Toys (1992)    20th Century Fox/Comedy    RT: 121 minutes    Rated PG-13 (thematic elements, some language and sensuality)    Director: Barry Levinson    Screenplay: Valerie Curtin and Barry Levinson    Music: Hans Zimmer and Trevor Horn    Cinematographer: Adam Greenberg    Release date: December 18, 1992 (US)    Cast: Robin Williams, Michael Gambon, Joan Cusack, Robin Wright, LL Cool J, Donald O’Connor, Arthur Malet, Jack Warden, Debi Mazar, Wendy Melvoin, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Jamie Foxx, Shelly Desai, Blake Clark, Art Metrano, Kate Benton, Steve Park, Yeardley Smith, Julie Hayden, Kevin West.    Box Office: $23.2M (US)

Rating: ***

I should have realized that Toys was going to be something other than what I expected. My first clue should have been the fact that none of the trailers or commercials showed a single scene from the movie. From the middle of summer right up until the date of its release, the multiplexes all ran the same teaser trailer showing Robin Williams standing in the middle of a grassy field performing his usual comedy shtick. I assumed Toys was going to be a whimsical little comedy about a toy factory run by Robin. It sounded like the ideal holiday movie. What kid wouldn’t want to see a movie about toys, right?

 Then it opened and audiences made a startling discovery. Toys is a lot of things but it’s definitely NOT a cute little family movie. The best way I can describe it is a cross between Willy Wonka and Dr. Strangelove. In short, it’s an anti-war satire disguised as a whimsical comedy-fantasy. That, in and of itself, is weird. HOWEVER, things are going to get weirder before it’s over.

 Toys opens with a nice ballet sequence featuring a bunch of children dancing around a miniature version of New York City to “Winter Reveries” by Tchaikovsky. Then a children’s chorus led by Wendy Melvoin (member of Prince’s bad The Revolution) sings “The Closing of the Year” before Santa Claus descends to the stage in his sleigh amidst a group of enthusiastic children. All of the factory employees are watching and enjoying the show. Apparently, it’s a yearly tradition.

 Meanwhile, toy factory owner and CEO Kenneth Zevo (O’Connor, Singing in the Rain) is dying. He asks his brother General Leland Zevo (Gambon, the Harry Potter movies) to assume control. He doesn’t feel that his son Leslie (Williams) and daughter Alsatia (Cusack, Working Girl) are ready for this kind of responsibility yet. Leland is a three-star general who’s grown disillusioned with the state of the military. There haven’t been any good wars since the US government gave away the Vietnam War. Communism is pretty much dead so he’s outlived his usefulness and is considered obsolete. He decides to accept his brother’s proposal and steps in to take charge after the funeral.

 Leland has no interest in the toy making business until he learns there’s a certain degree of industrial espionage in which plans for sophisticated new toys are leaked to rival manufacturers. In almost no time, he transforms the factory from a fun and happy place into a maximum security, fascist state with soldiers marching around checking work IDs and asking specific questions of the employees. In order to implement the new security procedures, Leland calls in his son Patrick (LL Cool J, Deep Blue Sea), a soldier whose specialty is covert operations, to oversee the project.

 In addition, the general decides to introduce a line of war toys, something that Zevo Toys has never attempted. Kenneth didn’t like them. He abandons the idea after the production design teams don’t come up with anything good. One of their ideas is a tank shaped like an elephant. Leland comes up with another idea, something involving video games and young children. It’s an idea he could sell to the US military because it would cut spending by a huge percentage. When Leslie and his sister hear about the general’s nefarious plans, they have to figure out a way to stop him and restore the toy factory to its former glory.

 I would be remiss if I didn’t warn you that Toys is definitely not for all tastes. I saw it on opening night with a group of friends and all we could do is just look at each other incredulously as the action unfolded on screen. Our collective reaction was one great big “What the f***?!” It was so not what we expected. My initial feelings about Toys were overwhelmingly negative, but I couldn’t get it out of my mind, something about it intrigued me. Finally, I decided to go and see it again with another group of friends. This time, I found myself getting into it. Rather, this time I got it.

 It hit me that director Barry Levinson (Good Morning Vietnam, Rain Man) wasn’t making a movie for children. The movie’s PG-13 rating should have told me that. Rather, he was making a black comedy about warfare and how the military was taking over the country. By the end of ’92, Americans had endured 12 years of Republican politics and major overspending on the part of the DOD (Department Of Defense). In the movie, General Leland Zevo keeps asking for more space to work on his secret project and ends up taking over the entire factory while the other departments were either shut down or had their budgets cut. It resembles the militaristic attitudes of Presidents Reagan (1981-89) and Bush Sr. (1989-93). What grade school kid is going to understand this? I liked Toys much better the second time around. Now it’s one of my yearly Christmas movies.

 Williams turns in an interesting albeit schizophrenic performance as Leslie, the child-like adult who loves a good practical joke and enjoys needling his uptight Uncle Leland. He shows up for an important meeting wearing a jacket that makes noise with every body movement. He drinks wine from a dribble glass during a formal dinner at the Zevo family house. He drives to his father’s funeral in a bumper car, ramming into and bouncing off the hearse in front of him. He’s a big little stinker. Who better to play a character like this than Robin Williams? He’s perfect for the role.

 Leslie finds a romantic interest in Gwen (Wright, The Princess Bride), the head of the duplication department. That’s right, she’s in charge of MAKING COPIES! She’s adorable in the role with her character being almost as child-like as her boss. She still has training wheels on her bicycle. She agrees to remove them if Leslie can make things right at the factory again. Cusack is good as Alsatia, an odd woman who always seems to be one step behind and two steps off to the left from everybody else in the room. Gambon is great as the uptight gung ho general who has no time or patience for tomfoolery of any kind. If that’s the case, he’s most definitely in the wrong place. It’s always great to see an old vet like O’Connor act even in a small part. He shows he’s still got it at 67. Jack Warden (All the President’s Men) appears unbilled as Leland and Kenneth’s father, a retired four-star general who’s bedridden and mumbles most of his dialogue.

 Another great thing about Toys is the striking production design and art direction by Ferdinando Scarfiotti and Edward Richardson respectively. It looks like a live action pop-up storybook with the Zevos’ house folding out from the surrounding landscape. Everything in the factory looks like it could have been built by the people at Fisher Price. The sets are colorful and vibrant. Granted, it gets a bit old by the end, but I’ve still never seen anything quite like it before or since.

 The musical score by Hans Zimmer and Trevor Horn is quite good. The soundtrack includes cuts by Tori Amos, Enya and Grace Jones. There’s one very impressive sequence where Leslie and Alsatia sneak into the restricted area of the factory by giving a special effects-ridden performance of “The Mirror Song” (by Thomas Dolby). They make it appear on the security guards’ video monitors as if it was an MTV video while Leslie goes snooping around.

 Toys isn’t the greatest movie ever made. It has flaws. Some scenes run a bit long and it’s not always as funny as it should be. However, it’s hardly the cinematic disaster that most folks make it out to be. True, it bombed at the box office. The kids all swarmed to Home Alone 2 and Aladdin instead. Sometimes it’s the more original movies that get overlooked because mainstream audiences don’t know how to react. If Toys is considered a failure and it largely is, then it’s one of the most interesting failures I’ve ever seen.