I love toys, they were a formative part of my childhood and even as an adult, there’s something about them that just fascinates me. It seems that, at the moment, Hollywood feels the same way because there are a lot of recent and upcoming movies this year that are based on some kind of nostalgic toy. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is the most expected of the bunch. Based on the Hasbro toy line, transformers have had consistent film and television releases for decades now. We also recently got an animated series, Transformers: Earthspark, at the end of 2022. Barbie is being hyped to the moon for its July release, though it’s not the first Barbie movie to be made. But the toy movies don’t end there. Earlier this year, Apple TV+ gave us Tetris, a biological thriller following the origin story of the legendary videogame. Popular RPG Dungeons & Dragons got its movie with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Five Nights At Freddy’s is getting a movie. The Beanie Bubble comes out in July, telling the story of the meteoric rise of Beanie Babies. All that to say, it seems that 2023 is the year of the toy movie. So why is Hollywood giving us all of these toy-related stories in the same year?
Why Is 2023 the Year of the Toy Movie?
This toy-movie craze didn’t happen all of a sudden. You could call 2022 something of a prelude for this year’s toy mania, though less noticed in the mainstream. After all, that’s when Transformers: Earthspark premiered, along with the incredibly well-received series that kicked off the third generation of Monster High after a live-action film was released the same year. Whether Pez counts as toys or collectibles is debatable, but The Pez Outlaw came to Netflix in 2022, and the year before that in 2021 we got the fifth generation of My Little Pony through My Little Pony: A New Generation. None of this is even mentioning the many shows and movies that have come out this year, and in the past few years, that have seemingly broken the video-game adaptation curse over and over such as Arcane, Cuphead, The Super Mario Bros Movie, and both Sonic The Hedgehog movies. So have the entire 2020s so far been the decade of toy movies?
We could take this idea even further than that. Of course, since the 1980s when toy marketing was deregulated, there have been many beloved television shows and films more or less made to sell toys to children. This is how many shows based on Hasbro properties, such as Transformers and My Little Pony, got their start. Making art was arguably not the priority at the time, it was to showcase new toys that kids could beg their parents for. Of course, that’s not to say that these shows couldn’t be good, or even great, because as the decades went forward, these toy lines became massive franchises because of the fanbases that would grow from these films and cartoons, and other toy lines, such as those from Mattel, primarily Barbie, would follow suit. But it was always seen by the mainstream the same way, as kids’ stuff at best, insidious capitalism at worst. I’m a fan of the 2000s Barbie movies, they’re way better than they had any obligation to be, but I can’t deny I wanted to get my grubby little hands on those dolls as a little kid.
‘The LEGO Movie’ Showed Us Toys Can Be Big Screen Successes
The LEGO Movie’s 2014 success contributed to the recent shift toward more and more toy movies on the big screen. A film so good and endlessly creative that people were outraged that it wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award, because LEGO speaks to all people as a source for, yes corporate synergy with other franchises, but also hours upon hours of fun, challenge, and imagination. This movie was not LEGO’s first screen project, there were a lot of cartoons released based on their original IPs such as Ninjago, Legends of Chima, and Monkie Kid, with the biggest of all being Bionicle. The LEGO Movie, however, with its more ubiquitous concept and self-awareness of being a toy franchise, is the one that helped kick this new toy-movie wave into high gear.
Could it be the new nostalgia turnover? After all, if there’s one thing I remember about being a kid in the 2000s is that toys, and the movies and shows they made for them, were honestly quite excellent. None of the borderline gambling of mystery toy surprises, molded-on shirts of low-end dolls, or overuse of plastic crap that’ll end up in a landfill near you in a month. Even then, there has been a sharp rise in toy quality during the 2020s that people may have started to take notice of. You could argue it started with Rainbow High, which got its own web series in 2020, which brought the triumphant return of fully articulated dolls with intricate outfits with a fun gimmick, a lot of style and personality, not to mention a steady flow of high-quality action figures now being sold to the average consumer, rather than just for collectors.
What Hollywood’s Finally Starting To Understand About Toys
Mainstream culture has finally taken notice of something that a certain subculture of nerdom has known all along. Something that some brands have actually managed to capitalize on before film studios did: Toys, in and of themselves, are art. There is so much work that goes into conceptualizing, designing, and marketing a toy whose success will last the decades that Barbies or Transformers have. There’s a stereotype with nerds saying things like, “It’s not a doll, it’s an action figure” and keeping them in mint condition, but there are absolutely toy nerds out there, and they’re finally getting the notice they deserve.
From doll painters who can turn a standard Monster High or Ever After High doll into a work of art, those who create their own intricate doll houses, to those dedicating themselves to discussing and archiving the history of toy lines through captivating video essays. Mattel has been masterfully selling to these people for years with their Mattel Creations line, with incredibly intricate dolls, at a higher price point, more to be collected than played with. MGA Entertainment, the company behind Bratz Dolls, has completely changed the branding of that line to be a 2000s nostalgia fashion line with advertisements marketed directly towards young adults with parodies of Jennifer’s Body and Euphoria. Not to mention action figures from all brands and franchises are as consistent as ever.
Toys are art, and toys of any kind are extremely important and have been through time, being a very important part of our history and culture. Toys can show us the values people want to instill in their children, kindness, imagination, and ambition. When there’s a lot of concern about how much greed has become a motive in art, it’s good to know that Hollywood, and mainstream media, are showing some level of interest in something that shapes the lives of billions all over the world.
