The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns

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The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns
Directed by	John Henderson
Produced by	Paul Lowin
Written by	Peter Barnes
Starring	Randy Quaid Whoopi Goldberg Roger Daltrey Colm Meaney
Music by	Richard Harvey
Cinematography	Clive Tickner
Editing by	Paul Endacott Pamela Power
Distributed by	Lions Gate
Release date(s)	1999
Running time	139 min. (2 parts)
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns is a 1999 Hallmark Entertainment made-for-TV fantasy movie. It stars Randy Quaid, Colm Meaney, Kieran Culkin, Roger Daltrey and Whoopi Goldberg. The film contains two main stories that eventually intertwine: the first being the story of an American businessman who visits Ireland and encounters magical leprechauns, the second being the story of a pair of star-crossed lovers who happen to be a fairy and a leprechaun, belonging to opposing sides of a magical war.

[edit] Plot

The American businessman Jack Woods (Randy Quaid) wants to spend a calm holiday in the sleepy Irish town Carrick and rents a little cottage there. He is overworked and wants to use his holidays to relax. During a hiking-tour he sees the beautiful Irish Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Orla Brady) swimming naked. Kathleen is disgusted and chases him off, but Jack falls in love with her. In the evening Jack tries to drown his sorrows in whisky, when he suddenly sees a leprechaun. The next morning he goes searching the little man and finds him nearly drowning in a river. He rescues him and saves his life, because water is the only thing that can kill the immortal leprechauns. Seamus Muldoon (Colm Meaney), the saved leprechaun, becomes Jack’s new friend, introduced him to his wife Mary (Zoë Wanamaker) and shows him the mystical world of the leprechauns.

The leprechauns are happy people, who love to play tricks on others – most of all on the snobbish fairies. The leprechauns and the fairies are enemies for ages, but the Grand Banshee (Whoopi Goldberg) has forbidden that they ever really fight against each other. Jack gets used to the little people he shares the house with, because they help him to get to know Kathleen.

Meanwhile Muldoon’s son Mickey (Daniel Betts), his friends Sean Devine (Tony Curran) and the brothers Jericho (Kevin McKidd) and Barney O’Grady (Kieran Culkin) invite themselves disguised to a party in the flying castle of the fairies. There Mickey sees the pretty fairy-princess Jessica (Caroline Carver), the daughter of the fairy-king Boric (Roger Daltrey) and queen Morag (Harriet Walter). Jessica finds out who and what Mickey is but they fall in love with each other. When Jessica’s parents find the leprechauns, they send her with her governess Lady Margret (Phyllida Law) to their underwater-castle. But Mickey rescues her and flies with her to his uncle Sir Jantee (Stephen Moore), the butter-fairy. For the price of good English butter Jantee betrays them. Jessica’s parents think Mickey kidnapped her and they start a war with the leprechauns. The Grand Banshee dislikes that and takes the immortality from the leprechauns and fairies. Mickey’s friend Sean is killed.

In the human-world nature starts to collapse: in the summer it starts snowing and there is torrential rain. This happens because the fairies do not care about nature anymore. If they go on like this Mother Nature will die. Jack and Kathleen decide to help Jessica and Mickey to save nature. Together they want to ask the Grand Banshee for help, but she says she can’t as long as the leprechauns and fairies are still fighting.

The war grows more and more acute and Jack and Kathleen have a problem too, because she finds out that he is in Ireland to buy Cerrick for his company to build a holiday-park. Jack does not want to do that anymore, but Kathleen does not believe a word he says. When the war escalated, Mickey and Jessica decide to do something radical: they get a poison from the butter-fairies that will kill them temporarily. If their parents won’t stop the war they’ll kill themselves. Their parents do not take them seriously and so they take the poison, while Jack disposes the warring parties to make peace. Muldoon and Boric agree. Now Kathleen should give the antidote to the lovers but an attack-tunnel of general Bulstrode (Frank Finlay) lets Kathleen’s carriage brake, the vial with the antidote brakes. Only the Grand Banshee can now safe Mickey and Jessica.

In the end Mickey and Jessica marry and the long-lasting war is finally over. Even Jack and Kathleen are in love again.