In terms of voice acting, the film features Tommy Lee Jones, Frank Langella, Bruce Dern, Christopher Guest, Christina Ricci, and Sarah Michelle Gellar just to name a few. In front of the camera, the film features people like a pre- Spider-Man Kirsten Dunst, Jay Mohr and David Cross, Denis Leary, and the last on-screen role of Phil Hartman. The cast of Small Soldiers especially is incredibly stacked. One thing that both Small Soldiers and Child's Play 2019 indulge in, is a bit of stunt casting. The use of technology in a film that seems to be a commentary on reliance on technology is kind of neat, and some of the stunts the little figures get up to are just so much fun. While it's not perfect, it's far from bad, and even the cheesier effects are really quite endearing. CGI from that time period is notoriously awful compared to today's standards, so most would likely expect this film to look terrible.

Dante has said before that, while the original intention was to use practical effects with Stan Winston puppets, the actual film is about one-third puppet and two-thirds CGI. It's one of the main distinctions between the two films.Īnother element of Small Soldiers that, maybe to the surprise of some, holds up really well is how it looks. Of course, Child's Play doesn't seem to intentionally touch on those themes at all and it is a straight-up slasher movie while Small Soldiers is a family-friendly picture. These themes are still really relevant in modern society, despite this movie coming out over 20 years ago, and that's part of the reason it holds up as well as it does. It also, in a way, feels like a bit of a parody of Toy Story.

The message of the film seems to touch on a lot of themes like consumerism, and the explosion of the home technology market.

Small soldiers game boy review