Small Soldiers is exactly the kind of film Joe Dante should still be making. It's a story made to appeal to children, but with a sly subversive edge. Sensitive kids may be disturbed, but most love movies like Gremlins and Small Soldiers. Unfortunately Small Soldiers was the last big budget movie Dante directed that saw any kind of success.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action came next, but Dante says the studio interfered with every step of the production, and the final edit is not the movie he set out to make. It was a box office disaster, and guess who got the blame? Hooray for Hollywood.
The best Joe Dante movies embrace modern technology, but they also show us wonders of the past. They are aimed at children, but there's enough fun to be had by people of all ages.
Dante is reverent to the history of movies, and he habitually gave employment opportunities to stars of the past, giving them small (and sometimes big) parts in his productions.
Think of the great director-composer collaborations. Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann. Steven Spielberg and John Williams. Tim Burton and Danny Elfman. Joe Dante and Jerry Goldsmith belong on the list. Goldsmith's warm, whimsical, nostalgic music gave Dante's movies atmosphere and emotion. It's a legendary run: Gremlins, Explorers, Innerspace, The Burbs, Gremlins 2, Matinee, Small Soldiers, Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
Small Soldiers is basically Gremlins 3. It's a bright, fun, slightly scary thrill ride. You've got Kirsten Dunst, Phil Hartman, Denis Leary, Ann Magnuson, Wendy Schaal, and of course Dick Miller in the cast. There are cameos by Rance Howard (who Joe must have known since the old New World Pictures days), Jackie Joseph (from the original Little Shop of Horrors), and Belinda Balaski.
As for the story, well, the military and toy manufacturers team up and create realistic toy soldiers. Only they're a little too real. A teen gets his hands on some prior to release date and the toys come to life to wreck havoc.
There are two types: The Gorgonites are a peaceable migratory group of beasts. Then there's a team of roughneck commandos. The warriors, lead in voice by a boisterous Tommy Lee Jones, set out to destroy their Gorgonite enemy. The young protagonist, who's one of Dante's typically likeable teen characters, tries to help out his new Gorgonite friends.
If the above cast isn't enjoyable enough, Gorgonites are voiced by the Spinal Tap guys: Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer. Frank Langella is their leader.
The troops under Tommy Lee Jones are even better. The voices are surviving members of The Dirty Dozen: Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, Clint Walker, and George Kennedy. Richard Jaeckel was signed to do the movie, but he died before it got started and Bruce Dern took his place.
There are jokes galore, plus a lot, and I mean a lot, of movie references.
The robotics and puppetry were done by Stan Winston Studios.
I saw Small Soldiers back in '98 when it came out. I liked it, but I didn't love the movie. It was coming off a decade of fierce independence, underground movies and music, hyperactive crime sagas, and a lot of alternative culture.
I finally watched it again, and I liked it more this time. Much more. I was a hard thirty-seven years old in 1998. Now I'm older, and somehow more in touch with my youth. I like the peacenik anti-violence message in Small Soldiers. The gentle humor is more agreeable to me now. It feels like a story made a decade prior to its release.
Joe Dante should have made a dozen more big budget movies since Small Soldiers was produced. So much is inspired by him, from Super 8, Stranger Things, to all the other kids-on-bicycle horror-fantasy books and movies that have come since then. It's a damned shame how Hollywood forgets the ones who blazed the trails.
Written by Mark Sieber
Looney Tunes: Back in Action came next, but Dante says the studio interfered with every step of the production, and the final edit is not the movie he set out to make. It was a box office disaster, and guess who got the blame? Hooray for Hollywood.
The best Joe Dante movies embrace modern technology, but they also show us wonders of the past. They are aimed at children, but there's enough fun to be had by people of all ages.
Dante is reverent to the history of movies, and he habitually gave employment opportunities to stars of the past, giving them small (and sometimes big) parts in his productions.
Think of the great director-composer collaborations. Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann. Steven Spielberg and John Williams. Tim Burton and Danny Elfman. Joe Dante and Jerry Goldsmith belong on the list. Goldsmith's warm, whimsical, nostalgic music gave Dante's movies atmosphere and emotion. It's a legendary run: Gremlins, Explorers, Innerspace, The Burbs, Gremlins 2, Matinee, Small Soldiers, Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
Small Soldiers is basically Gremlins 3. It's a bright, fun, slightly scary thrill ride. You've got Kirsten Dunst, Phil Hartman, Denis Leary, Ann Magnuson, Wendy Schaal, and of course Dick Miller in the cast. There are cameos by Rance Howard (who Joe must have known since the old New World Pictures days), Jackie Joseph (from the original Little Shop of Horrors), and Belinda Balaski.
As for the story, well, the military and toy manufacturers team up and create realistic toy soldiers. Only they're a little too real. A teen gets his hands on some prior to release date and the toys come to life to wreck havoc.
There are two types: The Gorgonites are a peaceable migratory group of beasts. Then there's a team of roughneck commandos. The warriors, lead in voice by a boisterous Tommy Lee Jones, set out to destroy their Gorgonite enemy. The young protagonist, who's one of Dante's typically likeable teen characters, tries to help out his new Gorgonite friends.
If the above cast isn't enjoyable enough, Gorgonites are voiced by the Spinal Tap guys: Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer. Frank Langella is their leader.
The troops under Tommy Lee Jones are even better. The voices are surviving members of The Dirty Dozen: Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, Clint Walker, and George Kennedy. Richard Jaeckel was signed to do the movie, but he died before it got started and Bruce Dern took his place.
There are jokes galore, plus a lot, and I mean a lot, of movie references.
The robotics and puppetry were done by Stan Winston Studios.
I saw Small Soldiers back in '98 when it came out. I liked it, but I didn't love the movie. It was coming off a decade of fierce independence, underground movies and music, hyperactive crime sagas, and a lot of alternative culture.
I finally watched it again, and I liked it more this time. Much more. I was a hard thirty-seven years old in 1998. Now I'm older, and somehow more in touch with my youth. I like the peacenik anti-violence message in Small Soldiers. The gentle humor is more agreeable to me now. It feels like a story made a decade prior to its release.
Joe Dante should have made a dozen more big budget movies since Small Soldiers was produced. So much is inspired by him, from Super 8, Stranger Things, to all the other kids-on-bicycle horror-fantasy books and movies that have come since then. It's a damned shame how Hollywood forgets the ones who blazed the trails.
Written by Mark Sieber
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