Hitchcoc
I guess after Toy Story, we were about to have all the copy cats come rolling out. Those old soldiers that we all had as little boys were not very interesting. They were mostly left to stand in places. I remember using them as little bowling pins and knocking them over with a baseball. They are probably the simplest toys, with their sort of yuck green color and lack of any sort of flexibility. Of course, true to their position in the toy world, they are going to go on a mission of some sort, using their combat skills. There are a few jokes, but, for the most part, there is almost no personality, no supporting characters like a Buzz Lightyear. But for kids who just want to watch toys moving around, I'm sure this is satisfying. By the way, the one with the gas mask used to really freak me out.
gavin6942
When missile technology is used to enhance toy action figures, the toys soon begin to take their battle programming too seriously.On making the film, director Joe Dante recalled "Originally I was told to make an edgy picture for teenagers, but when the sponsor tie-ins came in the new mandate was to soften it up as a kiddie movie. Too late, as it turned out, and there are elements of both approaches in there. Just before release it was purged of a lot of action and explosions." There does seem to be some confusion on what the film was supposed to be or even what it is now. I avoided the film for years, thinking it was just a bunch of talking toys. Then director Jeff Burr (whom I admire) said to give it another chance, so I decided to give it a go and found it to be much more than just toys and actually a rather interesting and intelligent film.And, to be fair, even if it was just the toys... the effects are pretty darn good. I don't know if it's animation or what, but it looks really good, far better than most other things of the time period (late 1990s).
SnoopyStyle
GloboTech Industries is a giant defense industry and consumer conglomerate which acquires the little Heartland toy company. Irwin Wayfair (David Cross) and Larry Benson (Jay Mohr) are two designers who come up with two new lines of toys called Commando Elite and Gorgonites. GloboTech CEO Gil Mars (Denis Leary) wants to make the most advanced toys ever and Larry uses an overly powerful government military microchip. Alan Abernathy (Gregory Smith) is new in town working at the family toy store after getting kicked out of two schools. They get a delivery of the new GloboTech toys. Christy Fimple (Kirsten Dunst) is his next door neighbor with a little brother Timmy (Jacob Smith). Gorgonite emissary Archer befriends Alan. Commando Elite Chip Hazard leads his squad to destroy the Gorgonites.The idea is great. It doesn't need the exposition of the military-corporate conglomerate. It just needs the toys, the kids, and havoc in a small town. The toy company is a waste of time. It just needs the military showing up at the end to clean things up. Cross and Mohr add nothing to this. It would be even better if they concentrated solely on the kids fighting the toys.
TheMarwood
Joe Dante is in Gremlins territory again, playing with some surprisingly decent late 90's CG instead of puppets. But Small Soldiers wavers between anarchic Dante and lame studio formula. The opening 10 minutes with David Cross and Jay Mohr is dreadful at best and a showcase of lazy writing for what should be an exciting set-up for the toys that will soon wreck havoc. What we get is bad dialogue and Mohr ordering defense chips online - oooo exciting! If Dante is going to be knocking off his own Gremlins, the film would have been much better served by terrorizing the whole town with these toys, instead the story is limited to two uninteresting families living next to each other. Cross and Mohr re-appear like bad writing magic just when the action is getting going in the last act. This will hardly be remembered as one of Dante's best and sadly remembered as Phil Hartman's final film.
AD
