User reviews

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.

Cornelia Funke's novel has been turned into a very good "family" film. How I hate to use that term but unfortunately its true. This is the story of a couple of orphans who high tail it to Venice in search of the magic that their mother always spoke about. Their they fall in with the "Thief Lord" and his band of orphans who steal in order to survive.

This is a really good movie. I really do like it a great deal. The film is well acted by all concerned. It has great effects and is extremely well made in pretty much every area. And that is what was wrong with the film, it looks too good. Everything is picture perfect and neat. I don't think I've ever seen a film where Venice ever looked this neat and clean. It takes the film out of being very real to being a a bit of lets put on a show. Its a grand and very enjoyable show, but its a show who's technical excellence keeps you at arms distance. Maybe its just a bit of disappointment on my part, I wanted to fall into this film and enjoy it from on the inside, instead I was forced to see it through a looking glass of picture perfect perfection.

Still see this movie. If you have kids sit them down and show them this movie, it will keep everyone entertained. Its a film that people should be seeing and talking about since its too good to have get lost and disappear.

7.5 out of 10.

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.

I was expecting it to be either really good, or really bad, but it wasn't actually either. It was just...good. I really liked it, but it's not going to be one of my favorites or anything. The actors were WONDERFUL, but the movie seemed kind of rushed. Many of the best parts in the book were barely seen in the movie, and the whole thing would have been very confusing if I hadn't read the book. They didn't describe many of the facts well, but because I had read it, I knew what was going on. It was pretty faithful to the book (compared to things like Harry Potter and LotR) and was overall very enjoyable. The main thing it was missing was Cornelia Funke's wonderful writing style, but...well...it's a movie. It's probably as good as it could have been. :) Overall, 7.5 stars. I recommend this movie to everyone of all ages, even if you don't like fantasy stories like Harry Potter, but only as long as you read the best-selling book first.

'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.

When I was about 9 or 10, I read the book. I loved it, and it deepened my love for the city of Venice. The movie is about two boys, Pop and Bo, who get separated when their mother dies: 6 year old Bo has to live with his terrible aunt and uncle, 15 year old Pop ends up in an orphanage. The decide to run away to Venice, a city their mother had always loved. Without money or home, they meet the 16 year old Lord of the Thiefs and get to live with him and his gang of orphans, and get a dangerous mission to steal a wooden wing...

The actors were well chosen and played even due to their young age very well, the pictures of Venice are beautiful and the music was thoroughly fitting. Only 9 stars, because notable changes were made from the book, though it wasn't too tragic.

This film was so good on so many levels. Attractive actors (almost a redundancy) useful plot, wonderful photography and setting, exciting chase sequences, hissable villains. The one aspect of it which I found troubling I also found in an otherwise fine film 'Catch Me If You Can.' This is the idea that robbery is an acceptable activity if the need is great enough. This aberration creates a slippery slope toward the concept that robbing the rich/giving to the poor 'Robin Hood' behavior is OK, and even further that robbery/burglary is acceptable. Why is that? It seems in 'Catch Me' to be a plot vehicle where daddy needed an operation. In 'Thief Lord' like 'Peter Pan' it was because all the grownups were evil, selfish, wicked, bad, corrupt, unworthy, uncaring or otherwise negative. I suppose as a plot vehicle it works, but there should be a black label on the jacket warning parents that the premise of the movie is anti-social. With that proviso give it 6/10.

The Thief Lord was released in my country a couple of months ago and for some reason this movie almost immediately caught my attention. A German family adventure/fantasy movie with English language and with English actors – all of that seemed quite unusual and therefore interesting to me. At the same time I never heard of Cornelia Funke's novel of the same name so I didn't know exactly what to expect from the movie.

