Our heroes. note
The Toy Warrior is a 2005 South Korean animated film directed by Kyung-Won Lim, and writed by Brian Swenlin.
The Land of Toys is a world ruled by freedom and imagination, as well as the doll princess Sherbet. But the evil and mysterious Dark One arrives to threaten the peace of the toy kingdom, and to protect her world, the princess travels to the real world where she must find the heroic Warrior Prince…
But unfortunately, the only one she finds is our protagonist, Jinoo, an immature but good-hearted boy who loves toys. Jinoo believes that all of his toys are real and alive, like his best friend Ping, a stuffed animal-backpack. His favorite toy is definitely the Toy Warrior, an action figure of a hero, whom Jinoo adores and aspires to be like him.
When Jinoo accidentally touches the magical and sacred Warrior Stone, which Sherbet was carrying to choose the savior of the Land of Toys, he is transported to that magical world. Now, with the powers of being a human in the land of imagination, the help of Princess Sherbet, the police robot R.J. and a now alive Ping, must defeat the dark forces that threaten both worlds. Though the true master behind it all might be the least expected, this won't stop the new Toy Warrior from fulfilling his destiny.
This movie provides examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Many elements are animated in CGI rather than 2D, especially when we get to toyland. In particular, many of the villain's weapons and minions are CGI.
- The Ace: Jason is the most popular boy in school, good-looking, good at sports and fighting, and all the girls in school literally swoon over him. No wonder he was Sherbet's first choice to be The Chosen One — but the role ended in Jinoo’s hands.
- Action Girl: Princess Sherbet, a perfectly capable combatant.
- Adults Are Useless: Not only none of them knows anything about the problems in the Land of Toys (which is understandable), but they also don't do anything helpful when kids are robbed of their emotions (which is a little less understandable).
- Ascended Fanboy: Jinoo badly wanted to become a true hero, specifically the Toy Warrior, and he gets his chance to be exactly that during the events of the film.
- Big Bad: The Dark One, the shadowy figure behind the forces threatening the magic binding Earth and the Land of Toys. He's also the original Toy Warrior.
- Broken Pedestal: Jinoo's defeat in the Land of Toys is cemented by the Dark One revealing himself to be the Toy Warrior, who Jinoo idolized. It becomes a Rebuilt Pedestal after Jinoo restores the Toy Warrior's nobility by repairing his design flaw.
- Bully Hunter: Jason stopped the local thugs when they were bullying Jinoo.
- Chekhov's Gun: The mention that the toy warrior has a design flaw that causes its head to shoot off, and lose its batteries in the process. This becomes important when the heroes use it to defeat the evil giant Toy Warrior in the real world.
- The Chooser of the One: Princess Sherbet was on a mission to choose and recruit the hero destined to save the world of toys.
- The Chosen One: Anyone who had touched the Warrior Stone would have become this. Originally it was prepared for Jason, but Jinoo ended up touching it instead.
- Clueless Aesop: The movie opens by stating that Jinoo has no friends because of the childish way he thinks of toys, and that he saved the day by simply being himself instead of wanting to be the Toy Warrior. The problem of not having friends is simply abandoned when the toys turned out to be magically alive and became real friends, even though he doesn't have healthy relationships in the real world; and the fact that he is himself doesn't really have much weight in the story beyond letting go of his fanaticism for the Toy Warrior.
- Dean Bitterman: The school principal hates any kind of fuss or riot in his school, and was "happy" when the children were acting like zombies because of the theft of their emotions and imagination.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Princess Sherbet starts out very upset with Jinoo, not completely without reason, but eventually warms up with him.
- Fiery Redhead: Sherbet has red hair, and an abrasive personality to go with it.
- Jaw Drop: A non-exaggerated version occurs to Sherbet when she saw Jinoo almost easily defeat the huge robot that was attacking them.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Based on everything seen, Jason seems to be an objectively better option than Jinoo as the chosen one, even though he ended up doing a good job. Furthermore, the position involved a marriage with her, so she was within her rights to be upset that the one who touched the Warrior Stone was not the one she chose.
- And she does it for a bit selfish purposes, but she was also right in that Jinoo should be on his way back home, so his family doesn't worry.
- It's presented in a negative light, but Jason is absolutely right when he confronts Jinoo about still believing that his toys are alive despite his age and that he should make real friends.
- Kiddie Kid: Jinoo still thinks of his toys as his really alive friends, despite already being 12 years old.
- Living Toys: The toys turn out to be truly alive, being able to move freely and have their own life in the Land of Toys, as well as being aware of what happens to them in the real world in things like knowing when a child treats their toys well.
- Nice Guy:
- Ping is really friendly and caring, with nothing negative to say about anyone.
- Jason stopped some classmates just because they were bothering another classmate, who was not a close friend at all.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: A minor one, but Ciao prevented a random kid from taking the Warrior Stone that would have made him the chosen one to save the world of toys. And most probably he wasn't as good a choice as Jason or Jinoo.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Ping, a very cute little pink creature with a nice personality to match.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Princess Sherbet is a ruler who thinks of her kingdom before herself, and she was an active part of a quest to save her kingdom.
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Not only in the poster that serves as the image of the page, Ping is curiously absent from most images of the film despite being one of the protagonists.
- Toy Time: Where the middle of the plot takes place. The land of toys is a parallel world that feeds on the human imagination, and where all kinds of toys live, from dolls, action figures, balls, motor cars, tin soldiers, etc.
- Troperiffic: The film is a Korean production that was originally intended to be sold in the US market, so at the beginning it begins with a large number of tropes and clichés present in American animations understood from someone else. We have our protagonist who is a fusion of a Stock Shōnen Hero and an All American Boy, who wakes up Late for School, rushes to school skateboarding, is scolded by teachers for not being responsible, and has problems with a bully. And all this still does not enter into the central plot of being The Chosen One, saving two worlds, growing up and learning to be himself, and other common tropes.
- World-Healing Wave: Two-fold. After being left in ruin after the children of the world are sapped of their imagination, the Land of Toys is restored to its former splendor by the children rediscovering it. And after the evil Toy Warrior enters the real world and wrecks havoc, all of the damage he caused it magically undone by his defeat.
