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Submitted by Jason H
After reading the Indian in the Cupboard I actually went out and grabbed this old cupboard in the field behind our house, sanded it, stained it, and waxed it, then put my favorite figurines in it, hoping that they would come to life. Unfortunately, all they ever did was turned brown from the wood treatment.
It was also a good lesson in tolerance and humility for us.
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Epic! Loved this film when i was a boy
This movie was DEFINITELY a win.
It was a favorite when I was a kid…..as was “Old Yeller”, “7 brides for 7 brothers”, and 101 Dalmations lol….
I hear the actor who played the Indian is a douche bag in real life.
The magic didn’t come from the cupboard, it came from the key!
My favourite character in the whole thing was the WW2 medical soldier
Yeah, that’s what I was going to say, on both points.
One of my all-time favorites.
I liked this film too, and I really like that shot of the rising sun in between the Two Towers in the second video :’)
http://www.oyate.org/books-to-avoid/indianCupboard.html
Read and see why “Indian in the Cupboard” is less a win than a fail.
I was first introduced to “Indian in the Cupboard” in 4th grade, when it was an assigned book in class. In addition to all the lessons on plot, narrative, vocabulary, etc; our class also had discussions on Native American cultures. Oh, and by the way? Originally, Omri gives Little Bear a tipi, and Little Bear rejects it and asks for the material to build a long house.
If treated correctly, this can be a constructive book. The “alien-ness” of the Algonquin is not because of his race, but because of his hatred. This is shown through the comparisons with the skinheads Omri encounters earlier. I’m not saying that if someone wanted to be offended, they couldn’t find plenty of reasons in this book. But if approached differently, these books could be the start of a great dialogue.
THANK YOU. That link’s passages are taken ENTIRELY out of context. Did this person even READ the books? It’s clear that whoever wrote that nonsense is the sort of person who actively goes out of their way to TRY to be offended.
Dude, if we were to turn down every book ever written with historical Inaccuracies or ethnic slights, we’d have to turn down every book written before the beginning of the PC movement in 1992!
Racism fail. I’m not that nostalgic for crap that just perpetuates stereotypes about Native people.
Great movie, god awful music. The 80s were proof as to why musicians shouldn’t be allowed to do Coke! They should be limited to Pot, heroin, booze, and prescription drugs, like true artists!
Racist piece of crap. All the more objectionalble because it is well written. Doing a bad thing well does not make it good.
I will admit that a skilled teacher or librarian might be able to lead a child to see the flaws and to draw a positive message, but one may make lemonade out of lemons without destroying the fact that they are lemons and not apples.
The Book is Win, but I never cared for the movie. Also, for the douches who feel the need to slam the book… Come on! Are you really pissed off because a book doesn’t portray a tiny plastic toy native american that is magically brought to life like an authentic native person? Come on, seriously! Come on!
I guess she should have just written the Caucasian in the cupboard.
I had to read all 3 books in school and i loved them all. The movie was not bad, but the books are always better. Truly a Win of Epic Proportions.
There are 5 books, actually (4th came out in 1992 and 5th in 1998). I loved the books, the 4th one especially. The movie was good, but I didn’t like how they changed some bits. The cupboard was supposed to be metal, which isn’t a big deal, but the metal ties in to some history behind the magic of the key in book 4. Book 4 explains where the magic key came from (Omri’s Great-Great Aunt made it), and the whole history behind how and why the magic works like it does.
Other complaint about the movie: in the books, you could only bring miniatures from Real Life to life in the cupboard. The Indians, the Cowboy, the WWI Soldier, they would all come to life, and be real people, with real life histories, taken out of their own times. Darth Vader and Robocop would not have come to life, since they are not representations of real historical people.
“Other complaint about the movie: in the books, you could only bring miniatures from Real Life to life in the cupboard… Darth Vader and Robocop would not have come to life, since they are not representations of real historical people.”
Funny, that’s exactly the part that kept me awake at night as a lass. He brought Little Bear to life because at some point there was a real Little Bear. So was there a real Darth Vader at some point in history? And the ‘Jurassic Park’ Tyrannosaurus – we now know, since the production of the movie back in the early ’90s, that real Tyrannosaurs looked… *different* (not much, but still different). Same goes for the deer during the hunting scene; most toy deer look like Bambi rip-offs rather than an actual Hosta-eating Cervine. Does every toy correspond to an actual historical person/animal regardless of historical/anatomical accuracy? (And the anatomical part opens up a whole other can of worms.) Have I dedicated too much thought to this?
Incidentally, good book, very nice movie, and one of the few times I get to say I like the movie better (if for no other reason, because Little Bear no longer speaks in JarJar-level “Me no like”.)
I remember being a kid who really wanted to see this movie. If Darth Vader fights Robocop, that’s awesome. The movie had literally one second of action, which was shown in the trailer.
And the cowboy cried all the time.
PLAS-TIC! PLLLAAASSSSSTTTIIICCCC!!!!
Oh, this had to be one of my favorite movies when I was younger. I watched it almost constantly.
I only remember one line from the preview for this movie “you should not do magic you do not understand” not sure why that has stuck with me!
I met the indianguy that wa sin the cupboard at my school he is a really cool guy and he signed my vhs tape of indian in the cupboard lol