A Tooth Fairy Tale Film Analysis: Animated Adventure with a Sprinkling of Kid-Appropriate Preteen Romance
Throughout this cartoon journey aimed at tweens, the world of fairies is dedicated to gathering teeth from sleeping youngsters and placing gold beneath where they sleep. Board-riding teenage rebel fairy Van (voiced by Booboo Stewart) is less than thrilled about spending his future to gathering baby teeth—a sentiment that’s entirely reasonable. He is just a bit more interested in the financial workings of the situation: the fairies hand over the molars to unseen goblins, who provide metal in exchange. But Van’s curiosity grows when he catches sight of a goblin (voiced by Larkin Bell), who turns out to be far from the ugly creature he expected.
An Unlikely Connection and Shared Threat
Everything is prepared for an exciting quest with a light sprinkling of young love (even though it remains very much suitable for younger kids). The fairy and goblin communities are estranged from each other, and there’s nothing like the excitement of secrecy to bring people together. Both groups portrayed in the film are remarkably alike, yet each holds biased views about the other. The fairies are supposed to be self-centered sorts, given to stealing whatever they fancy, while goblins are allegedly stupid, smelly, and primitive, but are actually bright and advanced in technology.
Of course, such a setup needs a common enemy to unite against, and this is duly provided in the form of 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, if not especially competent, villains.
Target Audience and Overall Impression
There aren’t all that many animated films targeting the viewer group that is starting to experience early romances, but aren’t yet old enough for the content 14-year-olds view these days 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 releases in Scottish cinemas starting October 10 and the rest of the UK from 24 October.
