Editing Small Soldiers (section)

==Production==
On making the film, director [[Joe Dante]] recalled, "Originally I was told to make an edgy picture for teenagers, but when the sponsor tie-ins came in the new mandate was to soften it up as a kiddie movie. Too late, as it turned out, and there are elements of both approaches in there. Just before release it was purged of a lot of action and explosions."<ref>{{cite web|last=Brew|first=Simon|title=The Den of Geek interview: Joe Dante|url=https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-den-of-geek-interview-joe-dante/|publisher=The Den of Geek|access-date=March 20, 2024|date=February 21, 2008|archive-date=December 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191208073829/http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/gremlins/13227/the-den-of-geek-interview-joe-dante|url-status=live}}</ref> As an example of the deleted content, he mentioned that at the end of the movie, the Abernathy's house explodes. The explosion was shot, but the studio did not want to show it on-screen. Dante believes that the studio had hopes that ''Small Soldiers'' would be the start of a [[film series]].<ref name="Abrams">{{cite web|last1=Abrams|first1=Simon|title=Like Going to Church: Joe Dante on "The Movie Orgy"|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/like-going-to-church-joe-dante-on-the-movie-orgy|website=rogerebert.com|date=8 August 2016 |access-date=February 1, 2021}}</ref>

For the film's effects shots, Dante stated that the original idea was to use mostly puppets provided by [[Stan Winston]]. However, Dante said that while shooting, it was "much simpler and cheaper" to use [[computer-generated imagery]] (CGI) after the scenes had been shot, so the film is "one-third puppetry and the rest CGI."<ref>{{cite news|last=Reid|first=Claire|title=Behind-The-Scenes Filming Of 'Small Soldiers' Will Change How You See The Movie|url=https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/film-and-tv-this-behind-the-scenes-clip-of-small-soldiers-is-so-good-20180826|website=ladbible.com|access-date=March 21, 2024|date=August 26, 2018|archive-date=March 22, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322063325/https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/film-and-tv-this-behind-the-scenes-clip-of-small-soldiers-is-so-good-20180826|url-status=live}}</ref>