Director: Tim Trageser
Release date: 2020
Contains spoilers
With its original German title of Die Wolf-Gäng I was (and still am) going to wax lyrical about how this is (in essence) a Harry Potter clone. However, when I opened up the IMDb page, I was shocked to see it is actually based on a Young Adult Book series by Wolfgang Hohlbein. I can’t say how accurate this is to the book, but if it is accurate then it is the book series that is the Potter clone.
It starts with a bit of a background that suggests that the world was once ruled by creatures of the night but, as centuries passed, they became good and there was peace between them and humans with the night creatures eventually living among us in secret.
There are, however, still places where the night creatures live openly, hidden towns often sheltered behind magical forests. It is to one of these places that the young vampire Vlad Tepes (Aaron Kissiov) is moving to with his father Barnabas (Rick Kavanian) – a pair of vampires, moving as Vlad has been invited to join a magical school there. So, whilst not an orphan (totally, his mother is dead), he is a young teen moving to a magical school by invitation a bit like a certain wizard, Harry.
They are stopped on the bridge into town by a troll (Waldemar Kobus), who is the town gatekeeper and who reads out a prophecy to Vlad that suggests that he will meet friends, become a trio of companions and save the world (to us, at least, it makes no sense to Vlad). When they get into town a crystal pendant Vlad wears (bequeathed by his mother) glows and a modern bike becomes a penny farthing and a policeman’s hat becomes an old-fashioned helmet. Vlad doesn’t realise the connection with his pendent.
That first night his father is visited and charged taxes that he cannot yet afford and has to go to the town hall to protest, in the morning. The mayor offers him the opportunity to sell Vlad’s pendant to stave off the debt (refused as it isn’t the father’s to sell). Meanwhile Vlad goes to school and there is a ceremony which reveals the new children’s true faces (for instance a ghost becomes incorporeal). There is a fae called Faye (Johanna Schraml) who flies, and soon discovers a fear of heights, a ginger werewolf, Wolf (Arsseni Bultmann), who transforms and discovers he has a fur allergy and then Vlad’s hair slicks and fangs appear. However Faye crashes into him, he cuts himself on his fangs, sees blood and vomits (a blue goo) as he is scared of blood.
So these are our heroes – the all-round good Faye (Hermione, essentially), the ginger Wolf (very obviously in look and actions Ron) and Vlad is our Harry imitation. They get help from the school caretaker, Hannappel (Axel Stein), who is a bearded (though not wildly so) person who shouldn’t do magic (due to ineptitude). There is some bullying from the blonde Draco Malfoy clone and his two bully-boy friends. I mean it is so obviously lifting from Potter it is painful.
As for the film itself (and the sneaking into the forbidden library, through a set of underground tests after getting past the - one-headed, to be fair - guard dog). Well, it seems competent enough, though that competence is then undermined by some average to poor dubbing. Perhaps it would work better in the original German. Nevertheless I couldn’t actually get past the blatant Potterness – was that from the book or added in by the filmmakers? I don’t know, but the film had neither the charm, the magical quality or the slickness of those films. I think 4 out of 10 is more than fair, perhaps too fair to be truthful.
The imdb page is here.
Contains spoilers
With its original German title of Die Wolf-Gäng I was (and still am) going to wax lyrical about how this is (in essence) a Harry Potter clone. However, when I opened up the IMDb page, I was shocked to see it is actually based on a Young Adult Book series by Wolfgang Hohlbein. I can’t say how accurate this is to the book, but if it is accurate then it is the book series that is the Potter clone.
It starts with a bit of a background that suggests that the world was once ruled by creatures of the night but, as centuries passed, they became good and there was peace between them and humans with the night creatures eventually living among us in secret.
 |
| moving to town |
There are, however, still places where the night creatures live openly, hidden towns often sheltered behind magical forests. It is to one of these places that the young vampire Vlad Tepes (Aaron Kissiov) is moving to with his father Barnabas (Rick Kavanian) – a pair of vampires, moving as Vlad has been invited to join a magical school there. So, whilst not an orphan (totally, his mother is dead), he is a young teen moving to a magical school by invitation a bit like a certain wizard, Harry.
 |
| nodding vampire dog |
They are stopped on the bridge into town by a troll (Waldemar Kobus), who is the town gatekeeper and who reads out a prophecy to Vlad that suggests that he will meet friends, become a trio of companions and save the world (to us, at least, it makes no sense to Vlad). When they get into town a crystal pendant Vlad wears (bequeathed by his mother) glows and a modern bike becomes a penny farthing and a policeman’s hat becomes an old-fashioned helmet. Vlad doesn’t realise the connection with his pendent.
 |
| Vlad's fang |
That first night his father is visited and charged taxes that he cannot yet afford and has to go to the town hall to protest, in the morning. The mayor offers him the opportunity to sell Vlad’s pendant to stave off the debt (refused as it isn’t the father’s to sell). Meanwhile Vlad goes to school and there is a ceremony which reveals the new children’s true faces (for instance a ghost becomes incorporeal). There is a fae called Faye (Johanna Schraml) who flies, and soon discovers a fear of heights, a ginger werewolf, Wolf (Arsseni Bultmann), who transforms and discovers he has a fur allergy and then Vlad’s hair slicks and fangs appear. However Faye crashes into him, he cuts himself on his fangs, sees blood and vomits (a blue goo) as he is scared of blood.
 |
| the gang |
So these are our heroes – the all-round good Faye (Hermione, essentially), the ginger Wolf (very obviously in look and actions Ron) and Vlad is our Harry imitation. They get help from the school caretaker, Hannappel (Axel Stein), who is a bearded (though not wildly so) person who shouldn’t do magic (due to ineptitude). There is some bullying from the blonde Draco Malfoy clone and his two bully-boy friends. I mean it is so obviously lifting from Potter it is painful.
 |
| Rick Kavanian as Barnabas |
As for the film itself (and the sneaking into the forbidden library, through a set of underground tests after getting past the - one-headed, to be fair - guard dog). Well, it seems competent enough, though that competence is then undermined by some average to poor dubbing. Perhaps it would work better in the original German. Nevertheless I couldn’t actually get past the blatant Potterness – was that from the book or added in by the filmmakers? I don’t know, but the film had neither the charm, the magical quality or the slickness of those films. I think 4 out of 10 is more than fair, perhaps too fair to be truthful.
The imdb page is here.
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