Even though I rated this plucky movie a 4, it doesn't mean I hate it, my dear friends. I liked it but it doesn't have the stuff to make it to my higher favoritism of movies. Frank Oz is imaginative, but I have to say that this film to me is not so Frank Oz, and movies that are adapted from books are quite impressive, but I can only say I was slightly impressed. For one thing, the cast is inadequate, I never heard of David Keith and Litefoot.
This story follows Omri, an extremely childish youngster who, for his birthday, receives a MAGICAL (ooh!) cupboard. The Cupboard lacks its key so Omri's mother (actress Lindsay Crouse, never heard of her), gives him her collection of keys, and guess what ? He finds the certain key on his second try! That part always took me aback. He puts in an antique Iroquois figure in the cupboard, and later in the morning he opens it to find the figure alive as a small Iroquois man. The pair has many tedious adventures, some including an idiotic rat ball and a down-right scruffy cowboy who was a toy figure too. The cupboard MAGICALLY turns plastic (plaz-teck!) things into their real life counterparts, only smaller. The pair soon learns that every boy must become a man (a typical, yet true moral).
Omri's character really is childish, yet endearing; his parents seem to pamper him, he's afraid of the dark, and he has lame 90's action figures; but he does mellow out in the end of the movie. I liked the acting, but it was no To Kill a Mocking Bird, even at moving parts. The Iroquois man was different from other Indian movies; he was a guru in a way. The music was just moderate and odd, though with one exception you'll know when you hear it.
Be warned, my dear readers, this movie contains slight profanity (embarrassing really); simulative killing and some ladies do a loathsome dance on TV at one point (they call this a kid movie, how embarrassing. Let's hope Omri was sleeping at that adultish scene). And no the kid does not play God, its just a story, have fun. Other than the 3 points I pointed out, the movie is plucky and it has a rather moving ending. It's an poorish if okay movie.
This story follows Omri, an extremely childish youngster who, for his birthday, receives a MAGICAL (ooh!) cupboard. The Cupboard lacks its key so Omri's mother (actress Lindsay Crouse, never heard of her), gives him her collection of keys, and guess what ? He finds the certain key on his second try! That part always took me aback. He puts in an antique Iroquois figure in the cupboard, and later in the morning he opens it to find the figure alive as a small Iroquois man. The pair has many tedious adventures, some including an idiotic rat ball and a down-right scruffy cowboy who was a toy figure too. The cupboard MAGICALLY turns plastic (plaz-teck!) things into their real life counterparts, only smaller. The pair soon learns that every boy must become a man (a typical, yet true moral).
Omri's character really is childish, yet endearing; his parents seem to pamper him, he's afraid of the dark, and he has lame 90's action figures; but he does mellow out in the end of the movie. I liked the acting, but it was no To Kill a Mocking Bird, even at moving parts. The Iroquois man was different from other Indian movies; he was a guru in a way. The music was just moderate and odd, though with one exception you'll know when you hear it.
Be warned, my dear readers, this movie contains slight profanity (embarrassing really); simulative killing and some ladies do a loathsome dance on TV at one point (they call this a kid movie, how embarrassing. Let's hope Omri was sleeping at that adultish scene). And no the kid does not play God, its just a story, have fun. Other than the 3 points I pointed out, the movie is plucky and it has a rather moving ending. It's an poorish if okay movie.