The Tooth Fairy Story Film Analysis: Animated Journey with a Sprinkling of Kid-Appropriate Tween Romance
In this cartoon journey for preteens, the fairy community is dedicated to collecting baby teeth of slumbering children and leaving gold beneath where they sleep. Board-riding teenage rebel fairy Van (brought to life by Booboo Stewart) is less than thrilled about devoting his life to collecting baby teeth—a sentiment that’s entirely reasonable. He’s only a bit more interested in the financial workings of the situation: the fairies hand over the molars to mysterious goblins, who supply gold in exchange. However, Van’s interest is piqued when he spots a goblin (voiced by Larkin Bell), who proves to be not at all the ugly creature he expected.
A Forbidden Connection and Common Enemy
Everything is prepared for an exciting quest with a gentle touch of young love (though it’s 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 as one. The two species portrayed in the film are incredibly similar, yet both maintain prejudiced beliefs about the other. Fairies are supposed to be entitled types, given to taking whatever they fancy, while goblins are allegedly stupid, smelly, and backward, but are actually intelligent and advanced in technology.
Naturally, 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 with these guys: they want to eat the fairies and goblins, and they serve as fairly bloodthirsty, though not particularly skilled, villains.
Target Audience and Final Thoughts
There aren’t all that many children’s animations aimed at the kind of audience that is beginning to have first crushes, but aren’t yet mature enough for the content teenagers are watching instead of popular teen sagas. Should your youngster is in the right age bracket, it probably won’t to be their next all-time fave, but you could do worse.
A Tooth Fairy Tale releases in Scottish cinemas starting October 10 and the rest of the UK from 24 October.
