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Throughout this cartoon adventure for preteens, the world of fairies focuses on gathering teeth from sleeping children and placing gold under their pillows. Board-riding youthful nonconformist fairy Van (voiced by Booboo Stewart) shows little enthusiasm about spending his future to gathering baby teeth—a feeling that’s completely understandable. He is just a bit more interested in the underlying economics of the situation: the fairies hand over the molars to mysterious goblins, who provide metal as payment. But Van’s curiosity is piqued when he spots a goblin (voiced by Larkin Bell), who turns out to be far from the ugly creature he expected.

A Forbidden Bond 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 groups are estranged from one another, and there’s nothing like the excitement of secrecy to bring people as one. Both groups portrayed in the film are incredibly similar, yet each holds biased views about the opposite side. Fairies are supposed to be self-centered types, given to taking whatever they fancy, while the goblins are reportedly dim-witted, foul-smelling, and primitive, but are in fact intelligent and technologically advanced.

Naturally, such a setup requires a common enemy to unite against, and this is duly provided in the form of some nasty spiders, with voices by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher. There’s no beating about the bush with these guys: they aim to devour the goblins and fairies, and they make for fairly bloodthirsty, though not especially competent, villains.

Target Audience and Final Thoughts

You won’t find very many children’s animations aimed at the kind of audience that is starting to experience first crushes, but aren’t yet mature enough for the content teenagers view these days in lieu of Twilight. If your child is in the right age bracket, this is unlikely to become their new favorite movie, but it’s a decent choice.

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