Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys

OK, so it may not be the best horror film ever made...actually it is one of the worst purely for the concept of it, but hey its only a film! Basically its Christmas Eve...ish, and the demonic toy company are released yeah you guessed it demonic toys set to destroy everything on Christmas day, BUT! Andre Touloun's great nephew Robert Touloun is there to save the day! Accompianed with our old Puppet Master favourites, him, his daughter and a copper attempt to stop the demonic toys and there seemingly demented master. Yes it is completely predictable and the fight scenes are seriously funny, but Corey Feldmnan makes this film watchable as the bumbling hero with some risqué jokes with the copper and just being a generally lovable character :) don't watch if expecting a plot twisting, mind numbing horror film its just a bit of enjoyable carnage

Wow. This sure was a mess, too bad it could have been better.

-First Paragraph Dicusses The Older Films-

First off, I enjoyed the first Puppet Master movie, as a matter of fact I enjoyed the first three movies in that series. In addition I also enjoyed the first Demonic Toys movie. Now keep in mind when I say enjoy, I mean enjoy them on the level they are at. The original Puppet Master was enjoyable overall, the second film saw some cool additions Puppets wise, unfortunately in one scene involving the Jester I remember actually seeing the puppeteer's hand, urrghhh, then the third one was cool with the battling against the Nazis. However this are cool probably only if you enjoy horror flicks or killer dolls or things like this, fans of the Child's Play series could probably enjoy these, at least the first few anyway, I did. As for Demonic Toys its cool, Babie Oopsie Daisey is the best, obviously a Chucky rip off, but with his own style, I wish there was more of him in the first movie. I also like that Jack in the Box waaaaaaaaay better then the one that appears in this new movie. As for the other few toys, including the Teddy that could grow, well they're OK. However after Puppet Master III it starts going down hill with the puppets turning good and battling those tiny Egyptian demon things, urgh. Then Dollman vs Demonic Toys, well, baby oopsie wasn't even the same voice and it was just really short and lame, the GI Sodlier was ultra lame. But now, a long time later, we have Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys....

-This paragraph reviews the new film "Puppet Mater vs Demonic Toys" So I see that it is directed by Ted Nicalau, personally I enjoy the "Subspecies" series so that gave me some higher hopes for this movie. Well I was wrong, wow this movie was bad. Full Moon (owner of the original two series) had no involvement in this film that I know about and it seems to show, yes thats right, Full Moon not being involved seemed to actually hurt the movie! The film is so cartoony, not a bit scary or enjoyable, just plain lame! Too bad because Corey and whoever played his daughter did fairly good acting jobs and don't look like they really belong with all the other horrible actors, or in this horrid movie at all. This is just a wretched excuse for a movie, it can't even be enjoyed on the cheesy or fun level, or even on the "so bad its good" level, its just awful. Too bad because I really like Baby Oopsie Daisey and a lot of the Puppets. However in this film the puppets look different and they movie really stupidly, its just plain fake looking. This coming from someone who enjoyed the stop motion in the earlier films. As for the Demonic Toys they look different and less menacing then ever, they also movie oddly but not as bad as the puppets, and baby oopsie of course isn't voice by the cool voice from the original, someone else, and he now uses some sort of FART ATTACK?!?!? Thats right read it again he uses a FART ATTACK THAT FLYS HIM UP FROM THE GROUND UP AT PEOPLE!?!? Wow, just avoid this one at all costs, give the daughter some better acting role, put Corey back in "Cursed" and give Ted Nicalau the money to write and direct the final "Subspecies" movies. Then we'll be good, and as the final nail in the coffin, bury both of this series deep under the ground, for good! 0/1000000000

But then perhaps those moments are only cause I haven't seen a puppet master movie in a few years? And by that I mean an original movie not "best of" clips put together and sold under the guise of a movie (I'm looking at you Legacy). This movie had some okay ideas, but they were all hampered by phoney acting. I mean the puppet master movies and the demonic toys were never known for Oscar winning performances, but these characters seemed to lean towards caricatures of what they were suppose to act like (crazy scientist, evil mistress). And all of the puppets and toys seemed to lack detail and all were animated poorly. Of course being a T.V. movie based off direct to video flicks means that they were probably on a shoe string budget, but still why does jack-in-the-box have to look exactly like...well like a jack in the box. I thought they were from a movie called DEMONIC TOYS? And this could be me, but did Blade seem kinda out of character? My image of Blade has never included him standing on one foot while he spends around like a friggin ballerina to kill something. Anywho, this could have been a lot better, but I guess if we ever want to see the movies put on DVD Separately without having to pay $200 bucks for the whole set on ebay, we should try to support Sci-fi's offering and perhaps maybe, just maybe they might listen to our criticism for future installments.

