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Throughout this animated adventure aimed at tweens, the world of fairies is dedicated to gathering teeth from slumbering youngsters and leaving gold under their pillows. Skateboarding teenage rebel fairy Van (brought to life by Booboo Stewart) shows little enthusiasm about devoting his life to gathering baby teeth—a sentiment that’s entirely reasonable. He is just slightly more curious about the financial workings of the situation: the fairies deliver the teeth to mysterious goblins, who supply gold in exchange. But Van’s curiosity grows when he catches sight of a goblin (played by Larkin Bell), who turns out to be far from the hideous gnome he expected.

A Forbidden 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 separated from each other, and there’s nothing like the excitement of secrecy to unite beings as one. The two species portrayed in the film are remarkably alike, yet both maintain biased views about the opposite side. Fairies are supposed to be entitled types, given to stealing whatever they fancy, while goblins are allegedly stupid, foul-smelling, and primitive, but are in fact bright and advanced in technology.

Naturally, such a setup needs a common enemy to join forces against, and this is duly provided in the form of some nasty spiders, voiced by Jon Lovitz and Fran Drescher. There’s no beating about the bush about their intentions: they aim to devour the goblins and fairies, and they make for quite savage, if not especially competent, villains.

Ideal Viewers and Overall Impression

You won’t find all that many animated films targeting the kind of audience that is starting to experience first crushes, but aren’t yet old enough for the content 14-year-olds view these days in lieu of Twilight. If your child falls into this age group, it probably won’t to become their new all-time fave, but you could do worse.

A Tooth Fairy Tale arrives in movie theaters in Scotland starting October 10 and the rest of the UK beginning October 24.