The Odd History Of Small Soldiers. DreamWork’s Toy Story.

The longstanding rivalry between Disney/Pixar and DreamWorks runs so deep you could almost call it a blood feud. Both companies have tried to one up each other with various films that tackle similar stories/aesthetics. The infamous A Bug’s Life vs. Antz debate is well documented.

But not as many people remember the company’s answer to Toy Story, a film about toys coming to life. Well grab your gear and load your guns as we airdrop into the history of Small Soldiers.

The film initially came to fruition when director Joe Dante wanted to make “an edgy picture for teenagers“. Dante was known for previously directing 1984’s Gremlins and its 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

He decided to return to the idea of small creatures causing havoc in a suburban setting. This time with toys instead of monsters. The 1995 Pixar film Toy Story was very popular with its story about living toys, so the production team decided to go in a similar direction. 

The concept of toys coming to life and causing chaos was not exactly original by that point. The Child’s Play series was very popular, with movies such as Puppet Master and Demonic Toys from Full Moon Features also garnering a following.



The film would be about two warring factions of toys and the people caught in between the crossfire. The in-universe toy company designed the Commando Elites to be the good guys while the monstrous Gorgonites were meant to be the bad guys. But it would be revealed that the soldiers were, in fact, the real villains, and the monsters were good all along.



The Commando Elite were based on the popular toy line G.I. Joe from Hasbro while He-Man and the Masters of the Universe by Mattel inspired the Gorgonites. In a way you could see the film as a meta-commentary of Hasbro vs. Mattel.



The film had a total of five writers on the team. Gavin Scott, Adam Rifkin, Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, and Anna Spielberg. Anna is the sister of legendary director/producer Stephen Spielberg, who also happened to be producing the film (since he co-founded DreamWorks). However, both Stephen and Anna were uncredited in the final product for unknown reasons.

The casting had a decent number of notable names for the human characters, with a young Kirsten Dunst, Gregory Smith, Kevin Dunn, Denis Leary, Jay Mohr, David Cross and Phil Hartman (Note: This was Hartman’s last on-camera film role following his tragic death earlier in the year. The film was dedicated in his memory).

What’s even more interesting was the choices in voice actors for the toy characters. Each faction was given a theme. The Commando Elite were originally meant to be voiced by actors who made up the cast of 1987’s Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger voicing the leader Major Chip Hazard.



Unable to get them, they instead chose actors from 1967’s The Dirty Dozen while Tommy Lee Jones provided the voice of Chip Hazzard. As for the Gorgonites, they chose actors from the 1984 mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap, with Frank Langella voicing their leader, Archer. 



The special effects were done through a combination of state-of-the-art puppetry by legendary puppeteer and special effects director Stan Winston while most of the other effects were handled by Industrial Light & Magic. In fact, about one-third of the film used puppets for the toys, while the other two-thirds used CGI.

The film was released on July 10th, 1998, and grossed a total of $87.5 Million against a $40 Million budget. While not a financial failure, the film didn’t do as well as the studio had hoped. The film received a mostly mixed reaction, with the average score being a 5/10. Joe Dante believed that the studio wanted to turn the film into a franchise, but those plans were quickly squashed. 



One of the biggest criticisms of the film was its constant tonal shifts between lighter and darker scenes that didn’t blend well together. The reason for that was sponsors for the film came on (Kenner, Burger King etc.) and wanted them to tone down the film for younger audiences. The trouble was that a good amount of the darker scenes had already been filmed. So, they had no choice but to film all remaining scenes in this new direction.

Following the film’s release, there was a series of toys and action figures from Kenner. The line consisted of figures from both the Gorgonites and the Commando Elite. Initially, it was believed that the Gorgonites would be the better sellers, so more of the lineup was produced. Surprisingly the Commandos turned out to be the better sellers despite only four out of the initial six being turned into toys.

Despite Kenner’s best efforts, the line was quickly shelved to make room for the then-upcoming release of Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Star Wars was, at the time, a guaranteed hit for retailers, so it was decided to focus almost entirely on that while other lines were either downsized or canceled.

In addition to Kenner, the fast-food giant Burger King partnered with the film to promote the new Rodeo Burger, as well as produce a line of Burger King Kids Meal toys.

However, after it was announced that the film would receive a PG-13 rating from the MPAA Burger King was not very happy. The chain made the following statement following the controversy:

“While toys are suitable for children of all ages, the movie Small Soldiers may contain material that is inappropriate for younger children.“

Aside from toys, there were also multiple video games for the SONY PlayStation, Nintendo GameBoy and Windows 95/98. The games covered multiple genres, from a 3D action game, to a 2D platformer, to a real-time strategy game and even a 3D arena fighting game.

In one of these games, Small Soldiers: Squad Commander, there was an unofficial crossover with the Alien franchise. If the player were to input the correct cheat code, the character of Vasquez from the 1986 film Aliens was made a playable unit.



Twenty-five years later, there sadly has been no word of a follow-up. A remake was apparently in the works at 20th Century Fox under the working title Toymageddon dating back to 2014. But the 2019 Disney buyout of the studio officially canceled the project.

Shortly after the 25th anniversary, a fan film entitled Small Soldiers: War for the Necron surfaced online and has since gained nearly 2 million views. The aesthetic changed from military vs. monsters to space marines vs. extra-terrestrials. The product overall resembled something like StarCraft or Warhammer 40K. Despite not being official, it does show that there is still a passionate fanbase out there for the film that is hungry for a reboot.

While the film was made by DreamWorks and distributed by Universal, the current home video rights are held by Paramount. And as mentioned before, a remake was in development at 20th Century Fox. So, it is not entirely known who owns what, making the chances of a reboot more complicated.



While not Toy Story, the film does indeed have a cult following, with there even being a collector’s market for the Kenner action figures. It is an IP that could perhaps benefit from a reboot. With DreamWorks focusing primarily on animated films perhaps a new one could be entirely animated.

What do you remember about Small Soldiers? Did you see it in theaters when it was first released? Did you have any of the toys? Did you play any of the video games? Let us know.