Holmes and co-directed by Bobs Gannaway.[4] [5] Starring the voices of Mae Whitman, Lucy Liu, Megan Hilty, Raven-Symoné and Angela Bartys, it also features new cast members who include Matt Lanter, Timothy Dalton, Lucy Hale and Debby Ryan, while Anjelica Huston narrates.
As the fairies make preparations for the oncoming winter, Tinker Bell helps her friend Fawn take the animals to the Winter Woods to get them ready for hibernation. Fawn warns Tink that 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 ignores Fawn’s warnings, 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 Winter 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 Winter 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 Winter Woods. At Peri’s home, Tink builds a fire which eventually causes the floor to melt and crumble beneath them. Having her wings tucked inside her coat, Tink cannot fly and nearly falls but is saved by Dewey. He advises that it is too dangerous for them to be together and the sisters pretend to 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 where they meet Lord Milori, who takes Peri back to the woods. Queen Clarion arrives and 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 Winter Woods. As their romance grew, one of them crossed the border, resulting in them breaking a wing; a damage that there was no known cure for. After this, Queen Clarion declared the separation of the warm fairies from the winter fairies in order to prevent any similar incidents from happening again.
Receiving news of an emergency, Tink and the Queen fly back to the border and find that the snow-maker has been collecting ice from the stream, generating snow continuously 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. Trying to think of what to do, Tink notices that a Periwinkle flower that Peri had covered in frost is still alive and flies to the Winter Woods. As she approaches Peri and her friends, 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 soon joined by Lord 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 the Queen whom he gives his cape, revealing one of his wings is broken.
The freeze eventually subsides. The Pixie Dust Tree is safe, and all 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. Queen Clarion and Lord Milori kiss, revealing themselves as the lovers from the story. The warm fairies are able to cross over into the border by having their wings frosted and the two sisters never have to be apart again.
See main article: List of Tinker Bell cast members.
The film was given a limited theatre 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]
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.
See main article: Disney Fairies: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust. "The Great Divide" is sung by the McClain Sisters