The Tooth Fairy Story Review: Animated Journey with a Touch of Kid-Appropriate Tween Romance
Throughout this animated adventure aimed at tweens, the world of fairies is dedicated to gathering teeth from slumbering children and leaving gold under their pillows. Board-riding teenage rebel fairy Van (voiced by Booboo Stewart) shows little enthusiasm about spending his future to gathering baby teeth—a feeling that’s entirely reasonable. He’s only a bit more curious about the underlying economics behind it all: the fairies deliver the teeth to mysterious goblins, who supply gold in exchange. But Van’s curiosity is piqued when he spots a goblin (voiced by Larkin Bell), who turns out to be far from the hideous creature he had imagined.
A Forbidden Bond and Shared Threat
The stage is set for an adventure with a gentle touch of young love (even though it remains perfectly appropriate for children). The goblin and fairy communities are separated from each other, and nothing fuels the thrill of the forbidden to unite beings together. Both groups as seen here are remarkably alike, yet both maintain prejudiced beliefs about the other. Fairies are supposed to be self-centered sorts, prone to stealing whatever they fancy, while goblins are allegedly dim-witted, smelly, and primitive, but are in fact bright and technologically advanced.
Of course, such a setup requires a common enemy to join forces against, and this is duly provided by a group of vicious spiders, voiced by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher. They make no secret about their intentions: they aim to devour the fairies and goblins, and they serve as fairly bloodthirsty, if not especially competent, villains.
Ideal Viewers and Final Thoughts
There aren’t very many children’s animations targeting the kind of audience that is starting to experience first crushes, but are not old enough for the content 14-year-olds are watching in lieu of popular teen sagas. If your child is in the right age bracket, it probably won’t to be their next all-time fave, but you could do worse.
A Tooth Fairy Tale releases in Scottish cinemas starting October 10 and the rest of the UK from 24 October.