The Tooth Fairy Story Film Analysis: Animated Journey with a Touch of Kid-Appropriate Tween Romance
Throughout this animated adventure aimed at tweens, the fairy community focuses on collecting baby teeth of slumbering children and placing gold beneath where they sleep. Skateboarding youthful nonconformist fairy Van (voiced by Booboo Stewart) shows little enthusiasm about spending his future to collecting baby teeth—a feeling that’s entirely reasonable. He’s only a bit more curious about the financial workings behind it all: the fairies deliver the teeth to unseen goblins, who provide metal as payment. But Van’s curiosity grows when he spots a goblin (played by Larkin Bell), who turns out to be far from the ugly gnome he had imagined.
An Unlikely Connection and Common Enemy
The stage is set for an adventure with a gentle touch of teen romance (even though it remains perfectly appropriate for younger kids). The fairy and goblin communities are estranged from one another, and there’s nothing like the thrill of the forbidden to unite beings together. The two species as seen here are remarkably alike, yet each holds biased views about the opposite side. The fairies are supposed to be self-centered types, prone to stealing whatever they fancy, while goblins are reportedly stupid, foul-smelling, and backward, but are actually bright and technologically advanced.
Of course, such a setup needs a shared foe to join forces against, and this is duly provided in the form of 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 make for fairly bloodthirsty, if not particularly skilled, villains.
Target Audience and Overall Impression
There aren’t all that many animated films aimed at the kind of audience that is starting to experience first crushes, but are not old enough for the content teenagers are watching in lieu of Twilight. If your child is in the right age bracket, this is unlikely to be their next favorite movie, but you could do worse.
The Tooth Fairy Story arrives in Scottish cinemas from 10 October and the rest of the UK from 24 October.
