Disneytoon Studios Pirate Fairy Releases April 1! #PirateFairy

From the world of “Peter Pan” comes “The Pirate Fairy,” a swashbuckling new adventure about Zarina (voice of Christina Hendricks), a smart and ambitious dust-keeper fairy who’s captivated by Blue Pixie Dust and its endless possibilities. When Zarina’s wild ideas get her into trouble, she flees Pixie Hollow and joins forces with the scheming pirates of Skull Rock, who make her captain of their ship. Tinker Bell (voice of Mae Whitman) and her friends must embark on an epic adventure to find Zarina, and together they go sword-to-sword with the band of pirates led by a cabin boy named James (voice of Tom Hiddleston), who’ll soon be known as Captain Hook himself. With laughter, heart, magic and thrills, “The Pirate Fairy” sets sail April 1, 2014.

My first introduction to this franchise was in 2012 when I was lucky enough to be in Los Angeles, at the Disneytoon Studios, to learn about the movie, Secret of the Wings. As the parent of a son, I had not been following the various tales of Tinker Bell’s life! I did love that movie, and was excited to hear that they were continuing the franchise with a Pirate themed adventure for this installment.

This week I had the pleasure of sitting down with the films producer, Jenni Magee-Cook. By way of introduction, she shared with us that she had started with the Walt Disney company 19 years ago as a PA. She had met many of the original Disney animators. I was immediately entranced.

I must admit that sitting with Jenni was exhilarating, her passion for this film was quite apparent in our conversation. She shared that from the very start they were tossing around ideas in the pre-production meeting  that they wanted Zarina, the strong principal character, to leave home and have some misadventure which would lead her back to Tinker Bell and forgiveness.

At almost the end of the meeting Jenni shared how John Lasseter himself slammed his fist on the table and shouted “Pirates!” That immediately struck a chord with the production team and the meeting continued passed its end time as a million ideas started pouring out of everyone! I can just imagine how exciting that must have been to decide to enter the world of Captain Hook and mix those characters with other fairies from Tinker Bell’s home realm.

Jenni spoke to us for almost an hour taking us through all the aspects of making this movie. For example, Christian Siriano was brought on as the costume designer, and both sides seemed to be in awe of each other! Each side was as excited as the other to be working on this film together, and some folks in our interview group mentioned how they could even see the influence of some of his early work from his Project Runway days! Below is one of his sketches:

I especially liked how the staff went and visited an actual pirate ship that was docked near Carslbad, California at the time. This illustrates the incredible authenticity that I know Disney always strives to bring to its projects. Additionally, a consultant from the Pirates of the Caribbean series was also brought on board so they could learn as many details about pirate life as possible, such that most pirates have more than 1 job on a ship, etc.

And my favorite character in the movie is baby Croc! Due to the time line they decided they wanted for the movie, they thought this was a perfect opportunity to introduce Captain Hook’s later nemesis! Who knew he started out so cute!

Again, the combo pack releases this Tuesday, April 1! I can’t thank Jenni Magee-Cook enough for sharing her excitement re the adventure this movie has been, from start to finish!

 

Disclosure: I received no compensation for this post.

Lastly, enjoy a fun activity with the kids, click below!