Pequeños guerreros

I know the summary doesn't have anything to do with this comment, but I thought it would be funny to start this review. "Small Soldiers", believe it or not, it's more valuable that it appears to be. Yes, it may be a flawed movie, but considering that it is a movie born in the heart of Hollywood studios and intended for small audiences (and not so small), "Small Soldiers" takes his chances to create successfully a political satire, a very dark one.

Joe Dante (a very underrated director) is a specialist in filtrating that kind of political message. And that's no wonder why decided to direct this movie. The best of all is that also works as a family flick, where the characters are likable enough to care about and it's really entertaining.

Anyway, I really like it.

Thanks to error, a toys store of Winslow Corners - a small and quiet town from Ohio- receives a shipments of war action figures. Former defense supplier Globotech and his chairman(Dennis Leary) and employees(David Cross, Jay Mohr)have transformed into dangerous soldiers toys to being mistakenly implanted with military intelligence chips.Commanded by Chip Hazard(voice of Tommy Lee Jones)take under siege the town and battle their rival toys , the Gorgonites, led by the pacific Archer(voice by Frank Langella). Meanwhile the Gorgonites join forces two adolescents Alan(Gregory Smith) and Christy(Kirsten Dunst). The commando Elite create wreak havoc into town and besiege the teen's house.

The film packs a combo of noisy action,thrills, spectacular images, and being quite entertaining. Nicely main cast and agreeable supporting cast with Kevin Dunn, Phil Hartman,Wendy Schaal,Robert Picardo and Dick Miller, a secondary actor usual of Roger Corman and Joe Dante, among others. The Commando Elite is attacking like the 'Dirty dozen' movie, in fact the voices are played by original casting, Ernest Borgnine,Jim Brown,George Kennedy and Clint Walker. Furthermore, an enjoyable homage to 'Patton' movie as on images as brilliant musical score by great Jerry Goldsmith. Colorful and evocative cinematography by Jamie Anderson. Special effects are top-notch, the puppets are well brought to life, they're made by David Andrews's computer generator and Stan Winston's animatronic. The motion picture is imaginatively directed by Joe Dante. Rating : Good and amusing.

Small Soldiers is good old fashioned, Tongue-in-cheek fun.

Regular movie watchers will see many of their favorite characters, all caricatured here together as either a Commando-Elite or a Gorgonite warrior.

The names of the characters, particularly the Commando-Elite, are extremely good, and worthy of an award of their own.

Although some of the animation is a little wooden, that just seemed to add to the whole flavour of the film.

As long as you don't have any pre-conceptions about this film, and ignore the hype, you are in for some highly entertaining fun. After all, who can watch a room full of bikini-clad barbie-dolls-with-attitude, "playing with their owner for a change", without breaking into a grin...

Favorite quote: "Lets see how you like being played with"

When "Small Soldiers" came out, it was right after back-to-back school shootings (plus the murder of Phil Hartman), so there was some controversy about having a movie where toys get violent. But this movie is actually quite good. You see, it's not some ridiculous, rah-rah military movie; it sides with the Gorgonites (the soldiers' adversaries), showing how - whether or not they win or lose - they always remain supportive of each other.

As for the cast members, this is a Joe Dante movie, so Dick Miller and Robert Picardo get supporting roles. In this case, they play a delivery man and clean room technician, respectively. Phil Hartman is probably the funniest cast member, playing the ultimate suburban consumer (he wants to remove his neighbor's tree to make room for a satellite dish). All in all, this is definitely a movie worth seeing. As far as I remember, Joe Dante always does a good job.

Who would have thought? A "family film" that doesn't suck! Small Soldiers, while not perfect, is still great fun. It's success is completely down to Joe Dante, a guy with an obvious love of classic b-grade, sf, horror and exploitation movies. It's no suprise he started his career with Roger Corman. Small Soldiers is basically a variation on his previous Gremlins ( cute, seemingly harmless, kiddie-friendly objects run amok) but I enjoyed it more.

You can always tell how smart a movie is by its supporting cast, and the presence of the legendary Dick Miller ( a Dante mascot), Phil Hartman, Dennis Leary, and Mr Show's David Cross, not to mention the terrific voice talent, emphasize just how cluey Small Soldiers is. And any movie with Bride Of Frankenstein references gets my thumbs up!

I hope Dante brings Dick Miller back to the big screen SOON! We need him!