The Little Vampire

The Little Vampire is a 2000 comedy horror film based on the children's book series of the same name by German writer Angela Sommer-Bodenburg, about a boy who tries to save a young vampire and his family from a ruthless vampire hunter. It was directed by Uli Edel and written by Karey Kirkpatrick and Larry Wilson. The film stars Jonathan Lipnicki, Rollo Weeks, Richard E. Grant, Jim Carter and Alice Krige.

The Little Vampire

9-year-old Tony Thompson moves with his family from California to Scotland, where they take up residence in a small castle while his father is employed building a golf course on the estate of Lord McAshton. In his new home Tony starts experiencing nightmares about vampires and a mysterious comet. Things are not any better for him at school, as he gets picked on by Lord McAshton's grandsons, Flint and Nigel.

One night, while dressed up as a vampire, Tony is mistaken for one by the young vampire Rudolph, who is on the run from the evil vampire hunter Rookery. After realizing that Tony is not a vampire, Rudolph tries to attack him but ultimately fails due to being weakened by Rookery. After trying to leave through flying out the window, Rudolph falls from the sky due to his weakness. Tony helps Rudolph find a cow to feed from, and in return Rudolph takes Tony flying. The two boys quickly become friends, and Rudolph confides to Tony that his family only drink animal blood and wish to become human. Rudolph reveals that they are searching for a magical amulet that can be used to turn vampires into humans, but Rookery is also seeking to use the amulet against them. When Rudolph takes Tony to the cemetery where his family lives, they are confronted by Rudolph's parents Frederick and Freda, Rudolph's romantic sister Anna and rebellious teen brother Gregory. Frederick doubts Tony's loyalty to his son, but when Tony helps repel an attack from Rookery, Frederick begrudgingly allows Tony to help them, but warns him not to betray him and the rest of the vampire clan to Rookery. Tony and Rudolph then proceed to get revenge on Flint and Nigel.

Rookery alerts Lord McAshton to the presence of vampires in the village. Lord McAshton reveals that his family has known about the existence of vampires for generations. Elizabeth, an ancestor of Lord McAshton, was romantically involved with Rudolph's uncle Von, who was the last known holder of the amulet, and both lovers were killed by the McAshtons. Learning this, Tony, Rudolph, and Anna seek out Elizabeth's tomb, where Tony experiences a vision pointing out the location of the amulet: Tony's own bedroom. Rudolph and Tony race Rookery to the amulet while the rest of Rudolph's family, along with Tony's parents, travel to the site of the ritual the vampires hope to perform. After a chase, Tony and Rudolph manage to escape with the amulet while Rookery inadvertently drives his truck over a cliff after getting entangled in a blimp.

Tony and Rudolph succeed in bringing Frederick the amulet, but the ceremony is interrupted by Rookery, who returns riding the blimp. The vampires are unable to stand against Rookery's glowing cross, but Tony's parents defend them and defeat Rookery, pushing him off a cliff to his apparent death. Tony completes the ceremony by wishing for the vampires to become human. Rudolph and his family disappear as the comet passes, leaving Tony and his parents alone and unsure if the ceremony succeeded. Some time later, while visiting the village market, Tony spots Rudolph and his family, now human, moving into a house in the village. At first they seem not to recognize Tony, but as Tony does the whistle to them their memories return, and the friends are reunited.

Michael Thomson for the BBC gave the film three stars, questioning the tone but remarking, "Yet the basic idea which drives this jolly film, along with Lipnicki's charm, is sometimes almost enough."[9]Jan Stuart for The Los Angeles Times praised most of the cast, but criticized Lipnicki, and said, "Older kids and grown-ups looking for more sophisticated humor will have to content themselves with a running gag about vampire cows, which could have been funnier than Edel makes it here."[10]

Parents need to know that this movie includes dead bodies, stakes through the heart, a child locked in a crypt, a dead mouse, vampire cows, references to the undead, and a generally ghoulish atmosphere. Some kids, especially fans of the book, will love this stuff, but others will be upset by it. In addition, there are characters in peril, schoolyard fights with bullies, and a brief adult fistfight.

On one hand, this is an imaginative and exciting story, based on a popular series of children's books. On the other hand, the subject matter is vampires who suck blood out of cows. So parents should be very cautious about watching this movie with younger kids. The production design is outstanding, and Richard E. Grant and Alice Krige as Rudolph's vampire parents are first rate.

Families can talk about what we do when we get scared. Tony pretends to be a vampire, which is one way to be less scared by them. And once he sees that Rudolph needs his help, he is not afraid anymore. Talk to kids about the bullies at school, and any experiences they may have had with bullies. Do they think that Tony becomes a bully in the movie?