I watched Thief Lord today and actually I liked it. It was really fascinating to see something fresh and different from typical and often annoying Hollywood family stuff. For young ones Thief Lord is an enjoyable family adventure with talented young cast against the background of one of the most beautiful cities in the whole world, Venice. For grown-ups besides that it's a story of bitter loneliness and sometimes misunderstanding which unite most of the characters. Two brothers, fifteen years old Prosper and much younger Bo, after death of their parents are separated. The younger goes to the old childless relatives and Prosper has been sent to an orphanage. But brothers can't live without each other and for six years old Bo Prosper is the only person who cares about him and loves him so much. Desperate, they run away. They have nowhere to go in the whole world and they are heading to Venice, the city that their mother loved so much. But the city is not welcome to runaways with no money and only unexpected help of a mysterious boy, who called himself Thief Lord and saves them from more troubles. Bo and Prosper join him and his team of orphans who find a refuge in a deserted movie theater. Soon our heroes learn that ancient city is full of surprises and what's is more that some strange magical things can happen there. They become involved into rather unexpected events and lives of different characters collide in Venice. We meet a lonely wife and husband, who also heading to Venice, trying to find a runaway child, who was merely a way to suppress their own loneliness, a lonely detective, who was hired to find Bo and some other characters. However, finally for many of our heroes resolution salvation of their personal problems will come in a rather unexpected way for each other.

But the loneliest and most suffering from that is mysterious Thief Lord himself who is trying to keep his secrets inside of him. This key character is playing by Rollo Weeks, who looks very good in his rather complicated part. Both Aaron Johnson (Prosper) and Jasper Harris also left very positive impression from their acting, self-reliance and naturalness. Despite rather short running time of the movie the development of most main characters is not bad. We know enough about them to feel sympathy or antipathy to them and we are not indifferent to them, which is very important for such a story. The acting among adult cast was also not bad with most memorable and likable performance from Jim Carter as Victor.

Thief Lord in the beginning the movie is fast paced and probably a little too short but mostly it's exciting well-filmed film with interesting and original story. The soundtrack one it's own looked very good and it's a very good addition to visual part even if sometimes the music is abstracted from what we saw on screen. And let me to say that visuals for such low-budgeted production were also not too bad. If you are looking for a good non-American family adventure film on English language as an alternative for Hollywood production featuring talented cast, probably you would be unable to find better choice than Thief Lord. Also it's worth to notice that the movie mostly successfully avoids typical and clichéd for American family films crude humor and language.

I know possibly I'm too generous and surely Thief Lord is not a flawless masterpiece but I rated it 9 out of 10. Unfortunately such enjoyable and beautifully shot family movies so rarely appear in our movie theaters or video stores.

And the last one thing that I almost forgot to mention. The title song "Orphan skies" is pretty cool and I liked it very much.

Do we rate movies like we do commercials? Then a young pup nibbling on the leg of a teenage stunner should be rated 11!

Anyway, this movie is not bad, but it's not very good either. It's average for its time, budget and genre. It is basically a children's story, with pretty good acting and casting, but with bad directing and scripting. Someone probably took a children's book and adapted it, then left the film to the actors.

Conclusion: if you are looking for a nostalgic reminder of a childhood movie, then watch it. Else you will just get bored by an outdated and pretty pointless film. I am not against these kind of movies, but I've seen movies with children and for children that were way better and impressive.

I disliked the movie. It was action-driven and not character driven, yet there is not so much action that this worked for this movie. I found it boring. The characters were not developed well, which was disappointing as they are so dynamic in the book, and also is disappointing from a movie perspective, because people like to have characters that they can connect to. A pet peeve I have is how they immediately reveal Scipio, while in the book he is a bit more of a mystery, always wearing his mask and dissapearing at night. Another problem, this time technical, was the sound editing was bad; it was not balanced. I had to constantly adjust the volume, and I know it is not just my TV/DVD player. The kids were cute. Too bad the movie was not well done.

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.

An uninspired adaptation of a popular YA novel that never really gets going and does a poor job of mixing the fantastic plot elements with the more realistic moments. Nice Venice locations, though.

