Okay so little old The Tin Soldier from 1995 is frankly not all that much of a movie, it's drab and cheap looking, and the way it handles its themes of gang culture and bullying is incredibly hamfisted and oversimplified to the point of ridiculousness...but it was clearly a film aimed at impressionable young kids and is at least sincere in what it was trying to get across to its young audience and it tried its darnedest to make some kind of statement about taking a moral stand when you're caught between two opposing sides who don't really know what exactly they're fighting for themselves, and that sometimes fighting is not the only way to win, and how you shouldn't always have to pick a side if you don't want to. I thought most of the child actors were dreadfully cheesy, including young tow-headed Trenton Knight a lot, but he did actually have a good character arc as he figured out who his real friends were and came through for his depressive mother and became a more levelheaded and mature person, thanks to the guidance of a ghostly father figure in the form of John Voight as the wise and somewhat crotchety Tin Soldier. Now I'm sure a fair few were disappointed back in the day by the fact that this movie was not any kind of conventional version of the Tin Soldier fable, I know I was! But now as an adult I kind of like how they made it it's own thing and made the Tin Soldier a kind of guardian angel to a troubled boy and helped to teach him empathy and put him on the right track, I loved the scene where he reveals to Billy the stories of several kids around his school and shows him that there are others who have things a lot tougher than he does - again, empathy is a running theme throughout. I love the sequence at the end when the honourable Tin Soldier dances with his beloved ballerina in the moonlit street, it's a little bizarre but also beautiful and poignant. I also loved the scene with the late great Dom Deluise, what a guy, I loved his blustery schtick and that sure is my idea of a cool toy store, if not a little creepy! The Tin Soldier isn't the most shining example of a movie that I rediscovered from my childhood, but I like it, it has its good qualities and is sweet and well worth dusting off once in a while. This thoroughly forgotten film is admittedly a creaky old rust bucket, but its heart is in the right place! ❣
