A Tooth Fairy Tale Review: Cartoon Journey with a Touch of Kid-Appropriate Preteen Love Story
Throughout this animated journey for preteens, the fairy community is dedicated to collecting baby teeth of sleeping children and leaving gold under their pillows. Skateboarding youthful nonconformist fairy Van (voiced by Booboo Stewart) is less than thrilled about devoting his life to gathering baby teeth—a sentiment that’s entirely reasonable. He is just slightly more curious about the underlying economics of the situation: the fairies deliver the teeth to mysterious goblins, who provide metal as payment. However, Van’s interest grows when he spots a goblin (played by Larkin Bell), who turns out to be far from the ugly gnome he had imagined.
A Forbidden Bond and Common Enemy
Everything is prepared for an adventure with a gentle touch of teen romance (though it’s perfectly appropriate for children). The goblin and fairy communities are separated from one another, and nothing fuels the excitement of secrecy to unite beings as one. Both groups portrayed in the film are incredibly similar, yet each holds prejudiced beliefs about the opposite side. The fairies are supposed to be entitled types, given to taking whatever they fancy, while the goblins are allegedly dim-witted, foul-smelling, and primitive, but are actually bright and advanced in technology.
Of course, this scenario requires a shared foe to join forces against, and that need is met by some nasty spiders, with voices by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher. They make no secret about their intentions: they want to eat the fairies and goblins, and they make for quite savage, if not especially competent, villains.
Target Audience and Overall Impression
You won’t find very many animated films aimed at the kind of audience that is starting to experience early romances, but aren’t yet old enough for the content 14-year-olds are watching instead of Twilight. If your child is in the right age bracket, this is unlikely to be their next favorite movie, but you could do worse.
A Tooth Fairy Tale releases in movie theaters in Scotland starting October 10 and the rest of the UK beginning October 24.
