A Tooth Fairy Tale review – animated adventure with a sprink...

In this animated adventure for preteens, the fairy community’s mission in life is to gather teeth from slumbering children and leave gold for the kids to find under their pillows. (Gold? In my day it was 10p! That’s inflation for you.) Skateboarding teenage rebel fairy Van (voiced by Booboo Stewart) is less than thrilled by the prospect of spending the foreseeable collecting baby teeth and, to be fair to him, this is entirely reasonable. He’s only a tiny bit more interested in the underlying economics of the situation: the fairies deliver the teeth to unseen goblins, who provide metal in exchange. But Van’s curiosity is piqued when he lays eyes on a goblin (voiced by Larkin Bell) and she turns out to be far from the hideous gnome he had been led to expect.

The stage is set for an adventure with a light sprinkling of teen romance (though it’s still very much suitable for younger kids); the goblin and fairy communities are estranged from one another, and there’s nothing like the thrill of the forbidden to bring people/fairies/goblins together. The two species as seen here are in fact incredibly similar, but each holds prejudiced beliefs about the other. The fairies are supposed to be entitled sorts, given to stealing whatever they fancy, while the goblins are allegedly stupid, smelly and primitive, but are in fact bright and technologically advanced.

Naturally, such a setup needs a common enemy to unite against, and this is duly provided in the form of some nasty spiders, voiced by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher (the latter currently back on cinema screens in Spın̈al Tap II). There’s no beating about the bush with these guys: they want to eat the fairies and goblins, and they make for fairly bloodthirsty, if not especially competent, villains.

There aren’t all that many children’s animations aimed at the kind of audience that are beginning to have first crushes, but aren’t yet old enough for whatever 14-year-olds are watching these days in lieu of Twilight (KPop Demon Hunters?). If your child is in the right age bracket, this is unlikely to become their new all-time fave, but you could do worse.

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