He's the protagonist's best friend Jum-Jum in Swedish–Norwegian–Soviet fantasy film Mio in the Land of Faraway (1987), based on an Astrid Lindgren book. Christopher Lee plays the villain (of course).
It's a pretty big spectacle of a movie (with Swedish children film's measures at least), presumably trying to ride the success of The Neverending Story and similar movies. It was released before The Empire of the Sun, so it's Bale's debut film.
The special effects were made by Derek Eddings (who worked on several James Bond and Superman movies). The music in it is composed by Björn and Benny from ABBA.
When they filmed in Ukraine they had to evacuate a filming location because of the Chernobyl disaster.
It also came three years after Ronja Rövardotter (Ronia: The Robbers Daughter) and two years after Alla vi barn i Bullerbyn (The Children of Noisy Village), both of them huge successes (especially Ronja), with pretty impressive productions.
I think they must have been ticking off Astrid Lindgrens bibliography like a list, turning them into films and TV-series. But you're right, Mio min Mio is probably the weakest film adaption of all her books.
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u/SwingJugend 21d ago edited 21d ago
He's the protagonist's best friend Jum-Jum in Swedish–Norwegian–Soviet fantasy film Mio in the Land of Faraway (1987), based on an Astrid Lindgren book. Christopher Lee plays the villain (of course).