Small Soldiers
SHOW TYPE
MOVIE
SHOW LENGTH
1 hr, 50 min
PROTECTION
PG-13
RELEASED
1998
Small Soldiers is a 1998 American science fiction film directed by Joe Dante from a screenplay by Ted Elliott. It stars Kirsten Dunst and Gregory Smith, along with the voices of Frank Langella and Tommy Lee Jones.
Fifteen-year-old Alan Abernathy, the son of a toy store owner, tries out some new action figures: The Commando Elite versus 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.
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Comments and reviews
June Pell
+10 cloutSep 11, 2026
I put Small Soldiers on last night because I remembered the trailer from when I was a kid and somehow never actually sat through the whole thing, and now I keep thinking about it in the middle of doing dishes. It is this 1998 Joe Dante thing where a toy store kid named Alan gets these two lines of action figures that have actual military microchips in them, so the Commando Elite start treating the Gorgonites like an enemy that needs erasing, and then the whole quiet suburban block turns into a tiny war zone. (I just made it sound like a lecture on technology when really it is mostly plastic soldiers yelling and exploding lawn furniture.) Alan is fifteen and works in his dad's shop and has that classic crush on the neighbor girl Christy, who is Kirsten Dunst being effortlessly cooler than him, and I liked that the movie does not pretend he is some chosen hero. He just keeps making half-smart decisions and then panicking when the toys do not stay on the shelf. The Commandos are led by Chip Hazard, voiced by Tommy Lee Jones in that clipped, absolute military bark that somehow makes a foot-tall plastic guy terrifying, and the Gorgonites are these goofy, gentle monster figures who mostly want to find their home planet or whatever and keep getting beaten up for it. Frank Langella as their leader is weirdly sincere. I rewound the scene where Archer first talks to Alan in the backyard because the voice work and the little head tilt sold me harder than I expected. There is a stretch in the middle where the Commandos start modifying household junk into weapons and recruiting Barbies—excuse me, "Gwendy" dolls—into glamorous infantry, and I got stuck there. I watched that sequence three times. First because the practical-and-CGI mix still looks satisfying in a rubbery 90s way, second because the humor is mean without being cruel (the dolls are pure vanity with guns), and third because I kept laughing at how the movie lets the toys be genuinely dangerous instead of cute. One of them gets into the house and almost fries the family with an electrical trap, and the parents stay clueless in that classic way that would not fly now but here feels right. The kids have to handle it. Christy gets pulled in after her little brother is used as bait or something, and she does not suddenly become an action star; she just helps because the situation is insane and she likes Alan enough to stick around. That crush plot is sweet and a little awkward and never turns into a speech. I overwrote the whole first paragraph in my head calling it a satire of military-industrial toy marketing, which it kind of is, and then I sat there realizing Dante just wanted to blow up a neighborhood with action figures and let the satire ride along for free. The company that made the chips is pure corporate greed, the general who sold them the tech is a walking punchline, and nobody learns a tidy lesson about peace. The Commandos are programmed to win at all costs and they do not grow hearts. They just get outmaneuvered. When Alan and Christy finally cook up the big counter-attack with the Gorgonites and some home-made explosives and a very angry lawnmower, it feels earned because the movie has spent time showing how small the toys are and how much damage they can still do if you ignore them. I rewound the lawnmower bit twice. The sound design is ridiculous and perfect. It is not deep. Some of the supporting adults are broad cartoons, the pacing wobbles when it needs to explain the chip tech, and the ending wraps up a little neat for how chaotic the middle got. But the movie never lectures you about who is allowed to play with what toys or which side of the war is morally complicated in modern terms. The boys are allowed to like the battle stuff. The girls are not required to fix anyone's toxicity. The Gorgonites are losers by design and the film loves them for it. I kept waiting for some contemporary guilt to creep in and it never did, which is probably why it still feels like summer-night junk food instead of homework. I finished it, sat on the couch a minute, and immediately wanted to watch the doll army sequence again, which I did, because that parenthetical energy never left me. It is messy and loud and weirdly tender about its plastic underdogs, and I am glad I finally saw the whole thing instead of just the trailer stuck in my head for twenty-something years.
Guest 2b41
anonymous
Sep 10, 2026
SMALL SOLDIERS is, essentially, Joe Dante's third GREMLINS film, except that the antagonists aren't gremlins this time around but instead normal, plastic toys who have been brought to life via military technology. It's along the same lines as TOY STORY, which came out at around the same time, but I think the Dante movie has the edge; it's live action, for a start, and the special effects used to animate the soldiers are remarkable. The film goes for a light action-adventure template with plenty of laughs thrown into the mix along the way. Like GREMLINS, there's a lot of small-scale stuff going on here, like fireworks being used as weapons and characters encountering the dangers of garbage disposal units. It's a kid's film, with child actors in the lead roles, but one of those ones that adults are sure to enjoy too. Cast-wise, we're handed decent turns from Gregory Smith (before he won popular attention with EVERWOOD) and Kirsten Dunst (just before she graduated to adult roles in SPIDER-MAN). Elsewhere, we get Denis Leary chewing the scenery as the slimy corporate villain, and Dante lucky charm Dick Miller as an unlucky delivery driver. Best of all are the voice actors hired for the soldiers; they're led by Tommy Lee Jones but boast plenty of veteran talent, including Ernest Borgnine and Frank Langella. Overall, Dante gets the tone just right, leaving this a highly enjoyable family adventure.