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In this animated adventure for preteens, the fairy community focuses on gathering baby teeth of sleeping children and placing treasure beneath where they sleep. Board-riding youthful nonconformist fairy Van (brought to life by Booboo Stewart) shows little enthusiasm about spending his future to collecting baby teeth—a sentiment that’s entirely reasonable. He is just slightly more interested in the underlying economics of the situation: the fairies deliver the teeth to mysterious goblins, who provide metal in exchange. However, Van’s interest grows when he catches sight of a goblin (voiced by Larkin Bell), who proves to be not at all the ugly gnome he expected.

A Forbidden Connection and Shared Threat

The stage is set for an adventure with a gentle touch of teen romance (though it’s very much suitable for children). The fairy and goblin communities are estranged from one another, and there’s nothing like the excitement of secrecy to bring people together. Both groups portrayed in the film are remarkably alike, yet both maintain prejudiced beliefs about the other. The fairies are supposed to be self-centered types, prone to taking anything they want, while the goblins are allegedly dim-witted, foul-smelling, and primitive, but are actually bright and advanced in technology.

Of course, this scenario needs a common enemy to unite against, and that need is met by some nasty spiders, voiced by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher. There’s no beating about the bush with these guys: they want to eat the goblins and fairies, and they serve as fairly bloodthirsty, if not especially competent, villains.

Ideal Viewers and Overall Impression

You won’t find all that many children’s animations aimed at the viewer group that is beginning to have early romances, but aren’t yet mature enough for the content teenagers view these days in lieu of popular teen sagas. If your child is in the right age bracket, it probably won’t to become their new favorite movie, but it’s a decent choice.

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