This German-Luxembourgian animation is a passable if unambitious hour and a half for under-10s, heavily in the orbit of Pixar both in terms of visuals and in its central conceit of the business of tooth-fairying as a Deliveroo-esque big-tech courier outfit. But unlike Inside Out and Soul’s pint-sized explainers of the psyche, there’s virtually no philosophical sprinkling on the cupcake here. Not that that will stop the young ’uns from gobbling it up anyway – but they might have enjoyed something more nutritious.
The exam to become a fully accredited tooth fairy seems easy enough. As the would-be disco earworm at the start of My Fairy Troublemaker has it, “Sneak inside, take the tooth, make the toy, and disappear!” Cookie-scoffing, misbehaving Violetta (voiced by Jella Haase) is the only apprentice who fails to make the grade, unlike her swotty mate Yolando (Julian Mau). Stuck in her belief that she’s really “the most special tooth fairy ever”, she steals a gem that allows her access to the human world. But in hijacking Yolando’s assignment to obtain an incisor from city kid Sami (John Chadwick), she finds an ally in his older stepsister Maxie (Lisa-Marie Koroll) when she is trapped in our reality.
Starting with a pretty annoying hero in Violetta, director Caroline Origer sets the bar low in terms of engaging the audience. Both Maxie, uncomfortable in her new family, and Violetta, in danger of turning into a flower the longer she is exiled, are outsiders. But the film is more confident reverting to babyish antics – Violetta’s chocolate fixation, Sami’s itching powder stunts – than anything emotional. Neither is the larger ecological theme tabled with any subtlety: nefarious developer Rick (Tim Grobe), who wants to demolish an urban greenhouse containing a tree holding the key to Violetta’s return, literally has a dollar-sign belt buckle.
Luckily, the animation has the finesse the story doesn’t; competition for Pixar’s rhythm and texture on presumably a fraction of the budget. The elderly chief fairy’s silvery mane of dandelion seeds is a very nice touch. More delicacy and detail like that would have helped.
• My Fairy Troublemaker is released in UK cinemas on 26 May, and available on digital platforms in Australia.
