The Indian in the Cupboard/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Non Sequitur Scene/Crazy Awesome: 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.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Boone drawing the tiny picture of his town, and the art teacher's reaction when Omri shows it to him. Also counts as a Crowning Moment of Funny and a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, as well as Foreshadowing since a number of characters Boone mentions end up being met by Patrick in book three.
    • Another would be Omri's battle with the skinheads.
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: There are a number, but how Matron passes out, and Patrick's later imitation of it, rank high up there.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The main title from the movie.
  • Draco in Leather Pants / Freudian Excuse: An interesting in-story example—after reading the Account, Omri practically glamorizes Jessica Charlotte, defends her as a poor helpless Woobie at the mercy of her sister and brother-in-law who was justified in what she did and could never have foreseen the consequences, and even makes excuses for Frederick who is arguably a Holier Than Thou Jerkass with Mommy Issues. Patrick, of all people, calls him on this by pointing out the darker side of Jessica's jealousy and Frederick's hatred and nastiness, suggesting that this explains a great deal of why the cupboard's magic seems so "evil", both in what it does to the little people it transports and what its use does to the lives of everyone involved.
  • Fetish Fuel: The Secret of the Indian features a miniaturized Pat being tucked into a normal-sized lady's bosom, because her shoulder's too slippery.
  • Ho Yay: A scene where Boone and Little Bear are so terrified of a huge booming noise that they hold eachother for dear life.
  • 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.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Raised, addressed, and dealt with in-story, with the conclusion that it is not right to a) believe in stereotypes b) own people like objects, or c) use such powerful magic to meddle in the lives of others or yourself.
  • Values Dissonance: Omri is horrified when he learns Little Bear has scalped thirty men, a fact which Little Bear either boasts of with pride or dismisses as unremarkable because it was something so many in his time did (and was a practice first learned from the whites); Boone isn't surprised when he learns of it, thanks to his prejudices. Omri's eventual rationalization of this, which allows him to still call Little Bear his friend and realize he is not a bad person (or no worse than any in his time) puts things in clear perspective for the reader, even if it does partake of Humans Are the Real Monsters:

Even now, weren't soldiers doing the same thing? Weren't there wars and battles and terrorism going on all over the place? You couldn't switch on television without seeing news about people killing and being killed. Were thirty scalps, even including some French ones, taken hundreds of years ago, so very bad after all?

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