The Tooth Fairy Story Review: Cartoon Journey with a Touch of Kid-Appropriate Preteen Romance

In this animated journey for preteens, the fairy community focuses on collecting baby teeth of sleeping children and leaving treasure under their pillows. Board-riding youthful nonconformist fairy Van (brought to life by Booboo Stewart) is less than thrilled about spending his future to collecting baby teeth—a feeling that’s completely understandable. He is just slightly more interested in the underlying economics of the situation: the fairies hand over the molars to unseen goblins, who supply gold in exchange. However, Van’s interest is piqued when he spots a goblin (played by Larkin Bell), who proves to be far from the ugly creature he had imagined.

An Unlikely Connection and Shared Threat

Everything is prepared for an adventure with a light sprinkling of teen romance (though it’s very much suitable for children). The fairy and goblin groups are estranged from one another, and nothing fuels the thrill of the forbidden to bring people as one. The two species as seen here are incredibly similar, yet each holds biased views about the opposite side. Fairies are supposed to be entitled types, given to stealing anything they want, while the goblins are reportedly stupid, foul-smelling, and primitive, but are in fact bright and technologically advanced.

Of course, such a setup needs a common enemy to join forces against, and that need is met by a group of vicious spiders, voiced by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher. There’s no beating about the bush about their intentions: they aim to devour the fairies and goblins, and they make for fairly bloodthirsty, though not particularly skilled, villains.

Target Audience and Overall Impression

There aren’t all that many animated films aimed at the kind of audience that is starting to experience first crushes, but aren’t yet old enough for whatever teenagers view these days instead of Twilight. If your child is in the right age bracket, this is unlikely to become their new all-time fave, but you could do worse.

A Tooth Fairy Tale releases in Scottish cinemas from 10 October and across the United Kingdom from 24 October.