Morals Weigh Down the Magic of ‘Indian in the Cupboard’

In the movie version of Lynne Reid Banks’ “The Indian in the Cupboard,” a boy becomes enchanted, then disenchanted with a magic cupboard that transforms his toys into miniature, real-life people. Rated PG.

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Don’t use magic you don’t understand.

Don’t gloss over death. Honor it.

Respect animals lower than you on the food chain.

Learn survival in the forest to come of age.

For some young viewers, these and other nuggets of Native American advice weigh down the story of the mutually astonished Omri and Little Bear like a canoe full of rocks. Although the special effects of the tiny people living like pets in Omri’s room delighted children, many preferred the book and its three sequels, which they remember as just a fun story of toys coming alive.

“I liked the book better, because the book had better pictures,” said Michael Corey, 7, recalling the images that the written words had conjured up in his head. “The book was more descriptive,” agreed Travis Huff, 11, who didn’t remember any particular messages from his reading of it.

Some, like Nicholas J. Hansen, 7, weren’t sure exactly what to make of the film. “It was dumb,” he said. “I liked it.”

The adorably ordinary Omri (played by Hal Scardino) gets to live out the fantasy of nearly every child when he receives a cupboard from his brother for his ninth birthday and activates its magic with an old key that belonged to his grandmother. The toys he places inside are as shocked and not nearly as pleased as he is to find themselves out of their era and dwarfed by the rest of the world.

The wise and handsome Little Bear (Litefoot), an 18th-Century Iroquois who speaks English, sets up camp in Omri’s room but lives in fear of other giant creatures such as Omri’s brother, his pet hamster and a roving rat. He is lonely, misses his people and needs a wife.

He is followed by the hard-drinking cowboy Boohoo Boone, his horse and a World War I medic needed when Little Bear, stirred up by a Western on TV, shoots an arrow into Boone’s chest. He also activates a deer for Little Bear to hunt and kill in the back-yard grass and another toy Native American figure to provide Little Bear with a weapon. This man, however, is so frightened of his new surroundings that he dies from shock. Omri overcomes his fear and, with Little Bear’s advice, gives the tiny body a proper burial in the back yard.

Omri quickly realizes the pain his play inflicts on the small characters pulled out of their worlds. Too quickly, according to some older kids. “He was too wise,” said Amanda Smith, 14. “He was so young, he wouldn’t have understood it. It would have just been fun.”

Message movies do better when they show rather than tell, and “Pocahontas” did Native American wisdom better, she said.

Younger children were most impressed by the scene of a rat jumping out of a loose floorboard. “I thought it was a mousie that jumped out. I was scared,” said Kristen Egner, 4. “My heart jumped a lot,” said Alina Huff, 6.

At least one child cried when Omri, upset that his brother had taken the cupboard from his room, kicked a hamster ball down the stairs, apparently hastening the demise of the hamster inside.

But many liked the scenes of Native American life, notably the lodge that Little Bear built in Omri’s room, and most were envious of the lucky boy with magical powers.

“I wish all my horses would come alive and I would ride them,” Alina said. “They would have braids.”