The Little Vampire is excellently acted and great to look at. Stuart Little's Jonathan Lipnicki carries, on his pint-sized shoulders, his every scene as 8-year-old Tony, befriender of vampires, and the Scottish setting lends itself nicely to spookiness. But where this video earns most points is in the plot department. A continent away from his native California, Tony's having a tough time making new friends when a band of vagabond vampires enters his life through his bedroom window. The encounter seems pure coincidence at first, but then the scary truth surfaces: Tony, though he's not a vampire himself, has "sympathy for our kind," as the dad of the bat-linked brood puts it. Visions of vampire happenings from generations past invade the third-grader's consciousness, and they hold the key to the clan's current gypsy-like predicament. Through his clairvoyance and, by extension, the discovery of a long-lost amulet, the mostly benevolent bloodsuckers are able to reclaim their rightful status as proper cave dwellers in their homeland. Clueless-parent predicaments abound and are cleverer than most-Tony's mom and dad smirk at their son's vampire-obsessed imagination until the cape-draped heads of the clan drop by for a visit-and the gang's adventures eluding a bumbling vampire hunter are genuinely chuckleworthy. At-home Twizzler munchers ages 8 and older won't soon tire of this charmer of a Transylvanian transplant. -Tammy La Gorce.

Born to Be Wild has been dismissed more than once as a knockoff of Free Willy. Except for the teaming of a troubled kid and a large mammal in pursuit of the latter's freedom, that comparison is off the mark. Part screwball comedy and part animal-rights drama, the film stars Wil Horneff as Rick, a young, incorrigible teen whose mother (Helen Shaver), a primate researcher, enlists him to help care for a gorilla named Katie. Much to his surprise, Rick bonds with Katie, a lonely simian who yearns for the Africa of her youth and whose expressive range includes a fair amount of sign language. When Katie's coldhearted owner (Peter Boyle) decides to take her back and put her on display at a department store, Rick steals her away and stuffs her in a stolen van-which he then proceeds to drive to Canada hoping his girlfriend's uncle (John C. McGinley), a conspiracy nut, can lead this 800-pound gorilla to freedom. Rick's quixotic mission is not without funny mishaps and even some character-building challenges to the hero's conviction. (A rambunctious, often impolite girl like Katie is not the easiest travel companion. ) But the film's final arrival turns out to be much more than one might have expected: a moving testament to the joy and pain of accepting one's destiny. -Tom Keogh.

When a mistreated beagle pup follows 11-year-old Marty Preston (Blake Heron) home one day, it sparks a passion in the boy that leads him into a web of moral and emotional turmoil. Marty knows the dog belongs to his irascible neighbor, Judd Travers (a spittin' mean performance by Scott Wilson); he also knows Judd breaks local gaming laws and abuses his hounds. But Marty's father (Michael Moriarty) is a stickler for the first rule of pet ownership: he who owns the pet rules the pet. Marty seeks advice from the wise Doc Wallace (Rod Steiger), who tells the boy about his own struggle to claim legal guardianship over his granddaughter following her parents' death. The story inspires Marty to fight for the creature he has come to love. With a believable blend of nerve, conviction, and a hint of fear, Marty works every angle to beg, buy, or (finally) strike a trade with Travers to save Shiloh. While its pace runs a bit slow, the film provides a thoughtful lesson in weighing right and wrong and should appeal to families with children under 12. Based on the Newbery Award-winning book Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. -Liane Thomas.