Toys Information

Toys is a 1992 fantasy comedy film directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robin Williams, Michael Gambon, Joan Cusack, Robin Wright, LL Cool J, and Jamie Foxx in his feature film debut. The film failed at the box office at the time of its release, despite its impressive cast and lavish filmmaking. Levinson was criticized for a lack of plot focus. The magnitude of perceived directorial failure was such that Levinson was consequently nominated for (but did not win) a Razzie Award for Worst Director. The film did, however, receive Oscar nominations for art direction (Ferdinando Scarfiotti, Linda DeScenna) and costume design. It was also entered into the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.

René Magritte's art, particularly The Son of Man, is obvious in its influence on the set design, and in part the costume design, of the film. The poster for the film distributed to movie theaters features Robin Williams in a red bowler hat against a blue, cloud-lined background. Golconda is also featured during a sequence where Robin Williams and Joan Cusack's characters perform in a music video sequence rife with surreal imagery, much of it Magritte-inspired.

Plot

At the Zevo Toys factory in a lovely field of green, owner Kenneth Zevo (Donald O'Connor) is dying. He expresses to his assistant Owen Owens (Arthur Malet) that he wants control of the business to go to his brother, military man Lt. Gen. Leland Zevo (Michael Gambon). Leland Zevo himself is uncertain of his brother's wishes, instead pointing out that his nephew, Leslie Zevo (Robin Williams), would be a worthy successor as he has apprenticed at Zevo Toys his entire life. Kenneth Zevo states that although Leslie loves his work, he is also too immature to be a good business owner and deal with the corporate world.

After Kenneth dies, Leland takes over. At first he has no interest in anything at the factory until he hears of possible leaks and corporate espionage. Leland brings in his son Patrick (LL Cool J), a soldier and expert in covert military operations, to oversee security. He soon decides to make a series of war toys. This dismays Leslie as Zevo Toys has never made war toys as Kenneth did not like them.

After a confrontation with Leslie, Leland halts the development of the war toys. He asks Leslie for some space to work alone to develop some toys of his own and states he doesn't want Leslie to see them because they might not be good enough. Leland's continued demands for more space, rigid security and top-secret projects dismay the childlike Leslie, his innocent and childlike sister Alsatia (Joan Cusack), Owen, and a factory worker Leslie has developed a crush on named Gwen Tyler (Robin Wright).

Leslie becomes more suspicious when Owen shows him children arriving at the factory and ushered into the restricted area. He breaks into a research area and discovers kids playing realistic war video games. After setting off the alarm he runs through a door and falls into a well-like water tank where he sees and seems to be drowned by another toy of Leland's, the "Sea Swine" (an amphibious drone with more autonomy than the other toys).

Patrick decides to go against his father after he discovers that his mother did not die of appendicitis but disappeared when his father sent her on a covert mission (reconnaissance). After revealing his father's true plans of using dangerous weaponry in the form of toys, Patrick, Leslie, Alsatia, Gwen and Owen launch an attack on Leland's labs to shut down his war projects.

The increasingly demented General sees this as his greatest war opportunity and attempts to destroy them all. First he sends out weapons disguised as innocent looking toys, then he sends his "Tommy Tanks" and "Hurly Whirly Helicopters."

An intense battle takes place between Leland's toys and the original Zevo toys.

Leslie manages to win the battle and along with Patrick is very angry with Leland. Suddenly Alsatia is attacked by the Sea Swine (that Leland had activated earlier to stop Leslie), revealing that she is a robot built by Kenneth as a play-mate for Leslie, after his mother died. While they are seeing to Leslie's sister, Leland tries to make his escape, but the malfunctioning Sea Swine tracks him down and attacks him as well resulting in his defeat.

In the end, Leslie is the new head of Zevo Toys, Alsatia is fixed, Gwen becomes Leslie's girlfriend, Leland is hospitalized next to his father (with toy soldier figures going by), and Patrick decides to move on to other missions. Before Patrick departs, he, his cousins and Gwen visit Kenneth's grave, ensuring that peace is restored to the toy factory.

As the end credits roll, Kenneth's grave marker, a large toy elephant floats over the lush green pasture.

Cast

• Robin Williams as Leslie Zevo
• Michael Gambon as Lt. General Leland Zevo
• Joan Cusack as Alsatia Zevo
• Robin Wright as Gwen Tyler
• LL Cool J as Capt. Patrick Zevo
• Donald O'Connor as Kenneth Zevo
• Arthur Malet as Owen Owens
• Jamie Foxx as Baker
• Julio Oscar Mechoso as Cortez
• Blake Clark as Hagenstern
• Yeardley Smith as Researcher Miss Drum
• Wendy Melvoin as Choir Soloist
• Jack Warden as Old General Zevo
• Debi Mazar as Nurse Debbie
• Jack Levinson as Little Boy
• Idina Menzel as Intro Singer

Trailer

The film was publicized with a trailer, which featured Williams walking through a large undulating field of green grass and breaking the fourth wall, while talking to the audience. This trailer was parodied in on the TV show The Simpsons in the episode "Burns' Heir", substituting Mr. Burns for Williams.

Soundtrack

Video game

A video game based on the film, Toys: Let the Toy Wars Begin!, was released in 1993 for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis systems by Absolute Entertainment. The game is played from an overhead perspective, and involves the player, as Leslie Zevo, attempting to destroy the elephant-head security cameras in the factory, cafeteria, and warehouse levels in order to shut down those defenses. Once the player gets to the Manhattan model, the game switches to a side-scrolling Gradius-style level, where the player must fly all the way to the General's control center, shut down the production of the war toys, and save the good name of Zevo Toys.

Reception

Toys received a generally negative reaction from critics and failed commercially. The film currently holds a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 23 reviews.