The Tooth Fairy Story Review: Animated Adventure with a Touch of Kid-Appropriate Tween Love Story
Throughout this animated adventure for preteens, the world of fairies focuses on collecting baby teeth of slumbering children and placing treasure beneath where they sleep. Skateboarding teenage rebel fairy Van (voiced by Booboo Stewart) is less than thrilled about spending his future to collecting baby teeth—a sentiment that’s entirely reasonable. He’s only slightly more curious about the financial workings behind it all: the fairies deliver the teeth to mysterious goblins, who provide metal in exchange. However, Van’s interest is piqued when he catches sight of a goblin (voiced by Larkin Bell), who turns out to be far from the ugly creature he expected.
A Forbidden Bond and Shared Threat
Everything is prepared for an exciting quest with a light sprinkling of young love (even though it remains perfectly appropriate for children). The fairy and goblin communities are estranged from one another, and there’s nothing like the thrill of the forbidden to bring people as one. Both groups portrayed in the film are incredibly similar, yet both maintain biased views about the opposite side. The fairies are supposed to be self-centered sorts, given to stealing anything they want, while the goblins are allegedly stupid, foul-smelling, and backward, but are in fact intelligent and technologically advanced.
Of course, such a setup requires a shared foe to unite against, and this is duly provided in the form of some nasty 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 quite savage, though not particularly skilled, villains.
Ideal Viewers and Overall Impression
You won’t find all that many animated films targeting the viewer group that is starting to experience early romances, but aren’t yet mature enough for whatever 14-year-olds are watching in lieu of Twilight. 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.
The Tooth Fairy Story arrives in movie theaters in Scotland starting October 10 and across the United Kingdom beginning October 24.
