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.

I'll admit...when I first saw the movie, I thought it was the best movie ever. Then, I read the books. This movie strays very far from the book. The big problem is the fact that the books take place in England. And if you read the rest of the books, you'll know how important the location is to the entire story. The movie Americanizes Omri. The movie cuts out and replaces a lot of scenes as well. For instance, in the movie, Boone never sits in the art class drawing his microscopic sketch of his town...a scene that would play an big role in a book to come. Another scene they cut was the principal seeing Little Bear and Boone the way Omri and Patrick do...another big scene that follows them throughout the series. Perhaps they did this because there were no plans for sequels. However, it makes for a huge disappointment for viewers who had read the books before or ran right to the books afterward. The acting and casting for the time travelers, however, was wonderful. As I read the books, I picture Litefoot speaking all Little Bear's lines, Steve Coogan speaking all Tommy's lines, and David Keith speaking Boone's lines. I loved the special effects throughout the movie. The fact that all the others were Americanized causes me to realize they don't fit the Omri, Patrick, etc in the books. Overall, I say that if you enjoy it, then you enjoy it. But chances are, when you read the books, you'll find it a definite disappointment, as it is with so many other book-based movies.

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 so imaginative (Yoda, Miss Piggy... love them!), 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 (David Coogan, however, was in Around the World in 80 Days).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 (ooh!) 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 (duh, no one can play the Lord Almighty, my foolish friends), 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 OKAY movie >: )

I'm a sucker for nice kids, not those snotty ones seen so often in films from the '60s to the present. In here is a wonderful neat-looking little kid, Hal Sardino, who is unusual in that this is the only movie he ever starred in. To his credit, Scardino went on to live a "normal" life after this film, eventually going to college as a regular student like you and me with no celebrity status.The film is anything but "normal," a fantasy about a young boy who receives a cupboard that transforms little toy figurines - in this case, an Indian and then a cowboy. - into miniature real-life people. Each time he opens or closes the box with the figures in them, they change to either real or back to plastic.Scardino, who plays Omri," is fun to watch, if for no other reason than the great expressions on his face. He has to be one of the most likable children I've ever seen on film. Meanwhile, his best friend "Patrick" is the only villain, so to speak, only because he's a bit "defiant," as his mother labels him and he almost spoils everything for "Omri."It's a solid family film that is fun for both the parents and kids to watch at the same time. Both will get a lot of entertainment out of it. With just a bit of profanity early on and a bit of obvious political correctness, there is nothing in here which should offend viewers. Critics didn't seem to care for it, so you know it truly was a nice, wholesome film....and fun to watch.