Herr der Diebe

I just want to say that I adore The Thief Lord book and when I found out they made a movie from it, I almost fainted with joy. The story's about little Bo and his older brother Prosper. Their mother died and they are placed under the care of their Aunt Esther and her husband. Aunt Esther only wants Bo because of his angel face and plans to place Prosper in a boarding school (it's an orphanage in the movie). The siblings refuses to be separated and runs away to Venice. There they meet Scipio (aka Thief Lord) and he offers them Stella, an old rundown theatre, as a home. There they meet other orphans like them: Hornet, Riccio, and Mosca.

Bo and Prosper's aunt and uncle goes to Venice and hires a detective named Victor to find them, because they knew how much the boys love Venice, from the stories their mother told them. There's a souvenir shop owner by the name of Barbarosso and the orphans sell the treasures that Scipio steals to him. Barbarosso has a costumer that wants something precious stolen and the Thief Lord accepts the job. It's a wooden wing that belongs to the merry-go-around of the Merciful Sisters, claimed to do magical wonders. If I continue, I'll spoil the delightful surprises.

After seeing it, I was disappointed. What happened to the characters? Where's the sparkle? The characters seem shallow comparing to the ones in the book. The movie really did stick to the plot of the book but it seems they were so obsessed in keeping the story line just right that they forgot the characters. Plus, the English accent was so thick that I had a hard time understanding what they were saying.

There are wonderful scenes in the movie that really shone forth. I love how Bo and Prosper met Scipio, the camera following him crawling on rooftops. The awesome escape the gang made after Victor found them in the Square. Victor and his mustache collection that he keeps inside his jacket. The beautiful mask shop.

Maybe I'm just too faithful to the book. This movie will be great for those people who haven't read it yet.

After finishing reading the book, I heard about the movie coming out in 2006. Of course I didn't expect much, only because books being turned into movies turn out bad. But i have say, this movie was probably the best movie i have seen in many years. This movie just blew me, and not only me, but my family away. The film was amazingly detailed and explained the character very well. The effects for this movie were just magical. This film isn't the blockbuster of the year, but this movie did have amazing acting, the effects were really well done for a low-budget movie. And, the most important, it did stay very true to the book and left very little out. Looking back on some book/movies, they leave a lot out and some of the movies don't turn out that great for some people. But this movie left out very little, and a lot of people will be very pleased. The movie overall will get a 10/10 because Cornelia Funke is just an extremely amazing writer, and the movie was just so magical and exciting, all people of any age will love it. And don't forget to catch Cornelia's soon to be made into a movie, Inkheart.

'The Thief Lord' is an enchanting little film that will keep people of all ages occupied since it's executed in a manner that isn't too childish or sugary. Based on fantasy novel by Cornelia Funke, the film centres on fourteen-year-old Prosper and six-year-old Bo, orphaned brothers who face being split up by their cruel aunt and uncle who intend to dump the elder boy in a children's home while they adopt the younger child. The boys flee to Venice, a city their mother told them was magical, where they are befriended by the mysterious Thief Lord and his band of street waifs. Stealing to provide for themselves, the children's lives are about to take another extraordinary turn as the Thief Lord's secret is unravelled and they discover why Venice truly is a place veiled of magic.

The child cast in this film all give decent performances and manage to carry the film well, since it is very much a film that focuses on their characters. Rollo Weeks' Scipio is portrayed in a manner that shows him to be a less flashy, more troubled hero than Harry Potter of the films (an entirely different character to the Harry of the books). Aaron Johnson is perfect as Prosper, a young teenager caught between enjoying his own childhood and providing a parental figure to his brother while wee Jasper Harris was utterly adorable as Bo, proving that very young actors can still be talented. Their young co-stars of George MacKay, Lathaniel Dyer and Alice Connor are equally as effective in their roles. And the young cast are well-supported by their adult co-stars, particularly Jim Carter as the clumsy Victor and Alexei Sayle as the slimy Barbarossa.

As an adaptation, 'The Thief Lord' is quite loyal to the books with the characters and the main plot remaining largely unchanged. The story is depicted in a manner that is involving and will endear the audience to the young characters and the musical score fitted the mood of the film perfectly. However, there were a couple of flaws, such as the scenes towards the end with the new 'children' (I don't want to elaborate too much in deference to those who haven't seen the film) were a bit too slapstick and didn't suit the rest of the film while the new version of Scipio should probably have been played by someone else since it just looked like Rollo Weeks with a bit of make-up on. And perhaps it should have been established where Proper and Bo lived previously so the audience aren't left wondering why the citizens of Venice all speak with English accents.

That said, I found 'The Thief Lord' a charming film that should appeal to all ages of the family. It's a shame it's so underrated and received little acknowledgement in the UK since surely we should be supporting our talented home-grown young actors and be eager to show the world that British child acting doesn't begin and end with the Harry Potter cast.

I've always been a fan of the book, and I was thrilled to find out that a movie was being released. Last night as I had the movie in my hand and was putting it in my DVD player I thought "You know, this had better live up to my expectations or I'm going to be terribly disappointed."

I was not disappointed.

I'll have to say, my only tiny complaint is that Bo was a little /too/ cute, if you know what I mean. He was also not that great of an actor, but hey, he was a little kid.

Scipio. He was fantastic. Rollo Weeks, a relatively unknown actor, did a awesome job. I don't think anyone else could have done the part quite as well. I wasn't even bothered by the fact that his hair was shorter than in the book, I thought it fit perfectly. He was definitely my favorite character. I liked him much better than in the book. Rollo Weeks gave the character much more personality and I had more sympathy for him.

The other characters were also very well cast. Riccio was perfect, as was Mosca and Prosper.

The sets were beautiful, and the filming was done surprisingly well for a low-budget film.

I give it 10 stars. *********

Sometimes you just want to enjoy a movie and overlook some minor imperfections. You judge it by how you feel when the movie ends. A movie that the whole family can enjoy, sans profanity, nudity, complex themes or juxtaposed subplots.

Great music, a great story and well executed direction. This is one movie that will not disappoint you as long as you understand that it is a children's' movie with simple and easily understood dialog and story line. Surprisingly, the adults equally enjoyed the production.

The characters are very convincing and the script is believable. Overall a very positive experience.