Mystical, magical and completely enchanting, this epic tale in the tradition of the Harry Potter series brings the beloved characters of prize-winning novelist Cornelia Funke to dazzling life. After their mother dies, two boys flee their mean aunt and head for Venice, Italy, where they meet Scipio, the mysterious "Thief Lord." Along with a small band of abandoned kids who call an old movie theater home, the boys join Scipio's world of robbing the rich to support themselves. Soon, they win the heart of the detective hired to track them, and begin an adventure that leads them to an old merry-go-round believed to have special powers. Featuring Vanessa Redgrave and a captivating supporting cast, The Thief Lord will steal your heart from beginning to end.
The Thief Lord is a blend of Dickensian adventure and Harry Potter magic, an exciting adaptation of a popular novel by Cornelia Funke. A pair of orphaned and separated brothers, Prosper (Aaron Johnson) and Bo (Jasper Harris), escape their dreary homes in England and flee to Venice, Italy. On their first, frightening night there, they find sanctuary with the Thief Lord (Rollo Weeks), a masked, 16-year-old boy who gives them, along with a gaggle of other orphans, shelter in a shuttered movie theater. Living on the spoils of the Thief Lord's nightly raids of the rich, the kids become a happy, self-sufficient family that only has to stay out of the clutches of police and a nosy private detective (Jim Carter). But things change when a strange, elderly pair ask the kids to steal a strange object--a hunk of wood carved into the shape of a wing--for a lot of cash. What follows is completely unexpected, wildly imaginative, mysterious, and a lot of fun. The story has a way of sticking with one long after the film is over. With a cameo by Vanessa Redgrave, and loads of gorgeous exteriors of sunny Venice. Directed by Richard Claus, producer of The Little Vampire. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
It was okay:
Think Oliver Twist. It was good for a one time watch but we bought it and my kids would rather watch Harry Potter or really any of their other movies that are more compelling. Like I said this was good but you don't catch anything new, or laugh at a favorite joke with subsequent viewings.
Fantasy more for young adults than young children ..:
This is a wonderful book! Everyone should read it...You can really not imagine what will happen next or why. Children running away from a bad situation in Germany take themselves to a place their mother loved in her lifetime, Venice. They find other children who are surviving on their own, but not in the best of situations. Of course, there's a villian...and that strange carousel....but I'm getting ahead of the story.
It's a great read. Mystery Writer
The Thief Lord:
We all loved this film. It was a heart warming story of a rich boy who was ignored by his father who helped children who were poor and alone. I didn't like the fact that the children thought they were theives during the movie, but the ending changes this which is great.
The Thief Lord is fun!:
My Mother and I watched The Thief Lord together. She had not read the book and found the movie cute/entertaining. I have read the book but also found the movie cute and entertaining. I think it would be a hard book to make into a movie. While I missed some aspects of the book, I thought the actors and the director did a fine job fleshing out the heart of the story.
