YMMV / The Indian in the Cupboard

• Angst? What Angst?: In the first book, Omri quickly gets over the shock of the old Indian chief's sudden death, and Little Bear just strips off the chief's paraphernalia and declares himself the new chief. Averted in the film version, where Omri is horrified, Little Bear chews him out for using magic he doesn't understand, and they later give the chief a proper Iroquois burial.
• Awesome Music: The main title from the movie, composed by Randy Edelman
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In the Movie, Omri puts a few other toys, including a T. rex, Darth Vader, and RoboCop into the cupboard. Predictably, Hilarity Ensues when he opens it.
• Fair for Its Day: When first introduced, Little Bear was universally considered a character with depth and nuance at a time when "Cowboys and Indians" stereotypes were still widespread and acceptable (bonus points for the book taking time to point out that Native Americans are and were a diverse bunch and not all of them lived in tipis). Some later analyses of the character view him as a variation of the Noble Savage who is ultimately reliant on the paternalism and colonialism of a white English boy.
• First Installment Wins: The first book tends to be remembered the most in the public consciousness, thanks largely to the first book itself being required reading in grade school and being the only one to receive a film adaptation during the 90s.
• Fridge Horror: Considering how cheap plastic is and how relatively simple it is to shape, it's probably a good thing Omri and Co never realized the real implications of what they had. If it worked like the movie did and made ANYTHING plastic real, it would be pretty easy to make say a life-size replica of a blaster rifle, put it in, make it real, then take it apart, reverse engineer it, and make real copies they could claim to have invented and then patented. Even if it could only bring in things from the past as in the books they could easily get rich making plastic replicas of gold bars, diamonds, ancient coins, etc. and making them real with the cupboard. Especially when we get to the next books when not the cupboard itself, but the key is actually magical, and they could make much larger things. If they could combine this and the ability to make fictional things real, there are quite a few rather horrific directions that could have gone.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In the first book, when the boys bring Tommy back to treat Boone's arrow wound, he reveals that they brought him from his own time just as a "Minnie" (a Minnenwerfer shell) was whistling overhead. When Omri expresses concern that the Minnie might have fallen on Tommy, Tommy replies that if it had, he wouldn't be there, "I'd be singing with an 'eavenly choir." In the second book, when Omri tries to bring Tommy back again, he discovers that he's dead, and realizes that he was probably killed by the Minnie the instant they sent him back to his own time.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • In The Key to the Indian, Omri and co. have figured out how to send themselves back in time to make past toys flesh. Omri's father ends up in a faceless Iroquois doll for a few hours.
  • At one point in time travel, Omri becomes a piece of fabric on an Indian tent, and when it catches on fire during a raid it begins burning him alive until his friends pull him back to the present.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Any of the times Omri and Patrick have to say goodbye to their little friends, but the send-off at the end of the first book stands out especially. Also, the deaths of Boone's horse, Tommy the World War I medic, and Tom the thatcher. Even Jenny's death told in flashback wrenches at the heartstrings.
  • The old Lakota chief who was literally scared to death by the sight of giant (from his point-of-view) Omri.

---