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).
One of the earliest toy-to-film adaptations and the first feature film based on American Greetings' Care Bears toy line, this 1985 animated musical actually preceded the Care Bears television cartoon series and its many follow-ups. The film's box office success—albeit modest by today's standards—likely helped paved the way for the many toy-to-movie adaptations (from other companies) that followed throughout the '80s. The movie itself, featuring a voice cast headlined by Mickey Rooney (and also including Harry Dean Stanton), is certainly aimed at very young viewers but nevertheless managed to convince a few reviewers to endorse it.
“The Care Bears Movie, like other animated children's films of its ilk, is a double-edged sword. On one hand, this is perfect viewing for three- to six-year-olds, while at the same time it is little more than a 75-minute advertisement for the vast array of Care Bears toys and products.” —TV Guide
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