The Tooth Fairy Story Review: Animated Adventure with a Sprinkling of Kid-Appropriate Preteen Romance
In this cartoon journey aimed at tweens, the world of fairies focuses on collecting baby teeth of sleeping children and placing gold under their pillows. Board-riding teenage rebel fairy Van (voiced by Booboo Stewart) is less than thrilled about spending his future to collecting baby teeth—a sentiment that’s entirely reasonable. He’s only slightly more curious about the financial workings behind it all: the fairies deliver the teeth to mysterious goblins, who supply gold as payment. However, Van’s interest is piqued when he catches sight of a goblin (played by Larkin Bell), who proves to be far from the ugly gnome he expected.
A Forbidden Connection and Shared Threat
The stage is set for an exciting quest with a light sprinkling of teen romance (though it’s perfectly appropriate for younger kids). The goblin and fairy communities are separated from each other, and there’s nothing like the excitement of secrecy to bring people together. Both groups as seen here are incredibly similar, yet each holds biased views about the other. The fairies are said to be entitled types, given to stealing whatever they fancy, while the goblins are reportedly dim-witted, foul-smelling, and primitive, but are in fact intelligent and advanced in technology.
Of course, such a setup requires a shared foe to join forces against, and this is duly provided in the form of 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 make for fairly bloodthirsty, if not particularly skilled, villains.
Target Audience and Final Thoughts
There aren’t all that many children’s animations targeting the viewer group that is beginning to have early romances, but are not old enough for the content teenagers are watching instead of Twilight. If your child is in the right age bracket, this is unlikely to be their next all-time fave, but you could do worse.
A Tooth Fairy Tale arrives in Scottish cinemas from 10 October and across the United Kingdom beginning October 24.