SMALL SOLDIERS

US, 1998, 110 minutes, Colour.
Gregory Smith, Kirsten Dunst, David Cross, Jay Mohr, Phil Hartmann, Kevin Dunn, Denis Leary, Dick Miller.
Voices of: Frank Langella, Tommy Lee Jones, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, Bruce Dern, Georg the e Kennedy, Clint Walker, Cristina Ricci, Sarah Michelle Geller, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Michael Mc Kean.
Directed by Joe Dante.


An adventure of a more modern kind, a mixture of live action and computer generated images and characters. It begins a bit sophisticatedly with a tycoon taking over a toy factory and wanting to make millions on a line of soldier toys which will speak and interact with the children.

However, when they are equipped with chips developed for aggressive action, the toys take over and wage war on a group of friendly monster toys as well as the humans. The special effects and the computer work are, of course, amazing. However, while the surface looks like gung-ho war action, it is all rather ironic as the true-blue soldiers are the enemy (the ironically named Chip Hazard voiced by Tommy Lee Jones and rest by the cast of The Dirty Dozen) whereas the heroes are an odd mixture of Gorgonites (Frank Langella voicing the leader and the cast of This is Spinal Tap voicing the others). It is really subverting the image of the US right or wrong.

Directed by Joe Dante in the vein of his two Gremlins films. Might is not right.


1. A family fantasy? For families? Toys, war, allegory? Showing violence yet deploring it?

2. Joe Dante and his success with Gremlins? Ordinary suburbia, toys on the loose?

3. The tycoon, his takeover, mercenary attitudes, toys as an investment, the production line, the timeline, the crisis, coming with the helicopter, the cynical payoff of all concerned? The commercial mentality?

4. The two workers? Their talent, inventions, the cleverer of the two? The other being an exploiter? The samples for the tycoon? Their keeping their jobs? The cards, passwords? Gizmo? The demands of time? Experiments? The military equipment? Buying it? Putting it in the soldiers? The effect for the Gorgonites?

5. The truck driver and distribution? Persuaded by Alan? Alan and the shop? It’s losing money? Alan and his pranks, his father’s suspicions?

6. Christy and her brother, visiting the shop, examining the toys? The friendship with Alan? Her relationship with Brad? Her parents and their dull life?

7. Alan, his relationship with his parents, the shop?

8. The toys, moving, action, talking, responding? Chip hazard and Tommy Lee Jones? The more benign Archer? Frank Langella’s voice? The soldiers, the voices of the stars of The Dirty Dozen? The Gorgonites and the voices from This is Spinal Tap? The attack in the store, the mess, Christy helping out on restoring order?

9. The war games and war? The soldiers and their look, G I’s? The Gorgonites and their shapes, sizes, ugliness? The transformation of the dolls? The voices? Alive and the parody of glamour?

10. The military plans, strategies, the Gorgonites expecting defeat, hiding?

11. The attack, knocking out Christy’s parents, the hesitation believing? Convinced?

12. The soldiers, the strategies and the soldiers’ behaviour, the pass to go out with the girls? The issue of electricity, Alan on the pole, Chip fighting Archer?
Their falling?

13. The Gorgonites, hiding, under the television dish, alive and kicking? The range of the tricks, swirling, fighting?

14. The involvement of the parents, Christy and her brother tied up, Alan and the electricity pole? The arrival of the two inventors, seeing the mayhem? The
truck driver coming?

15. Destruction, chaos? Adventure and the adrenaline of war?

16. The aftermath, the defeat of the soldiers, the Gorgonites and Alan putting them in the boat to seek their homeland? Even if it is only in the mind and not seen?

17. The tycoon, his cynically buying everyone off, wishing that he made a commercial?

18. A moral fable about the war, peace, but the entertaining depiction of war adventure as well?