The Tooth Fairy Story Review: Cartoon Journey with a Sprinkling of Kid-Appropriate Tween Romance
Throughout this cartoon adventure aimed at tweens, the fairy community focuses on gathering teeth from slumbering children 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 gathering baby teeth—a feeling that’s entirely reasonable. He’s only a bit more curious about the financial workings of the situation: the fairies hand over the molars to unseen goblins, who supply gold as payment. But Van’s curiosity grows when he catches sight of a goblin (voiced by Larkin Bell), who turns out to be far from the hideous gnome he expected.
An Unlikely Connection and Common Enemy
The stage is set for an adventure with a light sprinkling of teen romance (though it’s perfectly appropriate for children). The goblin and fairy groups are estranged from each other, and there’s nothing like the excitement of secrecy to bring people as one. Both groups portrayed in the film are remarkably alike, yet each holds prejudiced beliefs about the other. Fairies are supposed to be self-centered sorts, prone 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.
Naturally, such a setup requires a common enemy to unite against, and this is duly provided by a group of vicious spiders, with voices by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher. They make no secret with these guys: they want to eat the goblins and fairies, and they serve as quite savage, if not particularly skilled, villains.
Target Audience and Final Thoughts
You won’t find all that many children’s animations aimed at the kind of audience that is starting to experience early romances, but aren’t yet mature enough for whatever teenagers are watching in lieu of Twilight. Should your youngster falls into this age group, it probably won’t to be their next favorite movie, but you could do worse.
The Tooth Fairy Story arrives in Scottish cinemas starting October 10 and the rest of the UK from 24 October.
