The Tooth Fairy Story Film Analysis: Cartoon Adventure with a Touch of Kid-Appropriate Tween Romance
In this animated journey aimed at tweens, the fairy community is dedicated to collecting baby teeth of sleeping children and placing gold under their pillows. Skateboarding teenage rebel fairy Van (voiced by Booboo Stewart) shows little enthusiasm about spending his future to collecting baby teeth—a sentiment that’s entirely reasonable. He is just a bit more curious about the underlying economics behind it all: the fairies hand over the molars to unseen goblins, who provide metal as payment. But Van’s curiosity grows when he catches sight of a goblin (played by Larkin Bell), who proves to be not at all the ugly creature he had imagined.
An Unlikely Bond and Shared Threat
The stage is set for an exciting quest with a light sprinkling of teen romance (though it’s perfectly appropriate for younger kids). The goblin and fairy groups are separated from one another, and nothing fuels the excitement of secrecy to bring people together. The two species portrayed in the film are incredibly similar, yet both maintain biased views about the opposite side. Fairies are supposed to be self-centered types, given to stealing anything they want, while the goblins are reportedly stupid, smelly, and primitive, but are actually intelligent and technologically advanced.
Of course, this scenario needs a common enemy to unite against, and this is duly provided by a group of vicious spiders, with voices by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher. They make no secret about their intentions: they want to eat the fairies and goblins, and they serve as quite savage, if not especially competent, villains.
Target Audience and Final Thoughts
There aren’t very many children’s animations targeting the kind of audience that is starting to experience first crushes, but aren’t yet old enough for whatever 14-year-olds view these days in lieu of Twilight. Should your youngster falls into this age group, this is unlikely to be their next all-time fave, but you could do worse.
A Tooth Fairy Tale arrives in movie theaters in Scotland from 10 October and the rest of the UK from 24 October.
