We continue our night dedicated to the trash-like/ straight to video releases that are available on Tubi and round out our time (for now) on Full Moon Features with the crossover adventure that pits Brick Bardo against the Demonic Toys of Baby Oopsy Daisy, Jack Attack, and Mr. Static and prevent the demon from mounting another attempt at escaping hell.
Once again, Tim Thomerson is ably plays the hard-boiled miniature detective, but teams up with Ginger from Bad Channels, who was shrunken by aliens (despite some strange continuity error that never really makes sense, as it was the character Bunny that was left pint-sized, not Ginger, but hey) and they instantly hit it off.
It is then that Detective Judith Grey (Tracy Scoggins from Demonic Toys) employs Brick’s assistance to stop the Demonic Toys, who have been reawakened by a mishap at the toy factory where a drunken homeless guy is killed in an accident. It’s all incredibly far-fetched and a massive roundabout way to combine these three films into one combined franchise, that leaves you wondering if it was really worth it.
To its credit, Dollman vs Demonic Toys still keeps a decent pulse and rattles along at a fairly decent pace, mainly thanks to Brick, but the toys seem a lot less menacing this time around, and when they kill of Judith’s character midway through, we lose that human connection that we as an audience need to connect us to the film and its narrative. Dollman isn’t quite enough to hold the movie up against his small frame.
The Diagnosis:
The filmmakers do their best to generate some interest in the three worlds to unit one common universe, but within the short running time, struggle to knit the narrative together to make sense or make us care. It would have been cool to see Dollman on a few more intergalactic space adventures and the Demonic Toys would always pale in comparison to their fellow demented toys in Puppet Master, despite an attempt at a sequel at the turn of the decade. Oh, and the less said about Bad Channels the better.
Watch if you’re a completionist or just at a loose end, otherwise you could quite easily give this one a miss.
- Saul Muerte
Surgeons of Horror 