A Tooth Fairy Tale Review: Cartoon Journey with a Sprinkling of Family-Friendly Preteen Romance
Throughout this animated journey for preteens, the world of fairies is dedicated to collecting baby teeth of slumbering children and placing gold beneath where they sleep. Skateboarding youthful nonconformist fairy Van (voiced by Booboo Stewart) shows little enthusiasm about spending his future to collecting baby teeth—a feeling that’s entirely reasonable. He is just slightly more curious about the underlying economics of the situation: the fairies hand over the molars to unseen goblins, who provide metal as payment. But Van’s curiosity grows when he spots a goblin (played by Larkin Bell), who proves to be far from the ugly gnome he expected.
A Forbidden Bond and Common Enemy
The stage is set for an exciting quest with a gentle touch of young love (even though it remains very much suitable for children). The goblin and fairy communities 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 remarkably alike, yet both maintain prejudiced beliefs about the other. The fairies are said to be entitled sorts, prone to taking anything they want, while the goblins are allegedly dim-witted, foul-smelling, and backward, but are in fact intelligent and advanced in technology.
Naturally, such a setup needs a shared foe to unite against, and this is duly provided in the form of some nasty spiders, with voices by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher. They make no secret with these guys: they aim to devour the goblins and fairies, and they make for quite savage, if not particularly skilled, villains.
Target Audience and Overall Impression
You won’t find all that many animated films aimed at the viewer group that is starting to experience first crushes, but are not mature enough for the content teenagers are watching instead of Twilight. Should your youngster falls into this age group, this is unlikely to be their next all-time fave, but it’s a decent choice.
A Tooth Fairy Tale releases in Scottish cinemas starting October 10 and across the United Kingdom from 24 October.
