The Little Vampire [DVD]

Fresh from Stuart Little, young Jonathan Lipnicki carries on his pint-sized shoulders his every scene in The Little Vampire as eight-year-old Tony, befriender of vampires. The Scottish setting lends itself nicely to spookiness, too. A continent away from his native California, Tony's having a tough time making new friends when a band of vagabond vampires enters his life through his bedroom window. The encounter seems pure coincidence at first, but then the scary truth surfaces: Tony, though he's not a vampire himself, has "sympathy for our kind", as the dad of the bat-linked brood puts it. Visions of vampire happenings from generations past invade the kid's consciousness, and they hold the key to the clan's current gypsy-like predicament. Through his clairvoyance and, by extension, the discovery of a long-lost amulet, the mostly benevolent bloodsuckers are able to reclaim their rightful status as proper cave-dwellers in their homeland. Clueless-parent predicaments abound--Tony's mum and dad smirk at their son's vampire-obsessed imagination until the cape-draped heads of the clan drop by for a visit--and viewers of around Tony's age will find the gang's adventures eluding a bumbling vampire hunter genuinely chuckle worthy. --Tammy La Gorce