Small Soldiers movie storyline. 15-year-old Alan Abernathy, the son of a toy store owner, tries out some new action figures: The Commando Elite vs. The Gorgonites. But three months ago, a toy company believes it is onto something when it employs the latest government military technology in a series of action figures, enabling them to talk.
They underestimate the power of the special micro chips they’ve employed, however, as the two opposing sides of the toy line start thinking for themselves and engaging in real combat! The Commando Elite vow to wipe out the Gorgonites in a suburban neighborhood. Alan, his neighbor Christy Fimple, (on whom he has a massive crush) with the help of the kind Gorgonites, must protect his home and family from the Commandos.
Small Soldiers is a 1998 American science fiction action film directed by Joe Dante and starring Kirsten Dunst, Gregory Smith, Jay Mohr, Phil Hartman, Kevin Dunn, Denis Leary, Frank Langella, Tommy Lee Jones, Jacob Smith and Ann Magnuson. The film revolves around two adolescents who get caught in the middle of a war between two factions of sentient action figures, the Gorgonites and the Commando Elite.
On making the film, director Joe Dante recalled “Originally I was told to make an edgy picture for teenagers, but when the sponsor tie-ins came in the new mandate was to soften it up as a kiddie movie. Too late, as it turned out, and there are elements of both approaches in there. Just before release it was purged of a lot of action and explosions.”
On the film’s special effects, Dante stated “We were planning to use a lot of Stan Winston’s puppets—he had made some very elaborate puppets that could do a lot of things. But in practice, we found it was much simpler and cheaper to let the CGI people do the work after we’d shot the scenes. So, I would say, it’s one-third puppetry and the rest CGI in Small Soldiers, even though the original idea was to do mostly puppetry.”
Small Soldiers (1998)
Directed by: Joe Dante
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Gregory Smith, Jay Mohr, Phil Hartman, Kevin Dunn, Denis Leary, Frank Langella, Tommy Lee Jones, Jacob Smith, Ann Magnuson
Screenplay by: Gavin Scott, Adam Rifkin, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Anne Spielberg
Production Design by: William Sandell
Cinematography by: Jamie Anderson
Film Editing by: Marshall Harvey, Michael Thau
Costume Design by: Carole Brown-James
Set Decoration by: Rosemary Brandenburg
Art Direction by: Mark W. Mansbridge, Brad Ricker
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some menacing action/violence and brief drug references.
Distributed by: DreamWorks Pictures (North America), Universal Pictures (International)
Release Date: July 10, 1998
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