Joe Dante’s 1998 war satire and cult classic Small Soldiers is now available for audiences to take home in a Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD Steelbook.

I’m admittedly late to Gremlins—and still haven’t seen it. One of these days, I’ll finally watch the classic. But anyway, with Small Soldiers, Joe Dante was essentially tasked with merging Gremlins and Toy Story, all set in the suburbs. These toys don’t just come to life—they go to war. Unfortunately for Dante and DreamWorks, releasing a militaristic children’s film less than two months after a tragic school shooting in Oregon (which left four dead and 29 injured) proved ill-timed, casting a shadow over its reception.

When defense contractor GloboTech buys the Heartland Toy Company, CEO Gil Mars (Denis Leary) orders designers to create action figures that “play back.” Larry Benson’s (Jay Mohr) war-hungry Commando Elite, led by Major Chip Hazard (Tommy Lee Jones), are paired against Irwin Wayfair’s peaceful Gorgonites, led by Archer (Frank Langella). Without realizing the danger, they use a military-grade AI chip.

Teenager Alan Abernathy (Gregory Smith), who has a crush on his neighbor Christy Fimple (Kirsten Dunst), activates both toy lines at his family’s store. The Commando Elite immediately begin hunting the Gorgonites. As the toys escalate their war, Alan discovers they’re intelligent—and deadly.

As the war rages on, the Commandos kidnap Christy’s brother, Timmy (Jacob Smith), and convert fashion dolls into soldiers. Alan, Christy, and the Gorgonites fight back in a suburban siege, with help from the designers. A homemade EMP finally wipes out the enemy.

In the aftermath, GloboTech pays off the damages and plans to rebrand the Commandos for military use. Alan helps the surviving Gorgonites escape to find their mythical home in Yosemite.

As Alan, Gregory Smith carries much of the film’s live-action weight. He holds his own in the role, four years before Everwood made him a household name. Smith shares the screen with Kirsten Dunst, whose character joins the fight just as the chaos begins to escalate toward the climactic third act. It may be hard to believe, but Dunst was still two years away from Bring It On and four years away from her breakout as Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man.

With the exception of Tommy Lee Jones and Bruce Dern, the Commando Elite are voiced by cast members from The Dirty Dozen. Jones is pitch-perfect as Major Chip Hazard—you can totally buy him leading this team of gung-ho plastic soldiers. In contrast, the Gorgonites are mostly voiced by the main cast of This Is Spinal Tap, with the exceptions of Frank Langella and Jim Cummings. It’s a fun compare-and-contrast dynamic. Michael McKean’s Insaniac, for instance, plays like a stand-up comic trapped in a mutant toy body. Meanwhile, the voice talents behind the Gwendy dolls include none other than Sarah Michelle Gellar and Christina Ricci.

Stan Winston and his team designed the toys for Small Soldiers, building a total of 237 individual action figures. ILM handled the digital animation, especially for larger-scale movements that couldn’t be achieved practically. The visual effects are impressive for 1998, and what really sets Small Soldiers apart from Toy Story is its hybrid of live-action and CGI, giving it a more tactile, grounded feel despite the heightened premise.

Frequent Joe Dante collaborator Jerry Goldsmith provides the score, and when Goldsmith goes for comedy, he doesn’t hold back. With military toys front and center, the music leans into patriotic bombast, complete with martial flourishes. Goldsmith even nods to (or parodies) his own earlier work when appropriate—one sequence evokes Patton, which he also famously scored. Other classical cues are sprinkled throughout the battle scenes, adding to the Small Soldiers’s genre-blending energy.

The soundtrack blends hip-hop, modern rock, classic metal, and ’90s grunge. And because it was the late ’90s, yes—”Wannabe” by the Spice Girls makes an appearance in Small Soldiers, hilariously weaponized as psychological warfare.

Small Soldiers is a bold genre mashup that doesn’t always hit its targets, but there’s no denying its ambition or craft. Joe Dante’s direction keeps the tone playful even as the violence skews darker than expected for a family film. The 4K transfer gives the film new life, and while the Steelbook presentation is visually appealing, it’s the movie itself—quirky, chaotic, and unmistakably Dante—that earns this release a modest but welcome salute.

Bonus Features

• A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Making of Small Soldiers
• From the Cutting Room Floor: Bloopers
• Theatrical Trailer

DIRECTOR: Joe Dante
SCREENWRITERS: Gavin Scott and Adam Rifkin and Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
CAST: Kirsten Dunst, Gregory Smith, Jay Mohr, Phil Hartman, Kevin Dunn, David Cross, Ann Magnuson, Dick Miller, Wendy Schaal, Robert Picardo, Jacob Smith, and Denis Leary, Frank Langella, and Tommy Lee Jones

DreamWorks Pictures released Small Soldiers in theaters on July 10, 1998. Grade: 3.5/5

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