I haven’t seen Small Soldiers since it came out in 1998. I’d always meant to because it had more practical effects than I expected and I always enjoyed the tonal mismatch of edgy violence and family friendly movie. It only took 27 years to get the 4K UHD and give it another chance.
In the modern A.I. world, the idea of military chips making toys sentient seems quaint. It doesn’t go as far as M3gan 2.0, but the little Terminators are fun.
On 4K you can really see the texture on the toys with the plastic bits on their faces. There’s even a hair on Chip Hazzard’s hand grenade. The animation is so seamless in the live-action environments, it’s hard to tell when it’s not a puppet (well, the closeups of limbs are clearly puppets).
The third act battle is at night so it often puts the toys against a pure night sky. That wasn’t as striking on the big screen and certainly not prior home video.
The surround sound kicks in from the beginning as the toy factory assembles the toys, throughout all the suburban toy action. The Commandos’ computer readouts bleep in the rear, and electricity buzzes around the entire room when they bring Gwendy dolls to life.
The only behind the scenes feature is from the theatrical release, not even the DVD. It’s interesting that nobody revisted Small Soldiers for any release. So it’s a puff piece promoting the movie but they do a fun bit where Chip Hazzard gives an interview. Tommy Lee Jones sanctioned that buffoonery to do the voice.
It does show the puppeteering and visual effects, which was new then, but we see wire frames all the time now. A blooper reel is valuable for the inclusion of Phil Hartman alone.