Shout! Factory
Release Date: Oct 5, 2021
Available to order on Amazon USA
Arriving just in time onto home video for the Halloween season is Joann Sfar‘s Little Vampire! This story about family and friendship has a lot to like, and it can make for a nice way to end Oct 31st with.
The messages imbued into the tale is heartfelt. This latest adaptation of Angela Sommer-Bodenburg’s books of the same name goes in an entirely different direction. The animator makes it his own! I wrote a full review when it played during Fantasia Film Fest 2021. This French cartoonist turned his television series into a much more engaging film and I finally got to compare the graphic novel to this film. The story is an expansion of the first chapter in the USA release of the trade paperback, and I searched far and wide to see if the rest of his series exist translated. Alas, this volume is it.
The home video release doesn’t offer any extras. A 5.1 and 2.1 DTS English and French audio track is included, and it’s interesting to compare performance styles. For consistency, the subtitle track is exactly the same as the English track. I recall finding minor differences with the European home video release; the translation there was closer to the original screenplay.
The surround mix makes watching this film more of a thrill. Streaming is often limited to stereo to conserve bandwidth, and to hear the subwoofer roar to life in the few scary sequences made rewatching this work immersive. The Blu-ray visual presentation is vibrant. Even on an upscaling player or tv, the image is solid. Just when I thought I can’t get enough of the Little Vampire’s adventures after watching this film again, I’ll have to navigate through Amazon France’s webpage just to get the other books to fill my collection. It’s a good thing my high school French isn’t entirely forgotten as much of this IP is written for young children in mind.
Plot Synopsis:
Little Vampire has been 10 years old for the last 300 years. Despite living in a haunted house with a merry group of monsters, he is bored to death. His dream? Going to school to meet other kids. Unfortunately, his parents won’t let him leave the mansion, because they believe the outside world is way too dangerous! Accompanied by his trusted bulldog Phantomato, Little Vampire secretly sneaks out on a quest for new friends. He will soon meet a human boy, Michael, but their friendship will catch the attention of the terrifying Gibbus, an old enemy that has been chasing Little Vampire and his family for centuries…
