The Little Vampire is an adorable film. It might be for kids, but I’m an adult an I still love this movie. It’s brilliant, and it’s one of the few kid-friendly vampires. It even has vampire cows! Some of the movie is a little ridiculous, like the explanation of how the vampires can magically become human again. Most of it is pretty spectacular, albeit a little fantastical. But hey, we’re talking about mythical creatures here.
I didn’t know this when I first watched the movie, but it is based on a book called Der kleine Vampir. It was written by German author Angela Sommer-Bodenburg in 1979. There’s a whole children’s series of The Little Vampire and his adventures.
The movie, though, tells the story of a little boy named Tony Thompson. He’s human, and he meets a little boy named Rudolph Sackville-Bagg who happens to be a vampire. Rudolph is one of a handful of famous vampire children. Rudolph, fortunately for Tony, is a “vegetarian” vampire. Or at least, he only feeds on cows, as does the rest of his vampire family, or clan. Hence, the creation of the vampire cows.
And while this movie is aimed at children, it brings up some of the main vampire themes.
“I want to be a vampire too,” Tony says to his newfound vampire friend. And being a vampire does seem pretty sweet to a little kid, I’m sure. No bedtime, lots of adventures, and you can fly!
But Rudolph replies to Tony’s query with, “No. You don’t know what that means. No blues skies, Tony. No birds singing. No flowers in the sunlight. Just this constant night.”
Ah, the loneliness of being a vampire. But, it’s so true. Who wants constant night? Who wants the eternal darkness? Sure, you get to live forever. But what do you live for, when all you have is darkness and decay?
Anyway, I still wish I had a vampire hero for a best friend when I was a child.
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