Disney’s Tinker Bell franchise has been one of the greatest examples of a direct-to-video franchise done right. In fact, these films are so consistently good or above-average that it’s a surprise none of them has made it to the big screen yet. Almost all of the other Disney direct-to-video films have been more of a cash grab. Sequels to The Lion King, Tarzan, and Aladdin, all failed in terms of premise and filmmaking, but what succeeded more in terms of filmmaking is a series that was intended to be direct-to-video from the very beginning. This sixth entry to the franchise may not be among the finest films in it but is still better than middling and above-average. Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast might potentially be the weakest of all of them, but it has very few things to consider terrible.
How to Stream or Download Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast
To stream or to download the film, click on the Download button at the end of the review. The movie is available on Disney+ and other digital platforms.
The Movie Review
The film begins with an emphasis on Fawn, who faces a lot of backlashes at the hands of Queen Clarion due to being a cause of an incident involving a baby hawk that was supposed to remain hidden from everyone else. She then returns the baby hawk to its home, and around the same time hears a terrifying roar, which happens to be coming from a never-before-seen creature (who she names Gruff) resting in a cave beneath the earth itself.
Surprisingly, the creature had been building some structures around Pixie Hollow, which Fawn ends up helping it with despite not knowing why and how exactly it was doing it. Another fairy, named Nyx, gets on to investigating the matter and learns that the creature awakens once in every million years, and can transform into an even more terrifying form that is strong enough to cause the destruction of the entire Pixie Hollow.
Fawn, friendly as ever, chooses to be optimistic about the beast and somewhat wants to tell Queen Clarion about how gentle the beast is, despite the risks of that. Nyx, however, gets to her first and tells her about the risks that the beast could bring upon Pixie Hollow. Clarion, who hears the two contrasting opinions hopes for the two to opt for the right decision.
From there onward begins the journey of Fawn and Tinker Bell for the future of this unusually friendly beast. It’s a premise a bunch of films has already explored, and it’s executed in mostly positive ways in this film’s case. It may not have the best dialogue-writing, but never do the dialogue sound bad. It’s just that the film is too minimalistic in its premise and doesn’t offer as many new things as most of its predecessors did.
The theme of a kind beast is an interesting one despite the minimalism, but it could’ve been executed in many better ways. The dynamic between Fawn and Tinker Bell is well written too, even though the film’s pacing may be too repetitive at times.
The script by Kate Kondell, Mark McCorkle, Tom Rogers, and Robert Schooley just manages to get the job done. Expect more positives than negatives, but not by much. The dialogue-writing is definitely quite weaker than the predecessors, but the pros still manage to outweigh the cons, even if by the slightest. The film is very beautiful to look at, and, surprisingly, such a well-animated film is only direct-to-video. Joel McNeely’s original score fits the film just as it fit the predecessors. Steve Loter’s direction isn’t really the best option for this series, but it does succeed in making the film somewhat enjoyable.
The Bottom Line
Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast may be the weakest entry to the entire franchise, but is still nothing to recommend others against. It’s quite above-average, to say the least, but for a direct-to-video film, it’s definitely relatively out-of-the-ordinary. The repetitiveness may make it less of an interesting watch than its predecessors, but it’s not a film you need to sleep on either.
