What is Small Soldiers about?
When missile technology is used to enhance toy action figures, the toys soon begin to take their battle programming too seriously.
Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)
Yes. It lands on a happy note.
Action figures with military AI declare war on suburban teens, turning a quiet town into a hilarious battlefield.
Darkly comic and pulpy, with big broad humor. A family watch at a brisk pace. Emotionally it carries some weight.
Streaming on Prime Video, Hoopla (free) and YouTube (free).
Small Soldiers parents guide
No sex or nudity and mild language, about what a PG-13 should carry.
Our estimate: fine from about 13. Rated PG-13.
- Scare
- Mildly scary
- A few tense or eerie moments.
- Jump scares
- A couple
- One or two sudden jolts.
- Gore
- No gore
- Violence
- Strong violence
- Violence is frequent or intense.
- Sex and nudity
- None noted
- Language
- Mild
- Mild words like damn, hell or crap.
How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Three questions
- Is Small Soldiers scary?
- Only a little. Small Soldiers has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.
- How gory is Small Soldiers?
- No gore and strong violence.
- What is Small Soldiers rated, and is it OK for kids?
- Better for teens than younger kids: it is rated PG-13, with strong violence.
Cast and crew
Directed byJoe Dante
StarringGregory Smith, Kirsten Dunst, Denis Leary, Phil Hartman, David Cross, Jay Mohr
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Small Soldiers is on our Fantasy on Prime Video, Comedy on Hoopla, Sci-fi on Hoopla, Action on Hoopla and Fantasy on Hoopla lists.
More like this feeling
Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.
- “funny but not stupid, under two hours”
- “a fun halloween movie, not too scary”
- “a movie that will make me cry”
Lists with the same feel: Party.
Five more like Small Soldiers
Say the mood. Five picks with where they stream, right here.
Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.