My honest opinion of the film

I've read the book, and (as far as I can remember) every book in the series. My biggest qualm with this, among other is this:

Why on earth did they completely kill ALL oppurtinity to make a sequel or sequels? WHY?

Ok, fine, I understand the special effects might've been hard to keep doing, and the actors might've wanted to go onto bigger or better things. Fine.

That turned me off the most.

Second, they completely ruined the "world" of the story. New York city is NOT London. And while Hal Scardino and Rishi Bhat were wonderful actors, I saw a lot of ways the characterization could be stereotyped as: Omri being the "good white boy" who wants to keep the figures in their own world, while Patrick being the "bad nonwhite kid" who wants to play with them as toys, even though this is EXACTLY how the two characters of Omri and Patrick are written in the book. In the series, Omri, is always the more mature of the two, who realizes that the figures are actual people and one can't just play with them like other action figures, whereas Patrick sees them as nothing more than animated toys, much like the battery-operated toys one can buy in most shops.

The other thing that killed it for me is the changing of scenes. The toyshop scene where the owner accuses Omri of stealing two figures has changed into Patrick showing the teacher Little Bear and Boone.

However, the special effects were top notch, and it was really neat to see Little Bear, Boone the cowboy and Tommy the medic brought to life on the screen. One humerous part was when Omri puts his modern day action figures in the cuboard, and then opens it to see Darth Vader, a Jurrasic Park dinosaur, G.I.Joe, Robocop and a few other current figures battling it out on the two shelves of the cupboard.

Some things remain true to the book. Omri taking the knight's battle axe for Little Bear to use; Omri taking the old Cheif's headress and clothes and inadvertantly scaring him to death; Omri taking some of his Dad's gardening tools and potting sod to give Little Bear a place to live, after Little Bear deftly refuses the teepee that Omri earnestly gives him.

Anyway, those are my two cents. If you really want to get a good idea of the series, read the books; they're very well written.