🔗 Share this article

Throughout this animated journey aimed at tweens, the fairy community focuses on gathering teeth from sleeping children and placing gold beneath where they sleep. Board-riding teenage rebel fairy Van (voiced by Booboo Stewart) shows little enthusiasm about devoting his life to gathering baby teeth—a feeling that’s entirely reasonable. He’s only slightly more curious about the underlying economics of the situation: the fairies hand over the molars to mysterious goblins, who provide metal in exchange. But Van’s curiosity is piqued when he spots a goblin (played by Larkin Bell), who proves to be not at all the hideous gnome he expected.

A Forbidden 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 groups are separated from one another, and nothing fuels the thrill of the forbidden to unite beings as one. The two species portrayed in the film are incredibly similar, yet each holds biased views about the other. Fairies are supposed to be entitled sorts, prone to stealing anything they want, while goblins are reportedly stupid, foul-smelling, and backward, but are actually intelligent and advanced in technology.

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. 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 particularly skilled, villains.

Target Audience and Final Thoughts

There aren’t all that many children’s animations aimed at the viewer group that is beginning to have early romances, but aren’t yet old enough for whatever teenagers are watching in lieu of Twilight. If your child is in the right age bracket, this is unlikely to become their new favorite movie, but you could do worse.

A Tooth Fairy Tale arrives in Scottish cinemas starting October 10 and the rest of the UK from 24 October.