It's playtime.The global box-office these days is dominated by... toys! Filmmakers, while sucking comicbooks and old movies dry, are now also equally involved in toys -- products that have dominated their own market are as likely to have a preset audience, and if a videogame can turn into a hit movie, why can't a toy?
So with the release of GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra, we bring to you a look at ten movies based on playthings:
GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra
Opening to mostly awful reviews, the new GI Joe film has made headlines largely because of Sienna Miller playing the evil Baroness and pouring her body into a skintight black catsuit.
Critics have unanimously levelled salvos against Michael Bay's Transformers series as well, but the films have gone on to gross well over a billion dollars worldwide. Clearly people like robots.
The 1987 live-action version of the legendary He-Man universe really didn't live up to expectations, even though Dolph Lundgren played He-Man and Frank Langella, last seen in Frost/Nixon, played Skeletor. A very young Courteney Cox is also around, but this film doesn't capture any of the fun from the toys or cartoons.
Forget Child's Play, it all began with Stuart Gordon's devilish 1987 film that features a haunted mansion, two demented toymakers, and their army of fiendish, exquisitely detailed toys.
This 1985 feature-length cartoon could be one of the first films to directly adapt a line of toys -- without, say, an animated television series in between. Even though it worked as a massive commercial, it was a huge hit and led to several more such projects starring the bears.
Based on the 'wicked' dolls that are so popular with the pre-teen set, Bratz was a live-action film featuring four high-school girls. The film got disastrous reviews, making it onto several critics' lists for worst film of the year.
Barbie And The Rockers, featuring the iconic Mattel doll as the leader of a rock-band, was the first in a series of Barbie films, which included Barbie as Rapunzel, Barbie of Swan Lake and Barbie in The Nutcracker Suite.
A modern horror smash hit, this South korean film is also about a deranged dollmaker, but does definitely make the list since it also features the Mi-Na and Demian doll, part of The AI doll series.
This Warner Bros film isn't just about toys, but features a character Rainbow Brite who originated on greeting cards. The film was directed by French animator Bernard Deyries.
Yet another Mattel adaptation, this one took on the Pound Puppies, a bunch of dogs with attitude. The toys were a massive hit but the film was a miserable failure, the 1988 film failing considerably to match Disney's then pace.
