Toys (1992)

Getting down to the nitty gritty of the plot this is basically a blend of imagination taken from 'Willy Wonka', 'War Games' and strangely enough a few Charles Band movies I reckon. Maybe even some 'Pinocchio' and classic children's fairytales.

All it involves is a surreal toy company run by some surreal people that make charming little toys (the kind of endearing little handmade stocking fillers) which is overtaken by the former owners brother and promptly used to make war toys.

Its almost like a fairytale really, the nice old toy maker dies and leaves his company to his war obsessed naughty brother who abuses the gift. I'm sure as you all know by now this film is certainly not short on visual fantasy elements. The creativity in the film is really quite stunning and deserves much credit for design and construction.

Some gorgeous sets with unusually fantastic colour schemes and backdrops. The toy factory is made to be as bizarre and wondrous as possible which leads to my comparison with 'Willy Wonka' and his marvellous chocolate factory. The later sequences in the plot remind you of 'War Games' in the fact all the toys end up going to computer controlled war with each other much like Charles Band and his dolls/puppets battling each other (visually). This is where the film gets too ridiculous and truly loses its suspension of disbelief.

Until that point its a quirky fun pleasant ride with Williams up to his usual zany antics. Williams and Cusack fit this Dali-ish world perfectly really, that's not to say their performances are exactly great, more annoying to be honest, but could you see anyone else doing this craziness?. Gambon actually does well as the war crazed brother with a stiff upper lip. Drunk with power over the company and his war toys his fall is surprisingly fun to watch, silly but the fact he's a great British actor makes it worth while. LL Cool J...epic miscast.

Everything about this film is plain weird right down to the location for the toy factory. Its a little uncomfortable in places really, unsure if that was done on purpose or not. There are nice ideas here and it could of been a really good children's bedtime story type fable but its overly long with not much going on. Its lavish but rather dull, plus its a bit jumbled and gets carried away with the surrealism.