28 Years Before Toy Story 5, Kirsten Dunst’s ‘Small Soldiers’ Was Every Millennial Kid’s Ultimate Fantasy

In 1998, while Pixar was playing with lighter themes around toys and what if they had feelings, director Joe Dante explored a much darker question. Small Soldiers imagined a world where action figures sprang to life with weapons in their hands. It clearly wasn’t a heartwarming buddy adventure like Toy Story 5 or the other films of the franchise.

Instead, these sentient toys waged war with each other in a suburban neighborhood, pulling Gregory Smith’s Alan and Kirsten Dunst‘s Christy into the whole mess. In the movie, weapons contractor GloboTech buys a toy company. In their poorly planned attempt to chase realism, they implant the toys with military-grade microchips that give them sentience.

The hyper-aggressive Commando Elite, led by Chip Hazard, is programmed to destroy their designated enemies, the Gorgonites, led by Archer. Tommy Lee Jones voiced Chip, while Frank Langella voiced Archer. For kids raised on G.I. Joe and Saturday-morning cartoons, this was the fantasy nobody said aloud. Toys that actually fought, schemed, and turned power tools into weapons.

While Toy Story told a magical story that parents wanted their children to see, Small Soldiers was the slightly forbidden daydream of every kid obsessed with action figurines. It made sense that the former saw massive success and spawned four more sequels, including the latest entry, which marked the franchise’s magical and profound return, while the latter remained a hidden gem.

Why Toy Story Succeeded While Small Soldiers Got Forgotten

Both Toy Story and Small Soldiers have kind of similar premises. They show us what happens when ordinary toys gain consciousness. However, it is Pixar and DreamWorks’ approaches that make these two movies wildly different. And it also made it clear why one movie had the box office appeal that the other didn’t have.

Pixar built its story around identity and the quiet pain of being outgrown, with every Toy Story movie almost adhering to the same concept. Dante built his story around satire and corporate greed, wrapping the whole thing in PG-13 violence. One movie made parents happy, while the other made them unsure about whether they were going in for a kids’ movie or a war movie.

The movie arrived in theaters with marketing aimed at kids. Parents bought toy lines resembling Commando Elite and Gorgonites. Yet, the movie showed these figures blowing up a gas station and turning Gwendy dolls into war brides. The tonal whiplash unsettled critics and eventually turned away audiences. While it pulled some decent box office numbers ($55 million domestically, via The Numbers), it could never become a cultural phenomenon like Toy Story.

The millennial generation half-remembered it, seeing Tommy Lee Jones barking orders on late-night cable television or discount DVDs. And then, it slipped out of pop culture conversation entirely.

Small Soldiers Is Worth Revisiting As Toy Story 5 Hits Theaters

A still from Small Soldiers | Credits: DreamWorks Pictures

As Toy Story 5 landed in theaters on Friday, the ‘Toy meets tech’ premise suddenly makes Small Soldiers weirdly relevant. In Pixar’s latest outing, the gang’s enemy isn’t a jealous toy but technology itself. Bonnie’s tablet device, Lilypad, has its own disruptive ideas about what’s best for her.

28 years ago, Dante already dramatized what happens when corporate technology storms the toy box. That parallel is exactly why the 1998 movie deserves a second look. The concerns raised in that movie, about militarized AI, reckless innovation, and companies chasing realism in tech at any cost, are all the more relevant in 2026.

There are other factors that critics dismissed, which feel nostalgic on a rewatch today. Kirsten Dunst and Gregory Smith’s characters represented the millennial kid, and the practical-effects toys looked weirdly gorgeous. Moreover, the stacked voice cast, including Tommy Lee Jones, Frank Langella, Christopher Guest, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Christina Ricci, makes us even more interested in a rewatch.

What is your opinion on this hidden DreamWorks action movie? Let us know in the comments below!

Small Soldiers is now available for streaming on Paramount+ and Fubo. Meanwhile, Toy Story movies are available on Disney+. Toy Story 5 is now out in theaters.