Small Soldiers

Another example of a big-budget film that wasn’t served properly by its advertising, Small Soldiers marks director Joe Dante’s return to feature films after a long absence - previous to this 1998 effort, his most recent feature was the hit-and-miss Matinee.

While the publicity for Small Soliders focussed heavily on the gee-whiz approach - seemingly trying to push the film as a kind of darker take on Toy Story - the trailers and TV spots completely failed to indicate just how clever and comic this film is. Dante is best known for Gremlins and its superior sequel, and Small Soldiers borrows heavily from the plot conceits of the first Gremlins outing while incorporating the winning brand of satire and obtuse humour that made Gremlins 2 such a pleasant surprise.

The story is simple enough. Traditional toy company Hartland Play Systems has been taken over by the giant multinational, multi-industry corporation Globotech, who spend much of their time developing high-tech weaponry and systems for the US military. Globotech boss Gil Mars (Denis Leary, obviously having fun with his role) decides that the new-generation Hartland should offer toys that have never been seen before, using all the resources of the giant company’s research department to create them. The toys proposed are action figures - both military and monster - but these action figures will be the first toys that “play back� with the aid of Globotech’s technology.

Unfortunately, the main CPU for the toys chosen by Hartland toy designers Larry Benson and Irwin Wayfair happens to be a top-secret chip designed for military purposes and incorporating artificial intelligence. Needless to say, the toys aren’t going to remain simple playthings for very long, and soon a bitter war has erupted between the Commando toys and the friendly but lumpy Gorgonites, who have been programmed to be the Commandos’ enemy targets.

This, of course, all sounds very silly. But Dante plays the whole thing for laughs, taking another opportunity to poke fun at big business as well as the modern obsession with violent toys. While this film is targeted firmly at a young audience, the script does appear to originally have had more darkly satirical intentions, and there is plenty here for adult viewers as well as the kids. After all, in what other film would a bunch of arrogant action figures use psychological warfare tactics on their enemies by playing the Spice Girls song Wannabe at them at high volume? Subtle sight gags and in-jokes are a constant element of the film, though most of them will go over the heads of the younger target audience.

The well-known cast includes the late Phil Hartman (this was his final film), Jay Mohr and Kirsten Dunst, though some of the really big names are heard but not seen, as the voices of the toys. Tommy Lee Jones takes to his role as Chip Hazard with relish, while Frank Langella opts for the Obi-Wan approach for his voicing of head Gorgonite Archer. In a neat bit of casting, the voices of the other commandos are handled by the original actors from The Dirty Dozen, while the Gorgonites are voiced by none other than Spinal Tap! Sarah Michelle Gellar and Christina Ricci, meanwhile, supply the voices of the perky-but-dangerous Gwendy dolls. It’s all typical Joe Dante fun, and while it shares a lot of similarities with the Gremlins films, those who enjoyed them will get a real kick out of Small Soldiers.

The special effects and animatronics here (by Stan Winston and ILM) are stunning, bringing the toys to life in a most humorous way - with the help of military adviser Dale Dye, who supplied the very same service for Saving Private Ryan!

Thing do get overly corny at the film’s end, which seems completely out of character with everything that precedes it; that, unfortunately, is the Hollywood way when the budget’s big.

Small Soldiers is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and while not quite state-of-the-art, this is generally a very good transfer. Scenes shot outdoors do have a tendency to appear over-bright and wit unnatural contrast, but this appears to have been an intentional choice, contrasting the outside world with the dark gloss of the corporate boardrooms and the surreal, saturated colour of some of the scenes involving the toys. Dante’s Gremlins 2 was done with a very similar visual style. This is not a “realistic� story, so a bit of visual unreality is perfectly appropriate.

The source used is close enough to pristine, though there’s some subtle grain that appears to have been introduced during the telecine process during some scenes - the film-to-video transfer isn’t quite up to the quality level of the best hi-def transfers, but few fans of the film will complain. Mild aliasing occurs throughout on sharp edges (some degree of digital edge enhancement appears to have been done here) but it’s not in the least distracting.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track here is of demonstration quality, an incredibly active soundtrack that makes full use of digital dynamics and happily flies effects around the available channels as though this was one big thrill ride. Dialogue levels are generally quite low, which only serves to lend even more impact to the full-level effects when they occur; this is one to play loud only if you have understanding neighbours! Jerry Goldsmith’s score is very appropriate (it’s worth mentioning that he did the score for the classic military film Patton, the theme amusingly appearing in this film. German, Italian, French and Spanish soundtracks are also provided, all in Dolby Digital 5.1 and just as vibrant.

The animated, sound-enhanced main menu of this disc is one you won’t see accidentally - the disc starts up with the movie itself after a brief copyright screen, and admirably drops the viewer direct to the Special Features menu at the end. And while there are not as many extras here as we’d like to have seen with such a film (a Joe Dante commentary would have been very nice to have), what you do get is fairly interesting. The scene selection screens are all animated, as well. Note that the extras here are identical to those on the region 1 version of the disc.

Trailer: Using some footage not seen in the film itself, this trailer takes several liberties both with the story itself and the film’s intentions; while showing off the visual effects well, it gives no real indication of the film’s satirical cleverness, making it out to be a simplistic action film with cute characters instead.

Behind The Scenes: An 11-minute EPK-style featurette that offers tantalising glimpses of the film’s production process but doesn’t have the time to get into any of them in detail. Steven Spielberg constantly materialises in various production departments during this, possibly to show the world that he’s hands-on with his company’s films even when he doesn’t appear in the credits.

Bloopers: A nice inclusion that is always welcome on a DVD, this five-minute reel of flubbed lines and outtakes largely consists of various actors cracking up laughing during takes, something that doesn’t appear to amuse Dante very much. Nothing you haven’t seen a dozen times before on bloopers shows, of course, but fun nevertheless.

Deleted Scenes And Effects: Around five minutes of leftover scenes, presented letterboxed (but not 16:9 enhanced) and mercifully free of timecode displays and other distractions. Picture quality is reasonable. This is followed by around a minute of unused digital effects from ILM, with the computer-generated characters appearing exceptionally crisp on screen, as this was taken straight off the computer rather than from film.

Cast And Crew: Seven quick text bios and filmographies for the principals; with such a diverse cast, there should have been a lot more of these.

Production Notes: Eight screens of straight-from-the-press-materials info about the making of the film. Worth reading, but quickly forgotten.

While neither a critical favourite or a commercial success, Small Soldiers is a hugely entertaining big-budget romp that’s great fun to watch and which will work as well for adults as it does for kids. Universal’s DVD (originally authored by Dreamworks) presents the film extremely well, but is a bit disappointing in the extras department. Still, the movie itself stands up well to repeated viewing, and anyone who enjoyed the anarchic comedy of Gremlins 2 will feel right at home with Small Soldiers, one of the most entertaining supposed “flops� that this reviewer has seen for some time.