Review : Toys

TOYS A military general inherits a toy making company and begins making war toys, his employees band together to stop him before he ruins the name and reputation of Zevo Toys forever.

The collaborative efforts of Director Barry Levinson and Actor Robin Williams invite you to endeavour in the adventures which happen at a co-operative toy factory 'Zevo Toys' where true wonders happen, bringing happiness and delight to children and providing fascination to a wide ranged audience.

The Story goes that the eccentric toymaker's last wish is that his brother (Michael Gambon) takes over the running of the business. However, The brother is a military General, and in fact doesn't know anything about toy making, and is very much out of touch with reality. Incidentally, the business should really have been given to Leslie (Robin Williams), who has much more talent and skill in his toy making like his father. When the General starts making weapons instead of toys, Leslie decides to rightly take action.

I should like to give anyone who has yet to see this film a word of caution because they need to know that, despite the title, "Toys" is not really considered to be a children's film, although the film is called "Toys" and its unrealistic universe that it lives in, does play to a child's information and the atmosphere of the toy factory and Robin Williams lightheartedness would allow positivity in terms of children responding to that, in a good way, but still it's not really 'A Kid's Film'.

I mean there's Swearing at a light PG-level. Plot involves the death and burial of an ailing father. Some of Leslie's favorite toys are imitation dog-doo, fake vomit, and other vulgar body-function novelties. Mid-90s jokes about Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf, Mother Theresa, and other topics might leave audience members demanding an explanation, plus I'm not overly convinced that children under the age of 12 years would get all the jokes in it. Political bias is pretty thick: childhood innocence and sweetness vs a hostile military-industrial complex. There just a few issues to point out when you're considering about watching the film.

Here's a little taster.

Also I've personally never found this to be a film, which I can get into quite lightly, you do have to be in the right mood to watch it. And yes, there are a few films like that, but I think with this film, you really do need to be in the mood to actually sit down and watch it in order to get anything out of it. The film's plot summery sounds interesting and the story is good, it's very well cast and well directed to an extent of allowing the audience to believe in the boundaries that they are in, however this also creates limitations in the diversity of the story telling, so it's I think it's a clever technique and it works really well, but there isn't really much to go upon after a while.

Robin Williams, fantastic as ever and it is such a tragedy that he's no longer with us. But he's just doing the usual stuff : Funny, Kind, Sensitive and engages the audience as best he can through laughter and entertainment factor.

On a visual perspective Toys is breathtaking, a pastel and primary-colored nursery-room world, with optical illusions and false-perspective shots borrowed from great 20th-century surrealist painters. Even a shameless ad for MTV is so clever looking one almost can dismiss it. Almost. Sex gags, cussing, and the lack of child characters signify this is a more grownup toy story than Toy Story, but some teens might enjoy the lively vibe the film it creates, it's visions, and as I said before Robin Williams' energetic patter, and even the naivete of the politics presented in it. 7/10!

NEXT: Paddington