"The Little Vampire" is a dim-witted but visually intriguing movie about a kid from San Diego who moves to Scotland with his mom and dad and befriends a family of vampires. It is based on a popular children's book by the German author Angela Sommer-Bodenburg, but those cute round-wire frames on the hero's glasses are a clue that the Harry Potter books are at least as much to blame.

As the film opens, young Tony (Jonathan Lipnicki) doesn't much like Scotland, where his dad (Tommy Hinkley) has moved to construct a golf course for Lord McAshton (John Wood). The local kids pick on him at school, he's isolated in the middle of nowhere, etc., and his parents are impatient with his nightly dreams of vampires.

Then one night things pick up when a bat flies into Tony's fireplace and turns into a boy named Rudolph (Rollo Weeks), who is lonely, too, as what vampire boy would not be. Rudy takes Tony on a flight to visit his vampire family, which has been in hibernation for 300 years, waiting for a comet to cross the moon and send a beam of light to a magic amulet--of which, alas, Rudy's dad (Richard E. Grant) possesses only half.

Touring the neighborhood is a scabby vampire hunter named Rookery (Jim Carter), whose personal appearance and demeanor and his giant truck (with searchlights, drills, cages, neon crucifixes, etc.) suggest he should be paying royalties to the character of Snowplow Man (Chris Elliott) in "Snow Day." The movie is aimed at kids but filmed with an adult sensibility, which leads to peculiar scenes like the one in which Rudy's vampire sister Anna (Anna Popplewell) presents him with a dead mouse, explains it is a charm to get him out of trouble, and adds, "If you ever need me, just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you? Just whistle." Puckering your lips and blowing might be too risque, I assume. (Popplewell is refreshingly frank in comments about the film, which she has posted on the Internet Movie Database: "My brother and sister, 5 and 9, both loved it and so did an audience full of children at the test screening. It is true that children above 12 may find it a little babyish.") The movie has first-rate credits, from the director Uli Edel ("Last Exit to Brooklyn") to the writers Karey Kirkpatrick ("James And The Giant Peach") and Larry Wilson ("Beetlejuice"), to the cast (Lipnicki played the kid in "Jerry Maguire" and "Stuart Little"). The costumes are neat, the photography is great--all the pieces are on hand, but they don't fit.

One problem is that the movie's saddled with too many elements. The vampires, we discover, want to become human again, and all of them but the father are vegetarians (lacto-ovo variety, if you were wondering). Fine, but then there's the complication of Lord McAshton's sinister plans, and the mumbo-jumbo about the comet and the beam of light and the amulet, and then the unwelcome periodic appearances of the spectacularly unfunny vampire hunter, and then Tony's problems in communicating his amazing discoveries to his parents.

Occasionally, there's a flash of wit to suggest what would have gone right. The vampire dad says, "We need darkness, dampness and decay," and Tony, who misses Southern California, replies, "Then you need our cellar." There's a herd of flying vampire cows that caught my attention. And a scene set atop a giant blimp that sounds just the right James-and-the-Peachian notes. All the same, children over 12 may indeed find it babyish, and those under 12 may find it not babyish enough.

Parents need to know that The Little Vampire is a 2017 animated feature from Holland in which a tween boy from America befriends a tween vampire while visiting Transylvania with his family. There are some brief moments of peril: The dad of the American family loses control of the car and it falls off a cliff, vampire hunters chase vampires and attempt to chop them up with propellers. Some potty humor is involved -- flying cows defecate on a helicopter -- and "sucks" is used a couple times, and not in the context of what vampires do with blood. There's some slapstick cartoon violence involving the bad guys hitting each other and getting hit and falling over. But overall, most near-scares are counterbalanced with humor. The movie is based on the children's book series by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg.

In THE LITTLE VAMPIRE (aka The Little Vampire 3D), Tony Thompson (Amy Saville) is an American tween from San Diego on vacation in Transylvania with his family. Tony is obsessed with vampires and vampire stories. After the Thompsons stop for the night in an old castle, Tony gets more than he bargained for when he meets Rudolph (Rasmus Hardiker), a vampire who has just escaped his family to avoid the drudgery of celebrating his 13th birthday for the 300th time. An unlikely friendship develops between Rudy and Tony, and just in time, because Rookery (Jim Carter) and Maney, a pair of bumbling yet evil vampire hunters, want nothing more than to eradicate Rudy's family. Tony agrees to help Rudy save his family from the vampire hunters, but Rudy's family must find a way to get over their distrust of humans, especially when Tony's parents get involved. 041b061a72