Will anyone want to watch a little boy dreaming about being a vampire? If the popular childrens novel series with the same name has anything to say about it, they will.

Jerry Maguire's Jonathan Lipnicki stars as Tony Thompson who has moved to Scotland with his parents. As Tony settles in for one of the first nights in his new home he dreams a scary nightmare. In the nightmare he witnesses a vampire clan losing a fabled jewel that they covet. Obsessed with how cool the vampires in his dream were, Tony creates some paper fangs and scares his nanny.

During that night, a young vampire named Rudolph mistakes Tony as a real vampire and seeks refuge in his house. Rudolph becomes Tony's friend claiming it had been centuries since he had played with a boy his physical age. Rudolph asks Tony about one of his drawings and Tony tells Rudolph of his dream. Rudolph tells Tony that the dream was real and he needed to know where the amulet is. Tony decides to help Rudolph on his quest to find the mystic amulet. Tony soon finds out that if the clan reclaims the amulet they could regain their humanity. Will a mortal boy and young bloodsucker actually save the vampire clan?

"Little Vampire" is one of those kinds of films that can take a while to get started. Through the first 30 minutes I had a hard time with Hollywood turning the idea of vampires into material for children. When Tony is introduced to what the vampires actually feast on, the movie takes a turn for the better. I can sum up this turn in two words, "the cows". These cows are hilarious and add a little magic to the story. The actual back story involving the vampires and the visions surrounding the amulet may scare younger children but could delight some pre-teens. I liked that this film tried to incorporate an intelligent enough story to appeal to an adult audience. This kind of thing has really been felt and experienced in other children's films like "Stuart Little" and "Toy Story".

My reluctance in highly recommending this may lie in the character of the Vampire Hunter. He was too corny and I really never liked him. This corny and often stupid character would have served the movie better if he wasn't so prominent. I think the film would have encompassed a more family atmosphere if little Tony had maybe seen the two sides of a vampire clan, one evil and one good. It would have been neat to see the kid see that not all vampires are so nice. This idea was seen a little bit in Rudolph's dad, played by the always interesting Richard E Grant, but it never reached the necessary plateau.

(3 of 5) So Says the Soothsayer.