MAYOR SPARKLE
Beloved Mayor Sparkle means well, but the times have passed him by. Under his leadership, the Toothfaireez have fallen behind in science and technology and do not have any modern ideas at all. He would be content to sit with his wife, drink tea and eat all the wonderful things she bakes (and samples), but somehow he was elected Mayor of the Toothfaireez, and the leader of their efforts. He was elected because he had a great smile, like so many politicians. He’s a bit of a blow-hard, full of platitudes, but not many good ideas unfortunately. It’s time for him to retire and let some of the younger Toothfaireez take over the operations before the children of the world all have rotten teeth. He used to be tall and thin, but has definitely become quite fat because of unending diet of goodies and specialty meals prepared by his wife, Tillie. He’s especially fond of just sitting on his favorite armchair and talking about “the good old days.”
TILLIE
Tillie is Mayor Sparkle’s wife, and the brains behind the man. While she appears to be very domestic, being a specialist in creating pastries and goodies that Mayor Sparkle loves to eat, she actually is the business manager of the Toothfaireez, taking care of the money and accounting and business. She’s particularly fond of Missy, one of the younger Toothfaireez, and has taken Missy under her wing. She would love for Sparkle to retire, so they can enjoy their golden years, and has been grooming Missy as a possible replacement. While it is not immediately apparent, Tillie has some special powers that will come in handy when the battle with Professor Black begins. The professor was a suitor for Tillie’s hand when they were young, but she chose Sparkle because of his big smile and bright white teeth, turning away from the Professor because of his sour disposition and his black teeth, a genetic disorder that only occurred once to the Toothfaireez’ race.
WHIZZO
He’s a wise old wizard and occasionally helpful advisor to the Toothfaireez. Whizzo uses experience mixed with a little bit of magic in order to keep help the Toothfaireez collect all the baby teeth from children around and world, and to make a special dust from them which helps power Whoa!-Jo, the flying car in which the Toothfaireez fly around the world at night when children are sleeping. Whizzo has a habit of saying everything twice, as if that will make people think it’s more important. He and Sparkle have been friends for many years, and work together very well. The problem is that Whizzo’s ideas are more than old-fashioned, they are ancient. He stubbornly refuses to believe in the science and technology that would give the Toothfaireez an advantage over Professor Black. When stressed with a serious challenge, he tends to become a bit forgetful about what’s he’s working on, and ask, “Now what was I doing?”
REEGO
He is the polar opposite of his identical twin brother, Fitch. Like his brother, he’s very competitive, and as the “older” twin (by 5 minutes) he always assumes the role of the “older brother,” always bossing Fitch around like a parent, which drives Fitch crazy. Reego has one other trait that defines him as an individual, he relies upon reason instead of emotions to make his decisions. “Use your brain,” he often remarks to Fitch. He is the essence of cool when facing a crisis. He likes nice clothes and a good haircut, and always looks like he just stepped out of a fashion ad.
FITCH
Like his twin brother Reego, Fitch is also very competitive, but he relies on his emotions to guide him through a situation. Of course, his brother thinks he’s infantile because of this trait, and constantly berates him for relying on his emotion response to things to guide his decisions. “If you don’t feel it in your heart, you will make mistakes,” he often tells Reego. Yes, he’s not as smart as Reego, but he is the perfect balance in every one of their interactions. Both brothers want to be top dog in every situation, and unfortunately, their competitiveness gets in the way of their success most of the time. This leaves a natural vacuum for their friend, Missy.
MISSY
While she’s the youngest of the Toothfaireez younger generation, she is the wisest, the most clever, and a real leader. She watches, listens and learns from her elders, and from the actions and re-actions of her contemporaries. Her biggest supporter and dearest friend is Tillie, Mayor Sparkle’s wife. Tillie has been secretly grooming Missy for big things, some of which will happen very soon. Missy never uses negative emotions to motivate her co-workers, instead always looking for ways to smooth things out between disagreeing colleagues, and to show them that co-operation is best way to succeed. She has become really close to Alfie, the resident computer genius, and she’s learning more and more about technology and science every day. She is poised to lead the Toothfaireez into the future, whatever that might be.
ALFIE
In many ways, Alfie shares many of the same traits as Micron, Professor Black’s devious assistant. He loves computers and knows them well, but only uses them for good, or to thwart the nefarious activities in the opposite camp. Alfie is in Big City on loan from the Toothfaireez London office, which he’s already computerized. Now it’s time for him to bring the “home office” into the modern world. He has been trying for a long time to get Sparkle and Whizzo to embrace all the new technologies and modern advertising techniques to promote their special toothpastes and tooth care products. For years the Toothfaireez have not done any promotion or advertising, leaving the children’s market to Professor Black and his terrible candy products. So, Alfie decides he has to do something bold, and he re-works the technology of Slo-Jo, the Toothfaireez’ old flying car, and prepares a spectacular demonstration. Now he’s got everyone’s attention.
WHOA!-JO
Formerly Slo-Jo, this flying car has been transformed by Alfie into an amazing modern vehicle, with radar, internet access, and the ability to process the baby teeth into tooth dust (which fuels his flights). He’s controlled by a computer, but he’s self-aware, and has quite a quirky personality. Whoa!-Jo just loves flying over and under things, especially under things, causing the Toothfaireez some close calls with bridges, tunnels and some tall buildings, too. Their flights are very much like a wild amusement park ride, full of turns and surprises as Whoa!-Jo carries the Toothfaireez around the world at night to collect baby teeth from under the pillows of all the children of the world. Everyone has taken notice about the modern innovations that Alfie has put into the old car, making it brand new and shining once again. In many ways, this is soon to be the direction the entire effort of the Toothfaireez must go, or Professor Black will be victorious. Of course, the driver of Whoa!-Jo is Missy, who will lead the Toothfaireez into the new world of science and technology, despite the protestations of Reego and Fitch who think one of them should be the leader.
PROFESSOR BLACK
His sole purpose in life is to bring down his brother, Sparkle, by any means possible. He and his assistant, Micron, are very successful in their candy business, making him very rich and powerful. Mostly he’s focused on creating problems for children’s teeth, so the Toothfaireez cannot collect teeth from children at night, and create the special fairy dust that fuels their efforts. His jealousy started when the love of his life, Tillie, decided to marry his brother, Sparkle. After that, he was the avowed enemy of Sparkle and The Toothfaireez. He is like all the comic villains of film and television history all rolled into one. This means, of course, that he is his own worst enemy because of his single focus, and this almost always leads to failure of his plans. No matter how many times he’s defeated by the Toothfaireez, he never gives up in his efforts to take them down, and win a victory over his brother.
MICRON
No one knows for sure what species Micron might be, but he is definitely not human. Some say he’s some sort of frog because he was found as a baby in a muddy puddle by Professor Black. He may be a one-of-a-kind species, like nothing that anyone has seen before. Micron looks to Professor Black as a father figure, and will do anything to please the Professor. Micron is a genius with technology, science and especially computers. He’s invented all sorts of computer programs to help Professor Black with his dark plans, including adding an element that speeds up tooth decay into all the candy made by the professor’s company, Sweetz. His greatest joy is inventing creative solutions for the Professor. He is so blinded by his affection for his boss, that he doesn’t see how much damage he’s doing.