Toys (1992)

When a military general inherits a toy making company and begins making war toys, his employees band together to stop him before he ruins the name of Zevo Toys forever.

Director:

Barry Levinson

Writers:

Valerie Curtin, Barry Levinson

Stars:

Robin Williams, Michael Gambon, Joan Cusack

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robin Williams	...	Leslie Zevo
Michael Gambon	...	Lt. General Leland Zevo
Joan Cusack	...	Alsatia Zevo
Robin Wright	...	Gwen Tyler
LL Cool J	...	Captain Patrick Zevo
Donald O'Connor	...	Kenneth Zevo
Arthur Malet	...	Owen Owens
Jack Warden	...	Old General Zevo
Debi Mazar	...	Nurse Debbie
Wendy Melvoin	...	Choir Soloist
Julio Oscar Mechoso	...	Cortez
Jamie Foxx	...	Baker
Shelly Desai	...	Shimera
Blake Clark	...	Hagenstern
Art Metrano	...	Guard at Desk

Storyline

An eccentric toymaker's last wish is that his brother takes over the running of the business. The brother is a military General, and is out of touch with toymaking, and out of touch with reality too. The business should really have been given to Leslie, who was much more like his toymaking father. When the General starts making weapons instead of toys, Leslie decides to take action.

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Plot Keywords:

toy | business | brother | uncle | weapon | 

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Taglines:

Laughter is a state of mind.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Family | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some language and sensuality

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 December 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Revolta dos Brinquedos

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$21,452,082 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Baltimore Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min 122 min (FMC Library Print) (dvd release)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The blue car that Leslie drives is a very rare 1950 Muntz Jet, of which less than 400 were made.

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Goofs

After the little spy robot gets run over, Patrick Zevo is in the surveillance truck telling the other two guys about tomorrow's meeting with the military leaders. If you watch the red numbers over his right shoulder you'll see them counting upwards until they hit 59:20, then the camera goes to one of the other guys, then back to Patrick Zevo, you see the numbers back down to 59:14 and continue counting up.

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Quotes

Alsatia Zevo: [Leslie's reading her a bedtime story] I don't get it.
Leslie Zevo: It's a fable.
Alsatia Zevo: No, I don't get why Daddy left his business to Uncle Leland.
Leslie Zevo: I know, it would've made more sense for him to leave it to Owen.
Alsatia Zevo: Or to you.

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Connections

References The Gumby Show (1957)

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Soundtracks

"WORKERS"
Written by Trevor Horn and Bruce Woolley
Produced by Trevor Horn
Performed by The Musical Cast of Toys

User Reviews

A surprisingly deep film.

Toys is a movie easily overlooked and dismissed as childish and nonsensical. Nothing could be further from the truth though, as it is a movie of surprising depth and style.

The first point that must be covered is the performance given by Robin Williams as Leslie Zevo. Although it is fraught with his almost trademark wackiness there is an underlying current of a man who is on the edge of coming into his own. The layers of the character he plays are subtly shown, as Leslie is a man who is strong, but unsure of his strength and covers that insecurity with comedy and whimsy.

The film is visually striking, a real art department tour de force, and is very much removed from any hint of the past at first glance. Looking deeper into the visuals however reveals the films deeper content of classic surrealist motifs, especially that of dismembered body parts and other parts separated from the whole. Partially assembled dolls, the parts of which come out of machines that are shaped as further separated body parts, are shown throughout. Alsatia lives in rooms within rooms that seem separated from the wholeness of houses, and indeed lives in a paper fold-out doll house herself, the reasons for which become quite apparent by the films end.

This aesthetic choice, combined with the toys vs. weapons juxtaposition makes the films textual purpose clear. Toys is a surrealist reaction to the end of the Cold War, in the very same vein as the original surrealists reactions to the end of the First World War. The film even makes several direct references to one of the surrealist masters, Rene Magrite, especially in the music video sequence. This places Toys in a very deep anti-war tradition, one that is expressed very openly in the entire premise of a General taking control of a toy company and turning it to military purpose.

Any who would dismiss this film as merely childish surely owe it to themselves to take another look at this surrealist masterpiece and lose themselves in the quirky visuals and creative world that is placed on screen.