A Tooth Fairy Tale Review: Cartoon Journey with a Sprinkling of Family-Friendly Tween Love Story
In this animated adventure for preteens, the world of fairies is dedicated to gathering baby teeth of sleeping children and leaving treasure under their pillows. Skateboarding youthful nonconformist fairy Van (brought to life by Booboo Stewart) is less than thrilled about spending his future to collecting baby teeth—a sentiment that’s completely understandable. He’s only a bit more interested in the underlying economics behind it all: the fairies hand over the molars to unseen goblins, who supply gold as payment. However, Van’s interest grows when he spots a goblin (played by Larkin Bell), who proves to be not at all the hideous gnome he expected.
An Unlikely Connection and Common Enemy
The stage is set for an exciting quest with a gentle touch of young love (even though it remains perfectly appropriate for younger kids). The goblin and fairy groups are separated from one another, and nothing fuels the excitement of secrecy to unite beings together. Both groups portrayed in the film are remarkably alike, yet each holds prejudiced beliefs about the opposite side. Fairies are said to be entitled sorts, prone to taking anything they want, while the goblins are allegedly dim-witted, foul-smelling, and primitive, but are actually intelligent and technologically advanced.
Naturally, such a setup needs a shared foe to unite against, and that need is met by a group of vicious spiders, voiced by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher. There’s no beating about the bush with these guys: they want to eat the goblins and fairies, and they make for fairly bloodthirsty, though not particularly skilled, villains.
Ideal Viewers and Final Thoughts
There aren’t all that many children’s animations aimed at the viewer group that is beginning to have first crushes, but aren’t yet mature enough for the content 14-year-olds are watching instead of popular teen sagas. If your child is in the right age bracket, this is unlikely to become their new all-time fave, but you could do worse.
The Tooth Fairy Story releases in Scottish cinemas starting October 10 and across the United Kingdom from 24 October.
