Harry Potter didn’t just cast spells, he cast a long shadow, too. Whenever a book or a film (or in this case, both) is so wildly successful and popular, you’re going to get works by other creators that are inspired or influenced by it, or else are just surfing the same cultural wave. J.K. Rowling’s kid-lit phenomenon begat the Percy Jackson series, The Hunger Games, Mortal Engines and more, and it also gave us these two gems currently available at SBS On Demand: The Thief Lord (2006) and Wildwitch (2018).
The Thief Lord
Based on the 2000 novel by “Germany’s J.K. Rowling” Cornelia Funke (Inkheart), The Thief Lord invokes a lot of tropes familiar to anyone who has dipped their toe into modern children’s literature and film: orphaned heroes, hissable villains, and a world of hidden magic. In this case the setting isn’t somewhere fictional like Hogwarts or The Hunger Games’ Panem, but the city of Venice, which may as well be a fantasy city in any case.
It is there that our heroes, young Prosper (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and even younger Boniface (Jasper Harris) run away to after their parents die, escaping the clutches of their evil aunt and uncle (shades of Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events). There they fall in with the Thief Lord, Scipio (Rollo Weeks), a dashing young burglar and his gang of ragtag kiddie crooks, who live in an abandoned movie theatre by day and pull off daring heists by night. When Scipio and his crew (including a very young, pre-fame George MacKay) is contracted by greedy fence Ernesto Barbarossa (Alexei Sayle in full panto villain mode), Prosper and ‘Bo are along for the ride, even as a detective hired to find them (Jim Carter of Downtown Abbey) closes in.
George MacKay (Riccio) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Prosper) in ‘The Thief Lord’. Source: Warner Bros.
Modestly budgeted compared to the flood of YA blockbusters of the early 2000s, The Thief Lord is a charming, somewhat old-fashioned affair reminiscent of nothing so much as children’s fantasy adventure television of the ‘80s and early ‘90s – think Secret Valley, Spellbinders, or even Ship to Shore. Young kids and nostalgic parents will have a fine time in Funke’s fantastical Venice.
The Thief Lord is now streaming at SBS On Demand:
Wildwitch
The tween set, or those sprogs precocious enough to grapple with subtitles, can enjoy the Danish fantasy adventure Wildwitch (2018), or Vildheks, based on the 2010 novel by Lene Kaaberbøl. Our heroine is 12-year-old Clara (Gerda Lie Kaas), who discovers that her lifelong love of and affinity for animals is actually a sign that she’s a witch. Shipped off for training with her heretofore unknown aunt Isa (Sonja Richter) for training, she finds herself targeted by evil witch Chimera (May Lifschitz), who wants to use her blood in a ritual to take over the world, as the villains in these kinds of things tend to want to do.
Boiled down, Wildwitch is basically “What if Harry Potter was apprenticed to Radagast the Brown?” complete with a full suite of animal supporting players, a strong pro-ecology message, and even stronger cottagecore vibes (Aunt Isa’s animal-infested forest hut is a #lifestylegoal, even though cleaning must be a nightmare without a magic spell or three).
Both films bring an enjoyable eclectic continental tone to the children’s fantasy genre, which is often confined to a very British aesthetic, even when it’s drawing on more far-flung mythologies. Thief Lord’s Venetian crime capers and Wildwitch’s Euro-folk magic should be a nice change of pace for anyone getting a little full of boarding school dinners, and the pair will make for an enjoyable lockdown evening for the whole family.
Valla (Peder Holm Johansen) and Thuja (Kirsten Olesen) in ‘Wildwitch’. Source: Tine Harden
Gerda Lie Kaas as Clara in ‘Wildwitch’. Source: Distributor
Wildwitch is now streaming at SBS On Demand:
