The Little Vampire (2000)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The little Vampire
Original title The Little Vampire
Country of production Germany , Netherlands , USA
original language English
Publishing year 2000
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Uli Edel
script Karey Kirkpatrick ,
Larry Wilson ,
Angela Sommer-Bodenburg (novel)
production Richard Claus ,
Carsten HW Lorenz
music Nigel Clarke ,
Michael Csàny-Willis
camera Bernd Heinl
occupation

The family film The Little Vampire from 2000 is a co-production by Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. The literary film adaptation was based loosely on the Little Vampire books by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg . The film was awarded the title “particularly valuable”.

action

Nine year old Tony Thompson has to move with his parents from the American city of San Diego to a small Scottish village. Since his arrival in Scotland, Tony has been plagued by nightmares: almost every night he dreams of a vampire gathering where an amulet with a gemstone plays a major role. And Tony also dreams of a cruel vampire hunter who blows up this gathering and makes sure that the vampires lose the gem. The gem falls from a cliff and a vampire jumps after it - and this is exactly where Tony wakes up again and again.

Because Tony openly talks about his vampire dreams, he doesn't find any friends in his new school. Tony's father Bob works for the Scottish Lord McAshton and is supposed to build a new golf course for him on his property. McAshton's grandsons beat up Tony every day and regularly come up with new humiliations for the unpopular Tony.

One night when his parents are at a McAshton party, a bat gets lost in Tony's room. This turns out to be Rüdiger von Schlotterstein, who became a vampire over 300 years ago at the age of nine and is on the run from the vampire hunter Geiermeier. Rüdiger initially thinks Tony is a vampire because he disguised himself as a vampire for fun in order to scare his nanny. But when Rüdiger realizes that Tony is only a mortal, he wants to get out of his room again. But he is too weak for that and he falls out the window. Tony then helps Rüdiger to find a cow, as Rüdiger told Tony that vampires had long since switched to the blood of cows. So this vampire doesn't find it so terrible anymore and the two become friends. While Rüdiger is still in the cowshed, Tony goes outside and almost falls into the clutches of the vampire hunter Geiermeier, who followed them. Rüdiger can just save Tony and that is where their real friendship begins. Since Geiermeier is on the trail dangerously close, Rüdiger finally sleeps in Tony's nursery. Rüdiger uses a large toy chest as a coffin set and hiding place.

One evening later, in the cemetery, Rüdiger finally tells Tony about a vampire meeting that took place 300 years ago: At that time, the vampires lost a gem that could save them and make them mortals again. Tony recognizes his own dream in this story and decides to help Rüdiger and his family. The vampire hunter Geiermeier turns out to be a descendant of the vampire hunter who then dissolved the gathering. There the two meet Rüdiger's family. At first, she is not so enthusiastic that her son is now dating a mortal, the exception, however, is Rüdiger's sister Anna: She immediately falls in love with Tony. And when Tony saves the entire von Schlotterstein family from the fanatical Geiermeier, they take him on as an honorary member of their family. On the way home, Tony Rüdiger tells the story of his suffering that he has been going through since his arrival in Scotland. So they both decide to visit the young Lords McAshtons. In their children's room, Rüdiger threatens them and forces them to promise to recognize Tony as their master and to serve him. After Tony and Rüdiger's father Ludwig had a common vision the next evening in the crypt , in which a Scottish coat of arms appears, Tony offers to find out more about this coat of arms. At the McAshtons, Tony found out by chance that Rüdiger's uncle Wenzel, who had tried to save the gem at the time, had been thrown to the Scottish coast. And there he had turned a young noblewoman, Lady Elisabeth McAshton, into a vampire, who finally turns out to be an ancestor of the current Lord McAshton. Tony ends up hiding the vampire family in the basement of his house because the cemetery and the crypt have become too unsafe. Anna comes to Tony's room just before sunrise and gives him a magical dead mouse: If Tony ever gets into trouble, he just has to whistle and she will help him.

Geiermeier and Lord McAshton are also looking for the grave of Lady Elisabeth, and Tony follows them both. In the McAshton's crypt, Tony stupidly falls into the hands of both of them, who now lock him in the crypt. In his fear, Tony whistles Anna's tune. This call for help reaches Anna in Anton's cellar. Despite the bright sunshine, the vampire siblings go to Tony and promptly run into Tony's father. But the two disguised vampire children can deceive Tony's father by pretending to be Tony and Rüdiger. In the crypt, the friends discover a secret passage and finally also the grave of the vampire Elisabeth, who has since been staked. When Tony touches the countess's corpse, he has the decisive vision: the gemstone he is looking for is in his bedroom. He also tells his two vampire friends, who have no idea that Geiermeier is overhearing them in the meantime.

