The Tooth Fairy Story Review: Cartoon Journey with a Touch of Kid-Appropriate Tween Romance
Throughout this animated journey for preteens, the world of fairies focuses on collecting teeth from slumbering youngsters and leaving gold under their pillows. Skateboarding teenage rebel fairy Van (brought to life by Booboo Stewart) is less than thrilled about devoting his life to gathering baby teeth—a feeling that’s entirely reasonable. He is just slightly more curious about the financial workings of the situation: the fairies hand over the molars to mysterious goblins, who supply gold as payment. But Van’s curiosity is piqued when he spots a goblin (played by Larkin Bell), who turns out to be not at all the ugly creature he expected.
An Unlikely Connection and Common Enemy
The stage is set for an adventure with a light sprinkling of young love (though it’s perfectly appropriate for children). The fairy and goblin groups are estranged from each other, and there’s nothing like the excitement of secrecy to bring people together. The two species portrayed in the film are incredibly similar, yet each holds prejudiced beliefs about the other. The fairies are said to be entitled types, prone to stealing anything they want, while goblins are allegedly dim-witted, smelly, and backward, but are in fact bright and technologically advanced.
Naturally, this scenario requires a common enemy to join forces against, and that need is met by some nasty spiders, voiced by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher. They make no secret with these guys: they want to eat the fairies and goblins, and they serve as quite savage, though not especially competent, villains.
Target Audience and Overall Impression
There aren’t very many animated films aimed at the kind of audience that is starting to experience early romances, but are not mature enough for whatever teenagers view these days instead of popular teen sagas. If your child falls into this age group, it probably won’t to become their new favorite movie, but you could do worse.
A Tooth Fairy Tale arrives in Scottish cinemas starting October 10 and the rest of the UK from 24 October.
