Movie directed by Joe Dante about toys that come to life that released in the summer of 1998. Kind of what DreamWorks answer to Toy Story and one of those "Edgy" type of family movies, to the point where it feels like like Joe Dante just somehow tricked Dreamworks into sinking $40 million into what was clearly a psychotic B-movie that was then only slightly re-tooled and marketed to children at the last minute . Flopped at the box office but has a cult following First off does anyone notice how similar the plot structure of this movie is to Transformers which came out 9 years later? It's like someone at DreamWorks when making the Transformers movie thought, we can just reuse the same basic plot of Small Soldiers for this. Hell, Kevin Dunn plays the dad in both movies! Personally I think this movie is way better than Transformers and also Joe Dante's own Gremlins. A super fun movie with a great cast and a nice blend of animatronics and CGI (that doesn't look that bad even today) and a memorable Jerry Goldsmith score. Though has a kid I rooted for the Commando Elite because they were so much cooler. Also had a crush on Kirsten Dunst in this movie as a kid. Tommy Lee Jones provides his only voice role he has ever done I think and I would love to see footage of him in the recording room.