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The Little Vampire

You have to feel sorry for vampires. Ever since that nasty Bram Stoker injected blood into the literary veins of Dracula, the creatures of the night have been portrayed as sadistic and emotionless demons, silently stalking human prey (buxom wenches preferred, but anything with a pulse will suffice) and gorging themselves on our blood, our very lifeforce. So it's completely understandable that when nine-year-old Tony Thompson (Jonathan Lipnicki) comes face-to-face with a real live vampire, who happens to fly through his bedroom window in bat form and crash-land in his fireplace, his first impulse is to run screaming in the other direction. Tony has just moved from San Diego to a remote corner of the Scotland highlands with his mother Dottie (Pamela Gidley) and father Bob (Tommy Hinkley), who has secured a lucrative job supervising the opening of a new resort and golf complex for local squire, Lord McAshton (John Wood). Being nine-years-old is tough at the best of times, even more so in a foreign country where they speak funny. The kids bully Tony mercilessly at school, he has no friends of his own age, and his parents are too busy trying to establish themselves in the community to notice how deeply unhappy and lonely he is. The intrusion of this fanged fiend is the last thing he needs right now. Luckily for Tony, the vampire in question is Rudolph (Rollo Weeks), a good and friendly soul belonging to a long line of nocturnal wanderers who only drink the blood of cows. Rudolph and his family are desperately searching for a legendary ruby amulet, lost many centuries ago, which can help them regain their mortality. But only if they find the stone before the comet Attamon crosses moon, a spectacular celestial event which takes place every 300 years. In a stranger twist of fate, Tony has been having strange dreams about the amulet and knows that the stone is located somewhere within Lord McAshton's castle. Sensitive to Rudolph's plight, Tony vows to help and the two boys embark on an exciting mission to find and retrieve the missing gem, accompanied by Rudolph's sister Anna (Anna Popplewell) and rebellious elder brother Gregory (Dean Cook). Danger looms large, however, in the form of tenacious vampire hunter Rookery (Jim Carter) who has tracked the Rudolph and co to the area with his antiquated home-made detection system, and plans to stake the whole family at the first available opportunity. While Rudolph's adoring parents Frederick (Richard E Grant) and Freda (Alice Krige) join the other vampires at the sacred ceremonial ground overlooking the sea to wait for the passing of the comet, Tony and Rudolph do battle with Rookery for possession of the amulet. Based on the bestselling children's book by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg, The Little Vampire is a charming family film with plenty of gentle thrills and spills for younger audiences: flying vampire cows, several close scrapes with Rookery and an tense, edge-of-seat finale. The film transposes the roles of heroes and villains, placing the audience's affections and sympathy firmly on the side of the vampires. Rudolph and his kin do nothing to threaten the humans in the community (the cattle might have cause for complaint though), yet they are persecuted mercilessly by Rookery and the scheming Lord McAshton. Amidst the action and horror, there is plenty of humour too, such as Tony getting sweet revenge on Lord McAshton's obnoxious grandsons who have been teasing him at school, or a farmer's look at disbelief when his whole herd comes down with a nasty case of Vlad Cow Disease. Pint-sized Lipnicki, who played the cute card so well in Jerry Maguire and Stuart Little, gets top billing but his performance is ever slightly flat. Quips and one-liners which should be spontaneous and, most importantly, funny have almost no spark at all. By comparison, relative newcomer Weeks is an absolute delight, bringing out the warmth in his juvenile bloodsucker, learning the true value of friendship, even with a mortal - his supposed sworn enemy.