The limited reach of Tamil films considerably limits the amount of money they can make and consequently, their budget. The lack of a budget is not really noticeable in most movies in a social setting. But budget becomes important in a movie that relies primarily on special effects to engage the audience. Rama.Narayanan overcomes this by resorting to shoddy graphics, which are lapped up by the audience anyway owing to the subject matter. Director Singeetham Srinivasa Rao aims higher but the special effects don't match upto his aim and as a result Little John, which is an effort to offer a film different from the run-of-the-mill socials, remains just that - a good effort but not translated well onto the screen.

John Mackenzie(Bentley Mitchum) is an American who is on a trip to India to do research on Mookkuthi Amman. He stays at the house of his friend, the household consisting of the friend's parents, grandfather, brother and sister Vani(Jyothika). A sorcerer Kala Bhairavan(Prakashraj) is after the nosering worn by the deity and has just woken up from a 1000 year slumber. Just as he tries to steal the ring, the priest(Anupam Kher) in the temple knocks it from his hand into a snake pit. John is suspected of stealing the nosering and to save him from the police, the priest accidentally reduces his size. The miniature John now has to find a way to get back his size and the Swamiji informs him that he can do this by restoring Amman's nosering to its rightful place.

John spends a substantial portion of the second half in a reduced size and this presents a lots of opportunities for special effects. There are some good ideas scattered throughout the screenplay(like John's mode of transport for the trip to Jyothika's house) but the opportunities are squandered due to the poor graphics. A reduced John is just inserted onto scenes and so, he stands out brightly and we are never allowed to forget that we are watching the result of special effects. The results are particularly patchy in the scenes where he descends into the snake pit to retrieve the ring. A group of kids being shrunk formed the basis of the kid flick Honey I shrunk the kids too but the kids wandered around in oversized sets with gigantic models of common, everyday items. This gave the scenes a realistic touch which is lacking here.

The initial portions move at a leisurely pace with the flowering of romance between Bentley and Jyothika and Bentley sneaking visits to the temple. The happenings at Jyothika's house(like the visit of an intended husband) have no say whatsoever on the proceedings and are just fillers. Bentley's visits to the temple pique our interest somewhat but these are too few and far apart. And furthermore, the reason for events like Anupam Kher failing to execute miracles in front of Bentley and succeeding after he has gone, are never explained. The sequences just end up making the priest look rather childish.

Once the initial interest due to Prakashraj's appeareance fades, we realise that he does nothing noteworthy. For a man who has been waiting 1000 years for a nose ring, he seems amazingly restrained. He never gets out of the cave, sends an accomplice to get the nose ring and never seems to do anything to retrieve the ring from the snake pit. We don't get to see him clash with the priest even in the climax and his end is abrupt and anti-climactic. While toning down the violence makes sense considering that the movie is targeted towards kids, the director makes everything so mild that the proceedings become uninteresting.

Though the movie would have worked just as fine with a local actor, the good thing is that Bentley doesn't make things worse. He has an expressive face and his tamil is neither too slow nor so perfect that it is unbelievable. Jyothika has nothing to do. While the character that Prakashraj portrays is restrained, he definitely is not as he rants and raves like a maniac. But the ineffictiveness of the character just makes his performance seem over the top. Anupam Kher seems confused over adopting a serious or a comic tone for the priest's role. Nasser is wasted in the thankless role of a policeman who provides comic relief. The role should have been played by a comedian, a fact that is emphasized by the choice of his sidekick, the same actor who played Janakaraj's sidekick in Aboorva Sagodharargal.