Secret of the Wings (2012)

Today is my daughter Azalea's third birthday, and her favorite film is Secret of the Wings.  It's the latest film to feature Tinker Bell.  It's actually become part of her bedtime routine.  She only requires a few hours a sleep a day so this movie helps her calm down.

Remember in the first Tinker Bell movie, Clank and Bobble lead Tinker Bell through the Winter Woods as part of their tour?  Yeah, no, just completely disregard that scene because "warm fairies" are not allowed there and "winter fairies" are not allowed in the warmer seasons due to potential damage to their wings.  This sort of makes sense if you consider that winter fairies have to live in a much colder climate and have apparently evolved to survive easily while wearing little clothing.

Tinker Bell becomes curious about the Winter Woods after watching the snowy owls fly there for a delivery.  She inquires about the place, but everyone is afraid to go.  She finds the first opportunity to sneak over there and takes it.  When she gets there, her wings start to glow! She says it was brighter than a thousand fireflies!  None of her friends believe her, so she sets out to the library to learn more.  Fortunately there is a book called Wingology, which is the study of wings.  She is excited to see a chapter labeled "Sparkling Wings", however, it was mostly eaten by a bookworm.  The library has pest control issues.  The local library nerd fairy, complete with tiny glasses, tells her of The Keeper, a winter fairy who writes all the books pertaining to fairy knowledge.  Tinker Bell decides to set out to the Winter Woods to speak with him.  Cue a montage of her using her tinker skills to make a winter coat and accessories and sneak onto a snowflake basket headed for delivery.

Tinker Bell receives the surprise of a lifetime when she realizes her wings sparkle whenever she's near her twin sister!  It turns out they were born of the same baby's laugh.  Tinker Bell grew up in the warm seasons while her sister lives in the winter season.  Her name is Periwinkle and she is a frost fairy, meaning she frosts things.  This will be important later on.

Tinker Bell and her friends build an elaborate snowmaker machine to bring Periwinkle over to the warm seasons to fulfill her dream of seeing butterflies.  Ultimately, she gets overheated and her wings almost melt.  They return her to the winter side just in time.  The Winter Lord, Milory forbids them from seeing each other to protect them.  He pushes the snowmaker into the river to be destroyed, but it gets caught on a branch and starts creating snow.  This causes an imbalance of the seasons and everything starts freezing.  It confuses me a bit because when I was in college in Alabama, it snowed in fall and early spring quite often.

Periwinkle and her other frost fairy friends race over to the Pixie Dust tree and frost it before the hard freeze sets in.  So, it's saved and she is allowed to see her sister whenever she wants. Also, broken wings can be cured by twin sister sparkle wing magic.  This movie has a lot going for it, and has a better plot than most children's films I'm forced to see.  I will give it a 7/10.