On his ninth birthday a young boy (Hal Scardino) named Omri (it means "The Lord is my life" and was the name of a Hebrew king whose story is told in I Kings 16) receives various presents from his parents (Richard Jenkins , Lindsay Crouse) and brothers . Two of them first seem to be less important : an old cupboard -a wooden medicine cabinet - from his brother and a little Indian figure made of plastic . Then there happens the biggest adventure of his childhood , the magical cupboard brings his toy action figures to life and Omri watches him become flesh and blood ; there also appear a soldier (Steve Coogan) from WWII . Three-inch plastic Indian named Little Bear (Lifefoot) undertaking several adventures and teaching him important lessons . Thing go worse , however , when the boy's best friend brings a toy gunfighter (David Keith) to life and pursuit starts . Events turn nasty and might be frightened for young children , by some scenes involving a rather vicious mouse .

Enjoyable and well-intentioned film plenty of good feeling , marvelous adventure , fantasy and sense of wonder . This is a nice movie with heart that amuses and has something to tell . The picture is pretty good but suffers of claustrophobic scenario , as it is mostly set in room , exception some brief scenes in courtyard . Intelligent as well as sensitive screenplay by Melissa Matheson , Harrison Ford's real-life first wife , based on the best-selling children's book by Lynne Reid Banks who wrote her original novel as a bedtime story for her son , Omri . Cool special effects , as blue screen techniques allow them to appear together-on-screen although they were really filmed together only once . Emotive as well as evocative musical score by Randy Edelman . Colorful and adequate cinematography by Russell Carpenter .

The motion picture well produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall was professionally directed by Frank Oz , though he stated he was reluctant to direct this movie, as he doesn't think he's a children's director. Frank began forming team with the great Jim Henson filming known titles such as ¨The Dark Crystal¨ and ¨Muppets take Manhattan¨. Frank subsequently directed a lot of comedies as ¨Little shop of horrors¨, ¨Dirty rotten scoundrels¨, ¨What about Bob?¨, ¨House sitter¨, ¨In and out¨, ¨Bowfinger¨and a thriller titled ¨The score¨. And this ¨Indian in cupboard¨, it results to be one of his most sensitive films . Rating : 6'5/10 . Better than average . Well worth watching .

In NYC, Omri (Hal Scardino) gets a cupboard among other things on his 9th birthday. His friend Patrick gives him a plastic Indian. He puts the Indian in the cupboard and locks it overnight. The next morning, he finds the Indian figure actually alive. The Indian is an Iroquois named Little Bear who was fighting the French for the English in 1761. When Little Bear gets hurt, Omri reanimates WWI British Army medic Tommy Atkins (Steve Coogan) to treat him. Patrick figures out the secret and reanimates cowboy Boone (David Keith).

This is a sweet kids movie. It has some fun stuff. Hal is really goofy looking and fits as a gawky kid. There isn't enough drama to interest the adults. This could be a good Twilight Zone episode. As a movie, it doesn't have the excitement or the adventure that this needs.

On his ninth birthday a boy receives many presents. Two of them first seem to be less important: an old cupboard from his brother and a little Indian figure made of plastic from his best friend. But these two presents turn out to be much more magic than the rest...

The movie debuted at number six at the North American box office. The film made only $35 million against a production budget of $45 million, making it a box office bomb; however, the film was in competition with high-profile successes like Apollo 13, Nine Months, Pocahontas, and Batman Forever. As a result, plans to adapt the next three books in the series into films were dropped.

Like many others, I grew up reading and loving the book series. You would think this alone would be enough to make some money... each kid who read the book sees the movie once and you're sure to turn a profit. But maybe it just isn't that good. Now, in my thirties, I think the movie is sort of dumb. Is this because it really is dumb, or because I am not 10 years old? I am not sure, but I definitely think there was a big mistake in casting the two lead boys. They just had no personality, no screen magic. The toys were fine, but those kids... ugh.