The Indian in the Cupboard (1995)

This is one of those movies you watch as a child, and you love it, and when you watch it as an adult, you hope it will live up to your memory. A little boy receives a few unique gifts for his birthday: an old cupboard, an old key, and an old Native American Iroquois toy. When combined, something magical happens. The toy becomes a living man. The young boy is at first excited about being able to make his toys come to life, until he learns that with the people being truly alive, it also means they can die. He learns a lot from the Native American about the man's culture, and brings the information to school. But when the boy's friend learns the truth, he decides to bring an old cowboy to life, which causes fights between the toys. This is a heartwarming tale of friendship, love, and the meaning and consequences of life. For that reason, this movie is sweet, and good. However, from a technical standpoint, this movie is terrible. Therefore, I must say, if you have kids then this would be a sweet movie to watch with them. Otherwise, never see this film.Soundtrack: 4- There were moments of soundtrack that worked, usually when putting in bits of Native American chants, but for the most part it was just bad.Script: 4- There are so many plot holes. Not only that, but the script sounded choppy, and not well thought out. However, there were some moments that seemed to try to be character development, and for the sake of what the script had to offer, it was OK.Originality: 10- This was definitely an excellent idea, and might even work if redone better.Cinematography: 5- The cinematography was not spectacular. There were some strange camera choices. However, the special effects blended pretty decently, giving this an average score.Casting: 2- There were a couple people that worked, but for the most part the cast just wasn't right.Acting: 1- The man playing the Native American was decent, and the only reason the acting is not a zero. No one else in this film could act at all.Overall: 4.3

Underrated and highly involving movie for kids. A young boy finds out that his cupboard has magical powers and can turn plastic into reality. He first turns a plastic Indian into a real human being. The movie teaches about responsibility but in an understandable way. It isn't patronizing nor childish, which means older audiences should relate to it also. It also mediates on life and death at certain points, and was the first film in a long time to be genuinely emotionally shocking. The relationship between the Indian and the cowboy was very well developed as they started to bond over their tragedies. The film does have a number of loose edges. Rishi Bhat was particularly annoying at times, but in a way he was necessary to play off Scardino. Even Scardino wasn't always a lovable protagonist. In one scene he kicks his brother's pet rat down the stairs, in an event where the rat clearly would have died. As the film hadn't relied on cartoon logic up until that point it was a bit out of place. Great effects, and seeing Darth Vader vs. a T-Rex kind of made up for those moments. A more innocent time when children's movies didn't have to be loud and crass.

Terrific! First we took their land, then we confined them to reserves, now we've forced Native Americans to live inside of our furniture.Fortunately, this kids' movie is not about constricting a Cree to a credenza – it's about an Iroquois.For his 9th birthday, Omri (Hal Scardino) receives a cupboard and a plastic Indian figurine (Litefoot).When he locks the statuette in the sideboard using a magic key, he opens to find that the toy has come to life.Next, he places a plastic cowboy (David Keith) into the cupboard. And later, he must animate a plastic medic (Steve Coogan); unfortunately, he has lost the key.Based on the beloved children's book, The Indian in the Cupboard may have its faults but at heart it's a compassionate account of growing up.However, wouldn't it be more enlightening for a maturing young man to bring his sister's Bratz dolls to life? (Yellow Light)

It's sometimes nice to revisit movies from childhood, and that's just what I did with this one, an adaptation of the children's novel of the same name by Lynne Reid Banks. I think my first viewing of "The Indian in the Cupboard" was on the big screen, and then I saw it at school twice at two different times within the next few years. So, I saw this film twice during childhood, and a third time in my early adolescent years. Just yesterday, I rented it so I could see it again for the first time in nine years. By this time, I had seen its rating and number of votes here, so I could tell that it wasn't highly regarded as a family classic. For that reason, I did not have high expectations, and basically, this PG-rated family movie turned out to be a mixed blessing, which was probably the best I could hope for.When a young boy named Omri celebrates his ninth birthday, one of the presents he gets is a cupboard from his older brother, and another is a little plastic Indian figure from his friend. With both of these presents, he is in for a surprise. After placing the plastic figure in the cupboard, locking it up, and then opening it again, he sees that the figure, still the same size, has come to life! He soon learns that this is what happens when one places a figure in there, locks the door, and opens it again! That plastic figure has been replaced by a real 18th century Iroquois Indian named Little Bear, interrupted from his life and brought to Omri's room, where he is the size of an action figure! He agrees to stay for a while, but during his stay, he and the young modern-day boy are headed for adventure and conflict, and their cultural differences turn out to be one of their problems.One criticism of this movie I agree with is the acting, especially Hal Scardino's acting in the lead role of Omri. He wasn't the greatest child actor to ever make it to the silver screen, that's for sure. Another severe flaw in the film is sometimes the musical score. It tends to be pretty sappy, and really seems unreasonable at times, such as the music in the scene where Omri first sees Little Bear alive in the cupboard. More still, there's some very poor dialogue, and there also may be some humour here, but that also usually fails, with the likes of Boo-hoo Boone, a goofy cowboy who also comes from the cupboard. Now, not everything about this film is bad. Little Bear is a likable character, even if Litefoot doesn't do the greatest job playing him. I can't say I was completely bored throughout the entire film, as there were parts that intrigued me to a certain degree, but this did not hide the blatant flaws.I vaguely remember reading the book back in the late 90's, but can't remember it too well, so I don't know how it compares. However, it does seem to be more popular than this adaptation. This movie is one of those which was never one of my favourites as a kid, and I'm not sure exactly what I thought of it at the time, but I guess I liked it somewhat. During my last viewing, much later than the rest of them, I could definitely see more flaws in it than I used to (I don't think I used to see any real flaws in it at all). This 1995 adaptation of "The Indian in the Cupboard" does have a few redeeming features, but I'm sure they could have tried harder to make it really good family entertainment, and if only they had avoided the negative things I've pointed out, there would have been a good chance that they could have made it happen.