Leapin' Leprechauns! is a 1995 American fantasy film, starring Andrew Smith, John Bluthal and Ray Bright. It was directed by Ted Nicolaou.
A man tries to prevent the building of a theme park on top of a land that is home to the Leprechauns.
The movie was filmed back-to-back with its sequel (1996). It was filmed mostly in Romania.
Leapin' Leprechauns received mostly unfavorable reviews from critics. The lack of a clear storyline and an "all-out villain" were appointed by many experts as critique points. Felix Vasquez from Cinema Crazed stated: Leapin' Leprechauns! "is not the worst movie IâÂÂve ever seen, but itâÂÂs probably the most baffling IâÂÂve seen in a good while. The film takes literally a half hour to get the actual plot in motion, and we spend about twenty long minutes on a leprechaun council meeting where the leprechauns and fairies argue and bicker non-stop. As for a villain of the piece, we donâÂÂt meet the evil menace until thereâÂÂs only ten minutes left in the actual movie. I couldnâÂÂt understand why the villain was introduced before the credits actually began, but the writers fails to muster up an interesting bad guy". For MonsterHunt "Leapin' Leprechauns! is as unambitious as the leprechaunsâ use of their magic powers and so pedestrian in every thing it attempts that if old King Kevin popped out of my garbage giving me three wishes, my first wish would be that I never saw or heard of this movie. My second wish would be the same just as a backup in case for some reason the first wish failed. And my third wish? Talking dog. Duh. I'm not wasting them all!". TV Guide was optimistic with the lack of an "all-out villain ", but criticized the poor visual effects: "The lack of an all-out villain makes LEAPIN' LEPRECHAUNS! a nice change from the usual routine of live-action family films, though cut-rate special effects limit the title figures in their interaction with other characters".
A sequel called ' was released direct-to-video in 1996.