A Conversation before the Great Fairy Rescue

Who knew that 1954′s Peter Pan, would spawn a wildly popular franchise based on a secondary character? Everyone loves Tinker Bell, and in 2008 Disney built a franchise around the character known as Disney Fairies. The 2008 CG-animated film, Tinker Bell faced numerous production lags before John Lasseter stepped in to monitor the completion of the film, something he dubbed “virtually unwatchable”. Regardless, the ship was righted and when released on Blu-ray and DVD, the Tinker Bell grossed $50 million in disc sales, vastly selling more than Disney predicted.

This led to a sequel, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, an even more successful film. It doesn’t stop there. Besides a series of Disney Channel promos and a series of children books, Tinker Bell has herself a powerful franchise with a handful of new films announced, including this September’s Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue. Killer Film sits down to chat with Producer Helen Kalafatic and the film’s director, Brad Raymond about the new movie coming soon on Blu-ray and DVD.

Jon Peters: The Tinker Bell franchise has brought in a nice selection of top actors like Anjelica Huston, Lucy Lui, and now Michael Sheen to the series. How’s working with them and how did they get into the production?

Helen Kalafatic: All of the actors have been wonderful and they are really comfortable with Brad’s direction and sense of humor. Michael Sheen is an amazing actor, he is such a sweet person and I was impressed with how down to earth he is. He told us how his daughter watched Tinker Bell and she even used to make fairy houses herself. I can’t think of anyone else who could have played Dr. Griffiths with such authenticity.

Jon: What has Mae Whitman brought to Tinker Bell over the course of these, now three, films?

Brad Raymond: Mae Whitman has truly become Tinker Bell. Her voice has brought a whole new level to Tinker Bell’s character and at the same time kept the integrity of the character that we already know and love. And the amazing part is that Mae does this all with her voice!

Jon: Coming from your work on traditional animated films like Lion King 1/2 and Pocahontas II, and after some issues behind-the-scenes on the first film-a CG production, how have you adapted to the new technology of CG over cell animation?

Brad Raymond: The biggest difference between traditional animation and computer generated animation is the use of camera. In this movie, I was able to move the camera into scenes more like live action. This supported the subconscious element that I wanted to capture. When you watch the scenes in Lizzy’s room, I wanted to give the feeling that the audience was standing in the room with Tink and Lizzy. So a moving camera was essential. Our head cameraman, John Bermudes and his amazing team took that idea and created such a magical use of camera.

I wanted to tell a story of the first time that Tinker Bell meets a human. That human is a little girl named Lizzy. She believes in Fairies and when she meets Tinker Bell, she gets to learn about the world of Pixie Hollow. For the audience, they get to see how Tinker Bell learns to communicate with humans. We get to see Lizzy discover that Tinker Bell speaks in jingling bells and how to communicate with her. The most magical moment for me is when Tinker Bell teaches Lizzy how to fly.

Jon: The animation, in my opinion, has been better with each film, and this film looks no different. Was there a conscious effort to improve or was it a by-product of the team getting comfortable with the technology, time frame, and each other?

Helen Kalafatic: We are always striving for the highest quality so yes, there is always a conscious effort to improve. The individuals working on this film have an innate desire to be the best at their craft, the whole crew has a great sense of pride and it shows on the screen.

Brad Raymond: I agree that the animation is great in these movies. We have an amazing team of artists who are so dedicated. Our animation supervisor, Sheryl Sackett, works so closely with our animation team and she deserves a huge part of the credit.

Jon: Can we expect John McNeely to score the The Great Fairy Rescue?

Helen Kalafatic: Joel McNeely did score Tinker Bell and The Great Fairy Rescue and what a gorgeous score it is!

Jon: The two prior films have grossed nearly $50mil, so is there any pressure when tackling now a third film in a popular franchise?

Helen Kalafatic: Our goal was to make a great film and our focus never swayed from that. The pressure that we put on ourselves was to make the best movie we could, it’s a luxury to be able to work in a studio with that mindset. It took several years. Development started when the first Tinker Bell film wrapped and it took us about two years to produce this film.

Brad Raymond: To me, a movie is the visual telling of a story. I think that the story is the most important part of a movie. So when the director is deeply connected to the story it is easier and more fun to direct. We even get to hear the famous words, “think happy thoughts.” for the first time!

Brad Raymond, who directed the first film and now this second sequel, concludes. “I absolutely loved Disney’s Peter Pan when I was growing up. I really connected to the idea of Wendy getting to meet Peter and Tink. The idea of an ordinary character, that the audience could relate to, getting to experience a magical world was my inspiration for this story.”

Look for Disney’s Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue on Blu-ray and DVD September 21, 2010! Visit the official website for the film here.