The Little Vampire and Pal

Movies starring preteens, such as The Never Ending Story and Journey to the Beginning of Time, are a good place to find gay content.  Preteen boys aren't required to drool over girls quite as often as teenagers and adults, and the myth that there are no gay children -- gayness is something that happens to you as an adult -- means they aren't being patroled by the Thought Police quite as heavily. So same-sex romance can be displayed, as long as no one actually Says the Word.

In The Little Vampire (2000), an adaptation of the novel series by Angela Sommer-Bodenberg, Tony (9-year old Jonathan Lipnicki, left) moves from America to Scotland, and becomes involved with a boy vampire named Rudolph (13-year old Rollo Weeks, right).  They rather obviously fall in love, rescuing each other from danger over and over, and flying through the air holding hands in a scene reminiscent of Superman flying with Lois Lane in the 1978 movie.


Rudolph and his family (Mom, Dad, older brother, and sister) don't attack people -- they drink animal blood, not human blood.  They just want to live in peace, but they are always in hiding, from evil vampires, bigoted humans, and especially a vampire hunter named Rookery.

Everyone is looking for a mystical stone that can either destroy the vampires or turn them human. Tony finds it.  In a climactic battle, he turns them human to save them, but now they lost their memory and don't know who he is.  A tear trickles down Tony's cheek as he realizes that not even Rudolph knows him.

















But in the final scene, Tony whistles the mystical tune that the vampires taught him, and their memory is restored, and Tony and Rudolph, and their two families, can be together again.

This was not the only gay-friendly project of the two stars.  In 2006, Rollo Weeks starred in The Thief Lord, which also featured a strong same-sex romance.

Jonathan Lipnicki was a busy child star before The Little Vampire, with starring roles in Jerry Maguire (1996), The Jeff Foxworthy Show (1996-97) and Stuart Little (1999, 2002).  Recently he has been involved with independent films -- and bodybuilding.

I couldn't resist; most of these pictures are of the grown-up Jonathan rather than from the movie.

Jonathan is a strong supporter of gay rights. In 2011, he played in the STIKS Celebrity Video Game Challenge for Charity, representing the Trevor Project, a crisis intervention and suicide prevention hotline for LGBT and questioning youth.