Piper Starnes
It’s officially Barbie season. With the premiere of Greta Gerwig’s upcoming fantasy-comedy, Barbie, just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to watch and rewatch movies about dolls coming to life.
This can either be really creepy and weird or really enchanting and wonderful. Anytime something that ought to be inanimate starts running around—or chasing someone, for that matter—the concept of coming alive stirs our childlike curiosity, blurring the lines between what’s possible and what’s beyond imagination.
Take your pick of childhood trauma or nostalgia, and check out these films featuring dolls that come alive!
FOR THE FAMILY
- Toy Story (1995)
In Disney Pixar’s Toy Story, when humans are away, their toys continue to play. Toy Story reveals the secret lives and adventures of Andy’s favorite toys—Woody the Cowboy, Buzz Lightyear and their posse of Potato Heads, Barbies, stuffed animals, action figures and more. Though they’ve had their ups and downs, the two ringleaders have become partners in crime, escaping toy torturers and thieves, surviving chaotic life at daycare, and making new friends over the course of four feature films. As much as the series is about growing up and embracing change, the Toy Story movies remind us that the value of friendship can last “to infinity and beyond.”
- The Indian in the Cupboard (1995)
The Indian in the Cupboard, an adaptation of Lynne Reid Banks’ book of the same name, follows Omri (Hal Scardino) and the magic cabinet he receives for his 9th birthday. With the turn of a key, he discovers that the cupboard can bring his toys to life. When Omri places a Native American figurine inside, the miniature man becomes a real-life 18th-century Onondaga brave named Little Bear (Litefoot/Gary Paul Davis),
As Omri befriends Little Bear and learns about Iroquois culture and history, Omri realizes that he’s keeping a man with a life and family hostage for his own entertainment. Grappling with the ethical implications of this secret magic, Omri and Little Bear must decide what’s best for their friendship. Propelled by a powerfully noble musical score, The Indian in the Cupboard is an underrated film full of heart, humanity and imagination.
- Small Soldiers (1998)
Unlike some of the other films in this list, the toys of Small Soldiers are not so much friends as they are foes. When a toy company mistakenly equips the Commando Elite, a new line of action figures, with military-grade artificial intelligence, the toys can not only “play back” with kids but wage real warfare against them.
The Commando Elite’s relentless leader, Major Chip Hazard (Tommy Lee Jones), wreaks havoc on a suburban neighborhood, forcing a teenager named Alan (Gregory Smith) to take matters into his own hands. With the help of a more peaceful group of action figures called the Gorgonites and Christy Fimple, the girl next door played by a young Kirsten Dunst, Alan attempts to stop the Commando Elite and save his family and friends.
Despite being produced by entertainment powerhouses DreamWorks Pictures, Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, Small Soldiers tends to fade in pop culture’s recent memory due to the overwhelming success of Disney Pixar’s Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999).
- Life-Size (2000)
Lindsay Lohan and Tyra Banks star in Life-Size, a film where a young girl’s doll comes to life and becomes, well, life-size. Still grieving the loss of her mother, 7th-grade Casey (Lohan) attempts a magic spell from “The Book of Awakenings” to bring her back to life. However, plans go awry when a strand of the “Eve” Doll’s hair falls into the mix.
Like Mattel’s Barbie, the fictitious “Eve” Doll by Marathon Toys is a plastic person with a larger-than-life personality. She loves driving her convertible, taking on new careers and, most of all, shopping. But Eve’s not in Sunnyvale anymore, and things in the real world are less perfect and much harder. As Eve and Casy navigate their differences, they learn valuable lessons about friendship, acceptance, and embracing what makes them special.
Tyra Banks reprised her role as Eve in Life-Size 2: A Christmas Eve (2018), and likely will again in the coming years for Life-Size 3.
- Night at the Museum (2006)
21 Laps Entertainment, 1492 Pictures and TSG Entertainment.
If you were to call the mannequins and figurines inside a museum “dolls,” they’d probably be just as offended as the museum staff. But this one is an exception. Night at the Museum, starring Ben Stiller, follows a security guard as he keeps watch over New York City’s Museum of Natural History.
When Larry (Stiller) starts his new job as the night watchman, he finds out that history truly comes alive after dark, from dinosaurs and cavemen to Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) and the mummy of Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek). Night at the Museum, similar to The Indian in the Cupboard, is based on a children’s book and also features a bold, venturesome musical score by Alan Silvestri to enhance the film’s fascinating historical elements.
Night at the Museum was followed by two sequels and an animated fourth installment, but there’s nothing like watching the original and experiencing the magic for the first time.
