Any child who’s read a fairy tale or watched a movie knows toys have a life of their own when no humans are around. Czech filmmaker Jirí Barta takes the premise further in his stop-motion animated film, with toys that often look as if they’ve assembled themselves from a junk drawer.
Buttercup (voiced by Vivian Schilling) is a dainty blond doll, Teddy (Forest Whitaker) is a bear and Sir Handsome (Cary Elwes) is a decrepit Don Quixote-type marionette. Their attic home is as big as a railway station; indeed, there is a train that runs through it. An evil kingdom takes up one remote corner, presided over by the green-skinned Head. He kidnaps Buttercup — alas, it’s a ho-hum damsel-in-distress plot hook, and Buttercup is a bit of a drip. But matters perk up when a sock mouse named Madame Curie (Joan Cusack) starts building a rescue plane.
Many images are vividly imaginative. Head’s chief minion is a bespectacled insect that crawls into his ear; as Teddy and Sir Handsome travel through the attic to Buttercup’s rescue, sheets become rivers and floating pillows strew feather snow. The movie is passionately retro, but Barta shows his methods can create a world every bit as engrossing as the latest CGI.