Children's Toys
2018·Animation·5m
7.0
★
The third installment in David James Armsby’s dystopia short film series.
Directed by David James Armsby
dystopia
short film
IMDB
N/A
Popular Reviews
14 reviews
JDenver
7.0★ · 01/16/23
👍77%
1st Watch | Shorts Ranked
Children's Toys is nowhere near as phenomenal as Model Citizen was. However, it was still pretty good. Instead of focusing on the parent, Children's Toys focuses on a kid, which already makes the story less mature (which is usually not the intended effect for a dystopian).
However, the qualities of a dystopian are still identifiable. First of all, there are clear themes of duality. Brilliance and terror. Pretty and ugly. Men and women. Blue and pink. These are all a few examples of duality in this story. In this dystopia, there is no middle ground. This is usually a key identifier for a dystopia.
Another theme that was even more elaborated on was imagination. When the child sees the blood, she imagines dark events with people being tortured and slaughtered. With the production of the robot toys, there are many match-cuts that relate it to the production of the robots themselves. Essentially, the audience is basically imagining how those two things are connected.
Overall, the short just felt less ambitious than Model Citizen and it didn't leave a massive impact on me. I loved how the film used its major theme of imagination, but it wasn't as powerful as the theme of "the cycle never ends" which was present in Model Citizen.
"Imagination. So powerful. Children are full of it. They are often visualizing brilliant and terrible things."
⬅ Previous Short Film: Model Citizen
⬅ Previous Review: The Fellowship of the Ring
1st Watch | Shorts Ranked
Children's Toys is nowhere near as phenomenal as Model Citizen was. However, it was still pretty good. Instead of focusing on the parent, Children's Toys focuses on a kid, which already makes the story less mature (which is usually not the intended effect for a dystopian).
However, the qualities of a dystopian are still identifiable. First of all, there are clear themes of duality. Brilliance and terror. Pretty and ugly. Men and women. Blue and pink. These are all a few examples of duality in this story. In this dystopia, there is no middle ground. This is usually a key identifier for a dystopia.
Another theme that was even more elaborated on was imagination. When the child sees the blood, she imagines dark events with people being tortured and slaughtered. With the production of the robot toys, there are many match-cuts that relate it to the production of the robots themselves. Essentially, the audience is basically imagining how those two things are connected.
Overall, the short just felt less ambitious than Model Citizen and it didn't leave a massive impact on me. I loved how the film used its major theme of imagination, but it wasn't as powerful as the theme of "the cycle never ends" which was present in Model Citizen.
"Imagination. So powerful. Children are full of it. They are often visualizing brilliant and terrible things."
⬅ Previous Short Film: Model Citizen
⬅ Previous Review: The Fellowship of the Ring
👍77%
1st Watch | Shorts Ranked
Children's Toys is nowhere near as phenomenal as Model Citizen was. However, it was still pretty good. Instead of focusing on the parent, Children's Toys focuses on a kid, which already makes the story less mature (which is usually not the intended effect for a dystopian).
However, the qualities of a dystopian are still identifiable. First of all, there are clear themes of duality. Brilliance and terror. Pretty and ugly. Men and women. Blue and pink. These are all a few examples of duality in this story. In this dystopia, there is no middle ground. This is usually a key identifier for a dystopia.
Another theme that was even more elaborated on was imagination. When the child sees the blood, she imagines dark events with people being tortured and slaughtered. With the production of the robot toys, there are many match-cuts that relate it to the production of the robots themselves. Essentially, the audience is basically imagining how those two things are connected.
Overall, the short just felt less ambitious than Model Citizen and it didn't leave a massive impact on me. I loved how the film used its major theme of imagination, but it wasn't as powerful as the theme of "the cycle never ends" which was present in Model Citizen.
"Imagination. So powerful. Children are full of it. They are often visualizing brilliant and terrible things."
⬅ Previous Short Film: Model Citizen
⬅ Previous Review: The Fellowship of the Ring
1st Watch | Shorts Ranked
Children's Toys is nowhere near as phenomenal as Model Citizen was. However, it was still pretty good. Instead of focusing on the parent, Children's Toys focuses on a kid, which already makes the story less mature (which is usually not the intended effect for a dystopian).
However, the qualities of a dystopian are still identifiable. First of all, there are clear themes of duality. Brilliance and terror. Pretty and ugly. Men and women. Blue and pink. These are all a few examples of duality in this story. In this dystopia, there is no middle ground. This is usually a key identifier for a dystopia.
Another theme that was even more elaborated on was imagination. When the child sees the blood, she imagines dark events with people being tortured and slaughtered. With the production of the robot toys, there are many match-cuts that relate it to the production of the robots themselves. Essentially, the audience is basically imagining how those two things are connected.
Overall, the short just felt less ambitious than Model Citizen and it didn't leave a massive impact on me. I loved how the film used its major theme of imagination, but it wasn't as powerful as the theme of "the cycle never ends" which was present in Model Citizen.
"Imagination. So powerful. Children are full of it. They are often visualizing brilliant and terrible things."
⬅ Previous Short Film: Model Citizen
⬅ Previous Review: The Fellowship of the Ring
Setallright
6.0★ · 03/07/26
Brooke
6.0★ · 02/02/26
halaa
7.0★ · 12/21/25
Tyler
4.7★ · 02/05/25