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Throughout this animated adventure for preteens, the fairy community focuses on gathering teeth from slumbering youngsters and placing treasure beneath where they sleep. Skateboarding youthful nonconformist fairy Van (brought to life by Booboo Stewart) is less than thrilled about devoting his life to collecting baby teeth—a feeling that’s entirely reasonable. He is just slightly more curious about the underlying economics of the situation: the fairies deliver the teeth to mysterious goblins, who supply gold in exchange. But Van’s curiosity grows when he spots a goblin (played by Larkin Bell), who turns out to be not at all the ugly gnome he expected.

An Unlikely Connection and Shared Threat

Everything is prepared 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 each other, and there’s nothing like the excitement of secrecy to unite beings together. Both groups as seen here are incredibly similar, yet each holds biased views about the opposite side. Fairies are supposed to be entitled types, prone to stealing anything they want, while goblins are allegedly stupid, smelly, and backward, but are in fact bright and advanced in technology.

Naturally, 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 aim to devour the fairies and goblins, and they serve as fairly bloodthirsty, if not particularly skilled, villains.

Target Audience and Overall Impression

There aren’t very many animated films targeting the kind of audience that is starting to experience early romances, but aren’t yet old enough for the content teenagers are watching in lieu of Twilight. If your child falls into this age group, this is unlikely to be their next favorite movie, but you could do worse.

A Tooth Fairy Tale arrives in movie theaters in Scotland starting October 10 and across the United Kingdom from 24 October.