Gene Siskel - Host: "The Indian in the Cupboard" is anything but predictable, unlike, uh, the Hugh Grant film
["Nine Months"]
Gene Siskel - Host: , and even though it features a cowboy and an Indian in conflict, I think it's gonna have appeal to more than just little boys. The script was written by Melissa Mathison, who also wrote "E.T.", and she honors, in both films, the intelligence of young people. Thumbs up for me for "The Indian and the Cupboard".
Roger Ebert - Host: You know, uh, I don't give thumbs up to this movie, and I'll tell ya, I thought it was kind of sad and kind of creepy. I think it will have a strange effect on children. It's one thing...
Gene Siskel - Host: What? What's the effect they're gonna have?
Roger Ebert - Host: ...To have E.T. in your bed- I was responding to that question when you interrupted me. It's one thing when you have E.T. in your bedroom, who can kinda take care of himself and is kind of bright. But these little two inch human beings who have been ripped out of their lives and placed in this situation with this child who seems like a god to them, and then his responsibility for them, there's something very odd about that. It's kind of unsavory. You can't get into the enjoyment of the fantasy.
Gene Siskel - Host: As you said it...
Roger Ebert - Host: You keep thinking, you keep thinking about the reality.
Gene Siskel - Host: I'll tell you what kids are gonna do: Here, they're not gonna be frightened of this, or whatever you think's gonna happen to them. They're gonna play this game in their own heads with their own little toys.
Roger Ebert - Host: Oh, kids do, kids do.
Gene Siskel - Host: Of course.
Roger Ebert - Host: Because they pretend like their toys are real.
Gene Siskel - Host: So why are they gonna be "frightened" by this movie?
Roger Ebert - Host: Another problem is, the story never really has any place to go. I mean, this phony conflict and then the friendship between the Indian and the cowboy, and the little moments where they're almost discovered and they aren't, it's all, it's very slow-going in the middle of the movie, and the more I thought about it, I thought, gee, ya know, the fact that they're real little people, the fact that they're actually there, brings us into a dimension where it isn't fantasy anymore, and it just doesn't work.
Gene Siskel - Host: Something coming alive that's inanimate ISN'T fantasy? I think you're off-base.
