When toys come to life

There’s a fine line between Teddy Ruxpin and Chucky - don't cross it

First published on 21 May 2012. Updated on 24 May 2012.

In the new comedy from Seth MacFarlane, Ted, a childhood wish makes a teddy bear come to life. Unfortunately, the bear’s still talking when his owner’s a grown man. When it comes to sentient toys, Time Out has found, be careful what you wish for. (The following does not include ventriloquist dummies. They are not toys. They are abominations.)

Child's Play (1988)
	The patron saint of creepy toys, Chucky is a cherub-cheeked doll imbued via voodoo with the soul of the ‘Lakeshore Strangler’. Chucky survives fire, dismemberment and decapitation over five films – but he can’t survive the familiarity of the franchise. The first Child’s Play is still frightening today; by the last one Chucky’s no scarier than Buzz Lightyear.
Dolls (1987)
	Predating Child’s Play by a year (and 1992’s Demonic Toys by even more) is Stuart Gordon’s Dolls. It’s so cheesy it makes Police Academy look like The Wire – and yet its haunted dolls are genuinely disturbing. Their faces twist into horrible smiles. They move when no one’s watching. And when one brandishes a hacksaw it doesn’t matter if the acting quality surrounding them is sub-porno.
Small Soldiers (1998)
	We'll argue that Joe Dante’s 1984 classic Gremlins is also about toys coming to life – Gizmo is a Christmas gift, after all. Dante's later Small Soldiers features a human family caught in a war between peaceful fantasy toys and macho army men. As the battles become more vicious, Dante’s subversive film makes you think about the violent fantasies inherent in all ‘action figures’.
Akira (1988)
	Katsuhiro Otomo’s anime Akira brims with unforgettable imagery: motorcycle gangs, horrible mutations, and the glittering lights of Neo-Tokyo. It also has a horrifying hallucination when the injured Tetsuo is visited in his bed by giant toys. The giant bear, rabbit and car bloat, milk leaking out of them, growing fangs and screaming and… uh… can you leave the light on?