Derek Thompson is a minor leagueice hockey player, nicknamed "Tooth Fairy" for his habit of shoving opposing players so hard, their teeth come out. One night, Derek steals a dollar from his girlfriend Carly's six-year-old daughter Tess that had been left for her lost tooth, telling her that the tooth fairy doesn't exist in the process. He receives a magical Summons under his pillow, which causes him to grow wings and transports him to the realm of tooth fairies. He meets his caseworker, Tracy, and the head fairy, Lily, both of whom he develops an adversarial relationship with. Lily sentences Derek to serve as a tooth fairy for two weeks as a punishment for his unsympathetic dealings with children like Tess. Later, he meets Jerry, who gives him his tooth fairy supplies, which include "Shrinking Paste," "Invisible Spray," "dog peppermints", "Amnesia Dust", "cat away" and a magic wand that will only work if he believes.
Carly's 14-year-old son, Randy, dislikes Derek. Randy wants to grow up to be a heavy metal star. When Derek defends Randy against a bully, he begins to win Randy over, and Derek begins teaching Randy to play his electric guitar better so he can win a talent show. Derek visits several children and tries to collect teeth and give out dollars, but a mixture of obstacles, his own incompetence, and sheer bad luck cause him to fail at his job. Lily says that he is the worst tooth fairy ever and denies Derek any more supplies from Jerry for the remainder of his sentence, criticizing his lack of faith in children. Afterward, he is approached by a fairy named Ziggy who provides him black market supplies. Later that night, the items malfunction and Derek is seen by a child's mother and arrested. While behind bars, Tracy tells Derek that Lily extended his duty to three weeks, and offers to give Derek proper supplies if he will start acting like a tooth fairy; Carly soon comes to bail Derek out.
Derek works on improving his tooth fairy skills and bonding with Tracy and Randy, but when Derek can't score a goal at a hockey game, he takes his frustration out on Randy, telling him that he will never become a rock star. With his dreams crushed, Randy tearfully smashes his guitar and a disappointed Carly breaks up with Derek, telling him his biggest flaws are his lack of optimism and that he can't say "what if". Later, Tracy comes to Derek's house to announce that he is a tooth fairy-in-training, much to Derek's annoyance, and when he mocks him and tells him to get out of his house, Tracy tells him that Derek's dream-crushing reputation hurts himself more than others. At the next hockey game, Derek gets back on the ice and sees Tracy, who silently encourages Derek to score a goal, and after some brief difficulty, Derek successfully scores a goal, finally learning the importance of dreams. Tracy then reveals to Derek that his next tooth fairy assignment is at Tess' house, and with a more confident and optimistic spirit, Derek accepts the job, gets into his tooth fairy costume, and flies away, while Tracy spreads Amnesia Dust on the audience to cover up the event.
At Carly's, Tess sees Derek taking her tooth, and Derek reveals that he is a tooth fairy to her, and she promises to keep it a secret. Derek apologizes to Randy and encourages him to keep pursuing his dreams, using his magic wand to grant Randy a new guitar. Downstairs, Carly sees Derek as a tooth fairy, but assumes that he rented a costume for Tess' sake, causing her to forgive him. Derek flies Randy to the talent show, throwing Amnesia Dust on him when they arrive. Derek heads back to the fairy realm to give Lily the tooth, and is told that because of this job, as well as for reaffirming Tess' belief, he has been relieved of his fairy duties. Lily explains that he will never see the tooth fairies again and will have Amnesia Dust thrown on him. Before departing, Derek says a friendly goodbye to Tracy. Lily throws Amnesia Dust on Derek and transports him back to the talent show. There, Randy outperforms everyone and ends up forming a band. Derek's newfound optimism remains intact, and he proposes to Carly, who accepts.
Later, Derek is seen playing left wing for the Los Angeles Kings, and when he sees Lily and Jerry in the crowd, he doesn't recognize them. Jerry secretly helps him score a goal.
Cast
Dwayne Johnson as Derek Thompson, a hockey player forced to become a Tooth Fairy as punishment for being a dream crusher, Randy and Tess's stepdad
Ashley Judd as Carly Harris, Derek's wife, Randy and Tess's mom
Julie Andrews as Lily, the head of the Tooth Fairies
Stephen Merchant as Tracy, a wingless tooth fairy assigned to be Derek's case manager
Ryan Sheckler as Mick "the Stick" Donnelly, Derek's new teammate, a highly talented, but disrespectful young hockey player
Seth MacFarlane as Ziggy, a fairy that sells black market tooth fairy items
The hockey scenes were filmed at the Great Western Forum using players from the Los Angeles Kings.[6] The score for Tooth Fairy was composed by George S. Clinton and recorded in the spring of 2009 with an 80-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox studios.[7]
Reception
Box office
The film was released on January 22, 2010, and opened in 3,344 theaters and took in $3,544,512 its opening day, with an average of $1,060 per theater.[8] On its opening weekend, it grossed $14,010,409 with an average of $4,190 per theater. It ranked #4, behind Avatar, Legion, and The Book of Eli;[9] however, the film rose to #3 on that weekend in Canada with $16,000,000 and remained #4 in the U.S. on its second weekend, behind Avatar, Edge of Darkness, and When in Rome. Despite negative reviews, the film has come to be a box office hit grossing $60,022,256 in the United States and Canada, and $51,854,764 in other markets, grossing a worldwide total of $111,877,020.[10]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 17% based on 116 reviews with an average rating of 4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Dwayne Johnson brings the full force of his charm (and his appropriately pale chompers) to the title role, but flat direction and a committee-written script render The Tooth Fairy unacceptably dull."[11] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 36 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[12] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[13]
^"About Metro Orlando". Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission. January 21, 2011. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved December 23, 2011.
^"About Metro Orlando". Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission. January 21, 2011. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved December 23, 2011.
