The Case for Remaking Small Soldiers

The premise for Small Soldiers comes from a complaint that many of us had as children, delivered via Denis Leary rant. The commercials displayed toys that walk and talk on their own. We got hunks of plastic that, if they were top of the line, had arms and legs that could be moved without breaking them off. We were children and it's not like even the rich kids got the tiny sentient being that they could throw into the toy chest when bored, so that disappointment could be overcome... but never entirely die away.

Denis Leary's very wealthy new owner of a toy company has that same disappointment and that brings us to a good premise for a movie. What if a toy company delivered what the commercials promised? What if we got toys that were sentient but didn't derive some kinky satisfaction from making us believe they were lifeless, soulless, inanimate objects. (There, I've just made Toy Story weird for you.)

As premises go, this has a lot of opportunity to it. And, most of that opportunity is wasted.
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