Tony and Rüdiger are now trying to find the gemstone, while Anna goes to the cliffs, where her brother Lumpi has meanwhile started the call.

Rüdiger's parents also set out when they see Tony's parents worry that he hasn't come home yet: They ring the doorbell and invite Tony's parents, Bob and Helga, to look at the comet with them.

In the meantime, Rüdiger and Tony have also arrived home, where they find the gemstone in Tony's room after a short search and are surprised by Geiermeier. He kidnaps Tony and Rüdiger starts his rescue operation a little later. In the meantime, Tony has succeeded in exchanging the gem for the dead mouse (which Anna gave him) and finally flies to the cliffs with Rüdiger. But during the meeting Geiermeier can disturb the vampires again and almost dissolve them, when he starts a scuffle with Ludwig and Tony's parents, Geiermeier is terribly beaten by Tony's parents. In the scuffle, the gem threatens to be lost again, but Tony can just catch it: Instead of the vampires, he now wants the mortality of the undead and these dissolve in the fog.

A few weeks later, Tony and his parents are in the market. Then he sees that an old empty house is being moved into and can hardly believe his eyes: Rüdiger and Anna are standing in front of the driveway, who are now mortal again. He runs towards them happily, but they do not recognize him; then Tony begins to whistle softly and slowly the memories of the former vampire children return. A little later, Ludwig and Hildegard join in, whom Tony and his parents recognize immediately.

Reviews

Roger Ebert complained on “rogerebert.com” that the film contained too many storylines. On the one hand the vampires who want to become human again, then Tony who feels misunderstood by his fellow human beings because he likes vampires. In addition, a love story between Tony and Anna, as well as Geiermeier, who chases the vampires. Roger Moore [not the actor] said in the Orlando Sentinel that The Little Vampire is a surprisingly nice movie and when can you say this about a vampire movie? Brian Mc Tavish criticized Lipnicki's acting performance in the Kansas City Star, and John R. McEven underlined this by arguing that Lipnicki could make cute faces but show no emotion.

In the German reviews, the Film Service wrote in No. 20 (2000) that the film was staged cautiously in a child-friendly manner and offered humorous, gruesome family entertainment. Gudrun Lukasz-Aden said in the children's and youth film Korrespondenz 4 (2000) The Little Vampire is a plea for tolerance and offers a mixture of tension, adventure, fantasy and reality.

Awards

In 2001 the film won the German Film Prize in the category of best children's film . Moreover, it was Jonathan Lipnicki for the role of Tony Thompson as the best young actor for a Saturn Award nomination. Lipnicki also received a nomination for the Young Artist Award together with Rollo Weeks as the best young supporting actor in a feature film .

Voice actor

The German version was edited by Interopa Film with script and dubbing by Frank Schaff .

role actor German dubbing voice
Ludwig Richard E. Grant Bernd Rumpf
Hildegard Alice Krige Heike Schroetter
Rudiger Rollo Weeks Constantin von Jascheroff
Anna Anna Popplewell Marie-Luise Schramm
Lumpi Dean Cook David Turba
Geiermeier Jim Carter Engelbert von Nordhausen
Tony Jonathan Lipnicki Filipe Pirl
Helga Pamela Gidley Susanna Bonaséwicz
bob Tommy Hinkley Uwe Büschken
Lord McAshton John Wood Lothar Blumhagen
Farmer Jake D'Arcy Hans Nitschke
Nigel Iain De Caestecker Benjamin Babies
Flint Scott Fletcher Tim Höregott
Teacher Johnny Meres Ernst Meincke
Babysitter Lorna Georgie Glen Sonja German
Cemetery keeper Harry Jones Klaus Jepsen

Remarks

This film was based on the novel of the same name by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg . The first novel The Little Vampire appeared in 1979 and was very successful. The author then wrote continuations of the story, so that by 2015 21 volumes had appeared.

The Little Vampire has already been implemented several times in various media. In addition to the books and this film, a Canadian-German television series with Gert Fröbe as Geiermeier was created in 1986 . The act was continued in a German television series in 1993 . Radio plays and audio books were also published. The Little Vampire was also implemented as a play and musical . The cinema version was released on DVD in Germany on March 29, 2001 .

Web links