Review of The Indian in the Cupboard (1995) by Johnny T — 01 Aug 2011

I remember watching this as a fourth grader in elementary school after reading the book in which it was based on and after viewing this a few times, it's kind of a very decent movie. Not great, but its really good and here's the reason why.

The premise about Omri realizing that a magical cupboard brings toys to life (and no, it's not like that CGI animated film Toy Story) was very interesting. The performances were very good including the performance from Omri and Patrick.

The special effects from the famous Industrial Light and Magic Company were quite spectacular and the blue screen effects were very good. Even the music was good and very emotional.

The movie, while being faithful to the book, does have some flaws that didn't leave an impact.

In the book, Little Bear has a wife before saying goodbye to Omri while in the movie, he doesn't.

In the book, Little Bear becomes chief after the chief dies when he was very frightened of Omri, but in the movie, however, he doesn't become a chief.

In the book, Omri and Patrick get sent to the principal's office before Patrick explains that they have a real live Boone and Little Bear in his pocket, but in the movie, that didn't really happened.

That's all I gotta say about the flaws because some of scenes were quite faithful to the book.

To conclude this, The Indian in the Cupboard isn't great, but its a very good family-adventure movie and it's really worth checking out.

6.7 out of 10.