The Tooth Fairy Story Review: Cartoon Adventure with a Sprinkling of Kid-Appropriate Tween Romance

In this cartoon journey for preteens, the fairy community is dedicated to collecting teeth from sleeping youngsters and leaving treasure under their pillows. Skateboarding youthful nonconformist fairy Van (voiced by Booboo Stewart) is less than thrilled about devoting his life to collecting baby teeth—a sentiment that’s entirely reasonable. He is just a bit more interested in the financial workings of the situation: the fairies deliver the teeth to mysterious goblins, who provide metal as payment. But Van’s curiosity is piqued when he catches sight of a goblin (played by Larkin Bell), who turns out to be far from the ugly gnome he expected.

An Unlikely Connection and Common Enemy

Everything is prepared for an adventure with a light sprinkling of young love (though it’s very much suitable for younger kids). The goblin and fairy groups are separated from each other, and there’s nothing like the excitement of secrecy to bring people as one. The two species portrayed in the film are remarkably alike, yet both maintain prejudiced beliefs about the other. The fairies are supposed to be self-centered types, given to taking whatever they fancy, while goblins are reportedly dim-witted, foul-smelling, and backward, but are in fact bright and advanced in technology.

Of course, such a setup requires a common enemy to join forces 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 about their intentions: they want to eat the goblins and fairies, and they make for fairly bloodthirsty, though not especially competent, villains.

Target Audience and Final Thoughts

There aren’t all that many animated films targeting the kind of audience that is starting to experience early romances, but aren’t yet old enough for the content 14-year-olds are watching instead of popular teen sagas. If your child is in the right age bracket, this is unlikely to become their new favorite movie, but it’s a decent choice.

The Tooth Fairy Story arrives in Scottish cinemas from 10 October and the rest of the UK from 24 October.