HELD OVER! Tooth Fairy PG Friday, Saturday, Sunday March 5, 6, & 7 (No show Friday if R-S girls make the Finals) Evenings Only ~ 7 p.m. Tickets: $3

 

Dewayne Johnson is the TOOTH FAIRY (rated PG for mild situations, but fun for the whole family; and with a running time of 101 min.), also known as Derek Thompson, a hard-charging hockey player whose nickname comes from his habit of separating opposing players from their bicuspids. When Derek discourages a youngster’s dreams, he’s sentenced to one week’s hard labor as a real tooth fairy, complete with the requisite wings and magic wand. At first, Derek “can’t handle the tooth” – bumbling and stumbling as he tries to furtively wing his way through strangers’ homes…doing what tooth fairies do. But as Derek slowly adapts to his new position, he begins to rediscover his own forgotten dreams.

One of today’s most popular actors, Dwayne Johnson’s juxtaposition of sharp comedic timing and impressive physicality has delighted audiences in pictures like “The Game Plan,” “Get Smart” and “Race to Witch Mountain.” His latest effort, TOOTH FAIRY, brings together several elements he thought would be fun to explore. “It’s a story with universal appeal,” says Johnson. “It’s a fish-out-of-water tale about believing in the impossible and the magic. It’s for families and everyone.

To most of the world, the Tooth Fairy is a magical figure. Like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy is both an inspiring and comforting character who teaches children to use their imaginations – and to dream. And while there are no definitive renderings, most of us envision the Tooth Fairy as a gentle sprite who magically appears during a child’s slumbers to take his or her newly-displaced tooth from under the pillow and replace it with money.

It’s a safe bet that no one has imagined the Tooth Fairy to be a hockey player/ “enforcer” – until Derek Thompson, beloved by his fans for his hyper-aggressive play on the ice, becomes the newest addition to ranks of Tooth Fairydom.

Derek had been a major league hockey star, but after suffering an injury, he never found his way back to ruling the rink. Instead, he settled for being a hockey tough guy – a bruiser who takes out opposing players as his fans chant “The tooth hurts!” and “You can’t handle the tooth!”

Derek is a good guy at heart, but his own lowered expectations have caught up with him. When one young autograph-seeker asks Derek if it’s possible for the youngster to achieve hockey stardom, Derek discourages the boy’ s hopes. After his dream-killing faux pas, Derek awakens one night to find – under his pillow, no less – a summons accusing him of Violation 70136: “Dissemination of Disbelief.” Before Derek figures out what that even means, he suddenly sprouts wings and is sucked up into a vortex that deposits his now tutu-clad frame in a pastel alternate universe known as Fairyland – a magical version of a massive train station, which is about to become Derek’s new training ground.

The pink tutu is a wardrobe malfunction (“but I really wanted it in the film,” Johnson admits) – Derek eventually sports more masculine-looking Tooth Fairy duds – but his summons is no mistake. He has a lot to answer for, as a “Dream Killer guilty of first degree dasher of fantasy.” Derek’s chief accuser is Fairyland’s no-nonsense matriarch, Lily (Julie Andrews), who sentences Derek to two weeks of hard time as a Tooth Fairy. And who better to take on the role of the stern but ultimately warm-heated Chief Tooth Fairy, than family film icon Julie Andrews, who has delighted audiences for over 40 years – from her roles in “Mary Poppins” and “The Sound of Music” to her more recent work in “The Princess Diaries.”

Andrews found much to appreciate in TOOTH FAIRY’s message. “The thing that really sold me on doing TOOTH FAIRY was its message that children must be allowed to dream and fantasize and use their imagination,” she points out. “I think what makes a good family film is a quality of joy and perhaps a certain innocence. It’s great for a film to be funny and smart, but children also need a sense of wonder. We all need it!”

Andrews was a major casting coup and producer Jason Blum credits TOOTH FAIRY director Michael Lembeck, a former actor, with playing a key role in bringing Andrews onboard. “[Julie’s casting] was largely thanks to Michael, who was an actor for a long time and is great with making actors feel comfortable and safe. With comedy you really need that safety net.”

Derek’s assignment as Tooth Fairy is complicated by – and ultimately enabled by – his very human relationship with girlfriend Carly (Ashley Judd) and her two children, Tess, age 5, and Randy, 14. “Both kids are at an age where dreaming and setting goals are vital,” says Johnson. “Derek doesn’t quite get that, until he sees their dreams are being shaken – by him.”

Their mom, Carly, provides a steadiness and grounding to Derek as he undertakes his strange journey as a Tooth Fairy. Carly is unaware of Derek’s new secret life, which makes her, says Ashley Judd, the film’s “straight man.”

According to director Michael Lembeck , the Dwayne Johnson-Ashley Judd pairing is unexpected, facilitating a Derek-Carly dynamic that is clearly a case of opposites attracting one another. “Derek and Carly are like the cowboy and the showgirl, you know, or the longshoreman and the debutante,” Lembeck explains. “Only in our film, it’s the tough hockey guy and the really articulate, wonderful, sophisticated mom. They’re so different that it makes their relationship really special.”

But even as Derek discovers new ways to relate to Carly, Randy and Tess, his journey is fraught with a series of indignities. As he learns the Tooth Fairy ways, he’s stepped on (see “Shrinking Paste,” above), flushed down a toilet, bitten and arrested. He also faces a challenge on the rink from a young hockey star (played by skateboarding phenomenon Ryan Sheckler). But as hockey’s “Tooth Fairy” slowly adapts to his new role as the real-deal, he finally makes the most unexpected discovery of all: his own dreams.

And that is the tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth.

--taken from the production notes of Tooth Fairy, courtesy of 20th Century Fox