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The Little Vampire

2000, Movie, PG, 94 mins

The Little Vampire: Review

LITTLE VAMPIRE, THE
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Long before the Harry Potter novels introduced a generation of children to the delights of supernatural mayhem, there was German author Angela Sommer-Bodenburg's 18-book Little Vampire series. They've been published in dozens of languages and made into two separate European TV series; only the U.S. has more or less resisted their appeal, a situation this movie seeks to remedy. Eight-year-old Tony Thompson (Jonathan Lipnicki) has just moved with his family from sunny San Diego to gloomy Scotland, where he starts having weird dreams about vampires. His parents take the psychological approach — it's a phase brought on by having been dislocated, forced to find new friends, etc. — but the fact of the matter is, there are vampires in the vicinity, and one is a nine-year-old boy, almost the same age as Tony (assuming, of course, that Tony had been eight for 300 years). Tony and Rudolph (Rollo Weeks), the titular little vampire, become pals, and Tony's bizarre dreams prove to hold the key to the vampires' dearest wish: To regain their humanity. The macabre nature of the source material is intriguing — Sommer-Bodenburg has said she had trouble selling her first Little Vampire manuscript back in the mid '70s because publishers told her such material wasn't suitable for a children's book — but the movie has a terminal case of the cutes. Lipnicki is one of those child actors who either strikes you as adorable or makes you want to scream; your personal reaction to his owlish face will probably play a large part in your feelings about this film. As to the vampires, who include Rudolph's parents (Richard E. Grant and Alice Krige), older brother Gregory (Dean Cook) and little sister Anna (Anna Popplewell), never fear: The only drink cow's blood (a practice that produces some pretty funny vampire bovines) and aren't the least bit scary. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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