Excellent! The book was spectacular as well as the movie! I recommend this to everyone. It comes out on DVD on March 14, 2006. You should most definitely watch it!Cornelia Funke did a wonderful job thinking up such a story. This has a spectacular cast. Rollo Weeks is, in my opinion, the ONLY choice for Scipio aka The Thief Lord.The plot is that with a surprise ending. My favorite character is Scipio. This movie is perfect for males and females of all ages. It was originally made in English but was dubbed for German theaters. So, every one who speaks English, don't worry! You can still see this wonderful movie!If you see it and just love it(which I know you will) you should recommend it to all your friends!

Cornelia Funke is my favourite author, due to her natural characters, rich imagination & the vivid scenes she paints. (In the imagination.) Yet I had no idea The Thief Lord was being made & only discovered by chance that it was on release. Very minimal publicity indeed compared to the over-hyped Harry Potter films. As a fan I wondered if it had suffered under the film-makers' knife. Whether it had been drastically altered. Well, there is occasional alteration & several scenes cut, but otherwise one of the more faithful adaptations. I was impressed by Scipio in particular, but I thought everyone was good. The adults were a little OTT, but not bad. Archers fans will recognise the distinctive voice of "Lynda Snell" (Carol Boyd) as the aunt. The score is dramatic & the effects wondrous. I'd rather see this than Harry Potter any day. Thief Lord has genuine heart & doesn't rely on constant flash & show. It's real storytelling for a change. It's just a shame it will be lost beneath the heavyweights of X3 & The Wild. 9/10

This movie is a surprise, much more entertaining than many of the kids movie I have seen in quite sometime. Though the morale movie won't teach the kid anything good but the movie is quite impressive.

Synopsis: After their parent pass away Bo was adopted by relative while Prosper was send to orphanage. With the dream of fantastical adventure that they late mother always talk about, the two run away to Venice and befriend with The Thief Lord.

Everything about this film is quite impressive actually. The story that been transform into the great screenplay and what I like the most was the characters development, despite having five main characters, there is a great balance between them. Though the story is a little bit slow and quite brief at the end I don't really mind it.

The casting of the kids are brilliant. They all work out really well and are adorable together. And though their acting is not the top but convincing enough. The locations of Venice add an extra freshness to the movie and also the score is not bad at all, fit really well with the style of the film.

Overall the film is really well done and I would my recommended to the kids to watch it. It is a definite fun for the whole family.

Reason To Watch: The Kids, Brilliant Solid Story.

Reason Not To: Dislike of Kids Movie.

Rating: 8/10 (Grade: A-).

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I loved it! It's like, reality with the magic and fantasy of a merry-go-round PLUS all the magic of Venice! Rollo Weeks is a great (and hot) Scipio/ Thief Lord and Aaron Johnson is a perfect Prosper. Alice Something {oops forgotten the surname} did a great job as Hornet and so did the guy who played Victor. I liked the movie a lot 'cos I can really feel the magic and the excitement during the whole movie! The whole feeling was great because I could feel that, when the characters were mad, I could understand why and, strangely, I felt mad with them! This movie is such a delight, I feel like I could watch it for hours! If you need a break from Harry Potter, The Thief Lord is the right movie. In Harry Potter, the magic is obvious {they're wizards and witches!} but in The Thief Lord, the magic is very subtle and you can only really feel it during the end. But the feeling of magic and excitement is scattered throughout the whole movie!

I first fell in love with "The Thief Lord" when I read the book when it came out in 2000. It immediately became an instant favorite of mine. I've reread the book numerous times but I never thought there would be a movie to go along with it. Then as I was browsing around my local video store I discovered "The Thief Lord" and rented it. It was better than I ever could have imagined. The movie captured all the magic and the mystery of the book and even brought it to life in a way I never could've thought. Rollo Weeks played Scipio perfectly. I can imagine no one else for the role. All in all I would recommend this movie to anyone looking for magic, mystery and an all around good time.

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. *********