The Tooth Fairy Story Review: Cartoon Journey with a Sprinkling of Family-Friendly Preteen Love Story
Throughout this cartoon journey aimed at tweens, the world of fairies focuses on collecting teeth from sleeping youngsters and leaving treasure under their pillows. Skateboarding teenage rebel fairy Van (brought to life by Booboo Stewart) shows little enthusiasm about devoting his life to collecting baby teeth—a feeling that’s completely understandable. He is just a bit more interested in the underlying economics behind it all: the fairies hand over the molars to unseen goblins, who supply gold in exchange. However, Van’s interest grows when he spots a goblin (voiced by Larkin Bell), who turns out to be not at all the ugly gnome he expected.
An Unlikely Bond and Common Enemy
The stage is set for an adventure with a gentle touch of young love (even though it remains very much suitable for children). The fairy and goblin groups are estranged from each other, and there’s nothing like the thrill of the forbidden to bring people together. Both groups as seen here are incredibly similar, yet both maintain prejudiced beliefs about the other. The fairies are supposed to be entitled sorts, given to taking whatever they fancy, while goblins are allegedly stupid, foul-smelling, and primitive, but are actually bright and advanced in technology.
Of course, such a setup needs a shared foe to join forces against, and this is duly provided by some nasty spiders, voiced by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher. There’s no beating about the bush with these guys: they want to eat the fairies and goblins, and they serve as fairly bloodthirsty, though not particularly skilled, villains.
Target Audience and Final Thoughts
There aren’t all that many animated films aimed at the kind of audience that is starting to experience early romances, but aren’t yet mature enough for whatever teenagers view these days instead of Twilight. If your child falls into this age group, it probably won’t to become their new all-time fave, but it’s a decent choice.
A Tooth Fairy Tale releases in Scottish cinemas from 10 October and the rest of the UK from 24 October.