This entry in producer Charles Band's six-episode made-for-home-video series is a gob of cotton candy that plays like the films featured in no-budget kiddie matinees from the '50s and '60s.
Time traveller Josh Kirby (Corbin Allred) searches once more for the Nullifier device but gets sidetracked by an unexpected descent into Toyworld. In this toy graveyard, the residents evince little interest in Josh's quest to beat Zoetrope (Derek Webster) to the Nullifier. While companions Azabeth
(Jennifer Burns) and Professor Irwin 1138 desperately seek contact from their spaceship, Josh tries to marshal the cooperation of dancing bear Theodore (Lucian Cojocaru), human toymaker Gepetto (Buck Kartalian), and Rag Doll Annie (Sharon Lee Jones), who has a crush on Josh. Diametrically opposed
to the saccharine tranquility of Toyworld, military play-figure Action Jack (J.P. Hubbell) eagerly paves the way for Zoetrope's aggressive demands.
After journeying with Josh through Nightmare Forest, Gepetto launches a full-scale (but non-lethal) counter-offensive against Zoetrope. Improvising with some radio parts, Josh communicates with his time travel cohorts while Action Jack tries to storm the Toy Bastille with reluctant troops. After
Gepetto rescues Annie from Zoetrope, Josh reboards his just-landed space vehicle and flies off on another perilous time-jaunt.
In other JOSH KIRBY adventures, the helpless viewer merely had to fend off cheapjack special effects, drippy performances, and recycled story lines. But here, one is barraged by a meteor storm of cuteness, horrific production numbers, and moralistic gibberish, all proffered in the name of good
clean family fun. But for whose family? One that could exist on a diet of jelly beans, Fruit Loops, and homemade jams put up by the Waltons? As the toy people sing their tuneless drivel, the viewer gets a sugar high that soars to toxic levels.
TRAPPED ON TOYWORLD, in short, is the sort of movie that militant family-values proponents deserve.(Violence.) leave a comment
