On March 22nd, The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA, played host to a red carpet premier event for the newest Disney Toon Studios film, The Pirate Fairy. The fifth installment in the Disney Fairies series finds Tinker Bell and her friends facing off against an old friend who has joined a group of Neverland pirates. The red carpet was lined up between the old animation building, where Walt’s office was, and the Studio Theater. That same theater played host to the screening itself.
Lining the red carpet where posters and images from the film. Outside of the theater, the event team set up a game station featuring a new character from the film named Crocky, a baby crocodile who discovers he enjoys chasing after pirates. At the far end of the carpet, just past the theater entrance, was a three-dimensional standup of Skull Rock. There were some up and coming Disney talent in attendance, including the youngest stars from Disney Channel’s highly anticipated series Girl Meets World.
I was standing in the press section of the carpet, shoulder-to-shoulder with other journalists hoping to snag a few moments with the talent behind the film. For those of you who missed it, we broadcast the entire hour live on laughingplace.com’s LiveStream site. Mae Whitman (voice of Tinker Bell) was at the premiere, but unfortunately the timing never worked out for her to stop and talk to us. But we were fortunate enough to get a few moments from several relevant attendees.
Eva Bella was the voice of young Elsa in Frozen, who talked about the possibility of reprising her role in an upcoming short. Pamela Adlon, the voice of Pixie Hollow’s feistiest fairy Vidia, talked about why her character became so popular. International star Carlos Ponce revealed his relationship with Disney and told us why his character is named Bonito. Director Peggy Holmes and producer Jenni Magee-Cook talked about their efforts to remain faithful to Peter Pan and how their careers lead them to directing and producing. Our final interview was with Christina Hendricks, who shared why her character Zarina is so inspiring and what made her want to take the part. You can catch all of these interviews in our condensed version of the event.
As the invited guests where handed swag bags full of pirate swords and fairy wings, they were escorted into the historic theater to watch the film. After packing up our equipment, fanboy and I were lucky enough to have been issued tickets to the screening as well. The Pirate Fairy debuts on Blu-Ray and DVD on Tuesday, April 1st, and a full in-depth review of the film will be coming soon to a laughinplace.com near you. Fans of the Disney Fairies series will be delighted to see these characters taken out of their element in this big adventure. Fans of Disney’s Peter Pan will love seeing the series get closer to that film by introducing more characters that are relevant to Disney’s 1953 classic.