LEAPIN' LEPRECHAUNS! 2
USA. 1995. Director - Ted Nicolaou, Screenplay - Nicolaou & Patrick Clifton, Idea - Charles Band, Producers - Oana & Vlad Paunescu, Photography - Adolfo Bartoli, Music - Richard Kosinski & William Levine, Visual Effects - AlchemyFX (Supervisor - Jim Aupperle), Mechanical Effects Supervisor - John `Teenie' Deall, Leprechaun Effects - Mark Rappaport, Makeup Effects - Michael S. Deak, Production Design - Radu Corciova. Production Company - Moonbeam Entertainment. Gregory Edward Smith (Mikey Dennehy), Madeleine Potter (Morgan de la Fey/Queen Nuala), Godfrey James (King Kevin), Tina Martin (Queen Maeve), John Bluthal (Michael Dennehy), Sylvester McCoy (Flynn), James Ellis (Patrick)
Plot: Young Mikey Dennehy goes to visit his grandfather in Ireland. There they meet their new neighbour, the charming Morgan de la Fey. But Morgan is really Nuala, queen of the underworld, and places an enchantment on Kevin, king of the leprechauns, that makes him fall completely in love with her and addles his wits so that she is able to capture all the leprechauns to take as a sacrifice to Finvara, lord of the underworld.
Charles Band, either under his Empire Productions banner during the 1980s or under the Full Moon Entertainment and its' children's films subsidiary label Moonbeam Productions during the 1990s, has been one of the most prolific producers of B-budget direct-to-video films, having produced efforts like the `Ghoulies', the `Puppetmaster', the `Trancers', the `Prehysteria!' and the `Subspecies' films to name but a handful. One of Band's most regular directors has been Ted Nicolaou, who originally began as one of Band's editors. While Nicolaou has been responsible for some of the undeniable dross that Band regularly puts out - `TerrorVision' (1986) and the disappointing `Subspecies' trilogy - Nicolaou has also made several of Band's better films under the Moonbeam label. Nicolaou's `Dragonworld' (1994) was one film that had clearly been made with a good deal more care and feeling than most of Moonbeam's product, and Nicolaou was also responsible for the mind-spinningly surreal `Magic in the Mirror' (1996).
Band and Nicolaou's `Leapin' Leprechauns' (1994) was undeniably stolen in sizeable part from Disney's minor live-action masterpiece `Darby O'Gill and the Little People' (1959). Nevertheless it was a light knockabout children's film which derived some entertainment value from the comic antics of several invisible, mischievous leprechauns being let loose in an average American household. This sequel however is actually a better film than its predecessor. The first `Leapin' Leprechauns' ended on a surprisingly dark climax (almost stolen direct from `Darby O'Gill') with the characters having to battle Finvara, lord of the underworld, and racing against the arrival of the dark horse of death. That tone has been extended in `Leapin' Leprechauns! 2'. It abandons the light and frivolous slapstick tone of the first film and concentrates on a much stronger plot involving the witch's attempt to enchant the leprechauns and the young kid and his grandfather from the first film. It works as a much more vivid story - while it is essentially just a children's film, it is conducted with some feeling and depth - and the ending on an entrance into the underworld achieves something quite mythic and resonant. Madeleine Potter plays with some quite effective charms, and is balanced out by a return performance of wry blarney likeability from John Bluthal and the endearingly comic blatherings of John Godfrey again as Kevin, the leprechaun king.
Copyright Richard Scheib 1998
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