Between Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, and Legos, there seem to be a lot of toys moving from the playroom to the silver screen. However, not all toys are created equal and some might be harder to effectively adapt than others. The following five examples are just some of the toy lines that have interesting narrative potential.
1. Hot Wheels
Many of us remember growing up with Hot Wheels as kids. We remember the little toy cars that came with elaborate tracks that featured wild loop-de-loops and bizarre obstacles like turbine fans and collapsible walls. Now, imagine a big budgeted Hollywood film like that. Imagine a racing film that took place in the future with tracks that featured massive loop-de-loops and other strange features. It would truly be a spectacle to behold.
2. Play-Doh
Similar to Lego, Play-Doh is a toy that is used to express creativity. You can sculpt and mold almost anything out of Play-Doh. Imagine what an animated movie can do with that. It could be a stop-motion movie with characters and sets made entirely out of Play-Doh. The characters could constantly change their forms into almost anything, and they could twist their surroundings into almost anything. The creative possibilities that come from making a movie about this toy are nearly endless.
3. Operation
Operation is an odd game where your goal is to remove all of the strange objects (such as a pencil and a butterfly) from a mans body without touching the metal sides, or else you get zapped. The premise of this game has a variety of different directions they can take with it. They could make it a slapstick doctor movie and play up the silliness of the objects you find inside of him. They could also make a comedic adventure movie in the vein of "Fantastic Voyage" where our surgeon has to shrink down and journey inside the man's body to remove these objects. Either way, it would lead to some creative humor.
4. Barbie
While Barbie has had several straight-to-video animated films, she has yet to have a proper live-action film release in theaters. It feels strange that toys like Transformers and G.I. Joe has all had big budget Hollywood movies made out of them, and yet the most widely known and popular "girls" toy in the world has not had a single attempt at a live action film. Barbie can have any career and any do anything. She has had sets where she is a businesswoman, a McDonald's employee and an astronaut. Why don't you go really crazy and make a film where she's all of them at once.
5. Candyland
Candyland has the most potential as a film due to it already having a colorful and creative world and a set of unique characters that can act as heroes and villains. The plot would basically be "The Wizard of Oz" but set in a candy-themed world. I'm actually kind of surprised that no one in Hollywood has already made this movie. Can you imagine what an animation studio like Pixar or Dreamworks would do with a concept like this? We could see gooey fudge lakes and candy cane forests. We could see lollipop trees and towns made of cookies and ice cream. We could see clouds made of cotton candy and rain made out of soda. The world you could build from this is almost worth it alone.
