Movies Based on Toys and Games, Ranked Worst to Best
Greta Gerwig's new Barbie film may be getting all of the attention this month, but it's far from the first film to attempt to bring a children's toy line to the big screen. While some of those adaptations have been dismissed as nothing more than feature-length toy commercials, others have been successful in spite of their origins. In the gallery on this page, we rank over three dozen such films from worst to best according to their Metascores, which represent the consensus views of leading professional film critics.
All of the films are based on pre-existing toys—including tabletop games and trading cards—though we have omitted any films for franchises that were already well established as television shows (or comics) prior to becoming toys. In addition, we have also excluded any films with fewer than four reviews from critics (our minimum required for calculating a Metascore)—a group that mainly includes direct-to-video features (including, by the way, most of the previous Barbie movies).
It's a kids' movie—but it's not a good one. The second animated film based on the colorful 1980s American Greetings-created teddy bear line (following a slightly better 1985 feature), Care Bears Movie II would be followed by a third film ... and then a long hiatus before a 21st century reboot film series. This 1986 film is a musical origin story—one that completely ignores the developments of the first film—and it failed to replicate its predecessor's box office success.
“Like the original 'Care Bears Movie,' Care Bears Movie II is nothing but an insidious feature-length toy commercial. But since Funshine Bear has taught me to look on the bright side, I will admit that the animation in the sequel is of a higher quality.” —Paul Attanasio, The Washington Post
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