The original Child’s Play was a visionary horror film that influenced many other movies in the killer doll subgenre. When a remake was first announced, it was easy to assume it wouldn’t do any justice to the original, and creator of the original film, Don Mancini, was very vocal about his disdain for a remake. However, because the reboot was able to find new ground as a cautionary tale about how technology can go too far, it stands up to the very first Child's Play in a way that no one could have expected.
The original 1988 movie tells the tale of serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif), who on the night of being gunned down by police at a toy store, uses Haitian Voodoo to transfer his soul into a doll, so he can live on. Later, widowed single mother Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks), who is trying to make ends meet, buys a black market Good Guy doll for her six-year-old son, Andy. This doll turns out to harbor the soul of the murderer known as The Lakeshore Strangler.
Because Chucky, one of the most infamous killer dolls in movie history, has the soul of an adult serial killer, he has a very human persona. In Mancini's original Child's Play franchise, Chucky is crass and boisterous, the kind of personality one would expect from a low-life killer who is trapped inside a pint-size doll body. Part of what makes Child's Play so iconic is the fact that the killer is a degenerate pretending to be the beacon of innocence, but instead of being a mindless copy, the 2019 version shows fans what a world would be like where Chucky actually is innocent and eventually corrupted by society.
The remake takes a supernatural fable and creates a brand new film that is more interested in asking questions about the modern world rather than being just a rehashed mash-up of the first movie. The reimagining changes the characters quite a bit, reshaping Karen into a self-absorbed mom (Aubrey Plaza), who cares much more about her sleazy boyfriend then spending time with her son. Andy is also switched up, changing from a precocious six-year-old to a hearing impaired 13-year-old, who is full of angst. Although, perhaps the biggest change in character is Chucky himself.
Chucky, the manipulative maniac with a vulgar sense of humor, is replaced in the remake with Chucky the Buddi doll, an AI who is stuck in a world it doesn't understand. Early on in the update, a scorned worker at a Buddi doll factory in Vietnam disables all of the safety sensors on a robot doll before ending his own life. This doll ends up being the modern update of everyone's favorite killer doll.
After the doll is shipped to US stores, Karen obtains Chucky as a gift for Andy to make up for being a fairly absent mother. The only problem with this is that Andy is too old to be interested in the doll, another interesting change from the original. Nevertheless, since he's all alone in a new town, Andy befriends the robotic Buddi doll.
Because the doll has no sensors triggered, Chucky is able to experience real feelings of friendship towards Andy and is also susceptible to any kind of outside influence. After Andy betrays Chucky by abandoning him for human friends, Chucky thinks committing acts of violence will cause Andy to care for him again because the teen was once laughing at a gory horror movie. This triggers a series of events that cause all hell to break loose.
The background surrounding the brutal deaths at the hands of the doll here is less convoluted and easier to go with. Now a being who is changed by his experience in the world, the removal of the supernatural elements of Chucky's personality in the remake raises points of conversation about everything from the current climate of the world and its impact on innocent minds to the effect of technology. The original film doesn't make the audience ponder any big life questions as much as it makes them wonder if the incarnation of Chucky will ever transfer his soul into a human.
Besides being more thematically loaded, the remake helps itself by having legendary Star Wars actor Mark Hamill as the voice of Chucky. Hamill destroys any fan's fear of a new actor not being able to compare to Dourif's iconic performance by adding his own nuances and style to the character while still keeping a similar essence. The film is also fairly influenced by Stranger Things, creating the perfect vibe for a remake of an 80s slasher. No matter how many fans oppose the remake, it is too original and respectful of the series to not be considered in the same league as the original Child's Play.