It's easy to see a movie set as a giant toybox, from which the director picks out what he or she needs for their elaborate game. Therefore it stands to reason, like an action figure on a diorama, that toys form an interesting and creative part of modern cinema, as essential a prop or plot device as Indiana Jones' whip or American Pie's... pie. Over the decades toys have been used to delight and frighten audiences, from the main attraction in a family feature to the cruel addition to a gut-wrenching horror. People feel good around toys - they are part of our earliest memories, and can be utilized in a comforting or disturbing fashion as a result. With a bit of wit and imagination - Toy Story, or The Lego Movie for example - they're the stars of the show. Get it wrong however and you leave a nasty taste in the mouth of savvy multiplexers - Masters Of The Universe and Dunegons & Dragons being a case in point. Let's open the brightly-coloured box and see what it has in store for us today...