- Ted (2012)
Ok, so this one’s not for the whole family. (Hopefully, no one made the mistake of bringing their kids to see this in theaters.) Ted is a rated-R film about John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) and his foul-mouthed, party-loving teddy bear (voiced by director Seth MacFarlane). Though John and Ted have been best friends for nearly thirty years, John’s girlfriend (Mila Kunis) insists that it’s time for him to decide where his priorities lie—getting serious about their future together or smoking weed with a stuffed animal.
Combining Family Guy humor and pop culture references to the campy, cult classic Flash Gordon, this movie puts an interesting spin on comedy dramas about navigating adulthood and relationships. Ted isn’t for everyone, given how crude it can be at times, but evidently, it was liked enough for a sequel in 2015.
FOR THE HORROR FANS
From Jigsaw to Slappy the Dummy from R.L. Stein’s Goosebumps, there’s no shortage of possessed puppets in the horror genre. When it comes to the most iconic demonic dolls, there are three that top my list.
- Child’s Play (1988)
Child’s Play may have come out 34 years ago, but the creators of this demon-doll series have refused to let the legacy and lineage of Chucky die. Child’s Play begins with Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) chasing an escaped serial killer into a toy store. When Norris catches up and shoots him, the killer recites a voodoo spell on a “Good-Guy” talking doll to transfer his soul into the toy before dying.
Unaware of the doll’s dark secret, Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks) and her son Andy (Alex Vincent) become its unsuspecting owners. Chucky, far from a good guy, unleashes terror as he attacks any and everyone who stands in his way. As the characters find out, “there’s nothing innocent about child’s play.”
Given the franchise’s numerous sequels, television series, remakes, comic books, video games, and a new documentary, fans of Chucky have plenty to keep themselves preoccupied with until the next installment comes out.
- Annabelle (2014)
Before The Conjuring, there was Annabelle. In this horror film, a couple with a baby on the way adds a vintage porcelain doll to their nursery, thinking it’d be a perfect fit for the room. They couldn’t have been more wrong.
The couple discovers that a demonic spirit has been using Annabelle to attack them in its efforts to claim a human soul. The stakes heighten when their daughter is born, giving the suspense and jump scares more impact as the movie goes on.
Director John R. Leonetti took a unique approach by filming the movie in sequential order, carefully mapping out the characters’ emotional arcs to build tension. Leonetti claimed the technique helped the actors dive deeper into their roles and better understand their characters’ journeys. Shot in just 25 days with a modest budget of $5 million, Annabelle went on to spawn its own prequel, Annabelle: Creation, in 2017 and a 2019 sequel titled Annabelle Comes Home.
- M3GAN (2023)
There’s an ongoing debate about artificial intelligence and how far is considered too far. Whether you’ve seen M3GAN or not, we could all probably agree that a high-tech doll on a killing spree is far enough.
James Wan, the creator of The Conjuring and Saw franchises, produced M3GAN to remind people that they shouldn’t become too reliant on technology to solve all their problems. In the film, a robotics engineer named Gemma (Allison Williams) gifts her niece Cady (Violet McGraw) with M3gan, a “Model 3 Generative Android”—AKA her new best friend. M3gan’s job is to protect Cady from physical and emotional harm. However, as the film goes on, M3gan’s commitment to her responsibilities turns into a possessive obsession.
Murders aside, the M3gan character has launched itself to fame due to viral scenes of her dancing in an office hallway and running through a forest on all-fours. M3GAN may be a one-of-a-kind movie, but there will surely be more of that campy, sci-fi slasher thrill to come in M3GAN 2.0, expected to be released in January 2025.
FOR THE PINOCCHIOPHILES
- Pinocchio (1940)
A list dedicated to dolls coming alive would be incomplete without mentioning the loveable puppet—or “real boy,” I should say—Pinocchio. There are so many adaptations of Carlo Collodi’s original story from 1883 that there’s already a list that ranks the top 25.
Last year was quite a moment for Pinocchio with Disney’s live-action movie, Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion animation and the yassified Russian film Pinocchio: A True Story, dubbed in English by Pauly Shore. (You know the one—“Father, when can I leave to be on my own?!”)
As many interpretations as there are, Disney’s Pinocchio from 1940 takes the cake. With its nostalgic songs, emotional storytelling, and advanced, well-crafted animation special effects, there’s a reason this movie has stood the test of time.
Whether you’ve seen these movies as a youth or are watching them for the first time as an adult, hopefully, experiencing them today brings out your inner child just in time for Barbie, bound to be a cinematic highlight of the year!
