In 1953, the animators at Walt Disney studios brought "Peter Pan" to the big screen, introducing theater-goers to Neverland.
On Tuesday, the studio releases "The Pirate Fairy" on a Blu-ray, DVD and digital combo pack, telling another tale from a place that’s beyond the second star to the right and straight on till morning.
I had the opportunity to screen the home entertainment film over the weekend.
With swashbuckling, fairy pixie dust, Tinker Bell and Skull Rock, this latest adventure is a G-rated family film meant for some of the youngest fans in the household. The world of Pixie Hollow gets little bit larger, and the story a bit bigger in scope as Zarina (voiced by "Mad Men’s" Christina Hendricks) leaves her home when a wild idea gets out of hand.
The ambitious dust-keeper becomes captain of a motley crew of pirates who is made to believe life is better if she can help get the entire ship and its crew to fly like the fairies. Tinker Bell and her friends go after Zarina to recover the blue pixie dust and bring their seemingly lost friend home.
As far as children's films go, this one was a delight with enough heart at the core of the story to keep fans both young and old interested in watching the film. At one point, the fairies have their abilities mixed, and learn the pros and cons that their new-found powers bring.
While not as layered as some of the better Pixar films that have enough entertainment for the adults as well as the children, the young ones will find enough in this movie to watch it multiple times.
I thoroughly enjoyed one of the behind-the-scenes features on the Blu-ray that showed some of the voice actors bring the characters to life. One character in particular – cabin boy James – has a more sinister future in store as an arch nemesis of Peter Pan.
Actor Tom Hiddleston, better known for playing Loki in Marvel’s "The Avengers" and "Thor" films, has a great range of voice to play the seemingly polite cabin boy as well as the sinister character he turns out to be.
Media is bombarding us everywhere.
Instead of sheltering his brain from the onslaught, Steve embraces the news stories, entertainment, billboards, blogs, talk shows and everything in between.
The former writer, editor and producer in TV, radio, Web and newspapers, will be talking about what media does in our community and how it shapes who we are and what we do.