Before we get into what PUPPET MASTER VS. DEMONIC TOYS represents, lets get into the back history of this film. Back when Charles Band and his Full Moon empire were still financed by Paramount Pictures, he was constantly turning out high quality, low budget features that looked like they were more expensive than they actually were (note that I didn't say that they were, you know, good). Anyway, times changed, people changed, and Band was discharged from Camp Paramount. Everything was in his hands now, and therefore, budgets dropped considerably; franchises that fans were use to seeing excellent SFX (we still miss you, David Allen) and great camera work were now only privy to even LOWER budgeted installments (a great example that ties into this film: Anyone remember the fan backlash at CURSE OF THE PUPPET MASTER?). Band even enlisted J.R. Bookwalter's Tempe Entertainment to make some films for him, and ironically, those films were better than anything Band produced or directed since the Paramount breakup.

Enter 2004. The Full Moon/Shadow Entertainment empire that Charles Band once had has pretty much crumbled beneath its own weight. In whatever circumstance occurred, the Sci-Fi Channel ended up with PUPPET MASTER VS. DEMONIC TOYS (oh yeah, note to someone who mentioned if Sci-Fi owned the old Full Moon movies or something that they would have had an all day marathon: Anything Full Moon that is pre-1996 for the most part is owned by Paramount, and almost all of the films from 1996 to 2003 are either owned by other companies that helped financially or were purchased were Kushner-Locke got bought by Artisan, so in essence, Sci-Fi couldn't have a marathon without buying TV rights for those films), and produced what no one thought imaginable: Charles Band's key franchise of the 1990s that put Full Moon on the map in the hand's of another company without their involvement whatsoever, and a sequel actually being released.

Directed and written by former Full Moon alumni Ted Nicolau and C. Courtney Joyner respectively, PMvDT takes a different approach with the PUPPET MASTER concept, that hasn't been seen in a while: Takes home in the low budgetness of the series, know that it is cheesy.

And when it comes to cheese, no one is better known than Corey Feldman, who plays as Robert Toulon with an "accented" deep voice, who I believe helps the film do what it is suppose to do, and that is just take the ball and run with it. Granted, his acting is nothing impressive (its a PUPPET MASTER movie, no Full Moon or not, its not going to actually be high quality entertainment), but his presence is what makes it so over the top.

The puppet and toy work is as good as it can be, given budget restrictions, and a surprising twist to the puppets (well, not surprising, if anyone remembers the old Full Moon Toys line). Although they are essentially completely new puppets (they are remodeled off of the original David Allen designs of the 90s) from the get-go, it was still fun to see some familiar faces running around.

And also, it works as something different for Christmas flare: The low-brow PG-13 (oh I'm sorry, TV-14) humor and violence actually help it, as it doesn't make it go too over the top, but actually fits right at home, and works well despite some entries in previous series being extremely hard R's.

Give it a shot, if your not into low budget, wrecks of films (and in all seriousness, I mean that in a good way), you're not going to have a good time, but if your a fan, look at this as a new beginning, like when New Line took Jason and made JASON GOES TO HELL and JASON X (well, don't think of those specific films, think of the comparison). But do not go into it expecting PUPPET MASTER 1 through 5 quality, because believe me, that will NEVER happen again.

The Puppet Master 1: terrifying Sequels: terrifying...that these get by as horror movies

Demonic Toys: sucked Demonic Toys Vs. Dollman: Not worthy to acknowledge

THE PUPPET MASTER VS. DEMONIC TOYS: Good; cheesy fun!

These film is the second best of the Puppet Master series and the first best of the Demonic Toys series! The gore was cool, the relationship between Robert and the puppets was fun and nice. All in all, it's not a bad film at all. Formualic: yes. Cheesy: yes. Fun: yes!

3 1/2 out 5