Much like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Joe Dante’s Small Soldiers has been far better received in the years since its release than it was at the box office. Though it opened at a much higher weekend number with $14,047,592 than its quirky Tim Burton predecessor, Small Soldiers was nowhere near as successful as either of the Toy Story films.

Released just one year prior to the first Pixar toy-starring classic, Dreamworks’ Small Soldiers spun a cautionary tale about what would happen if a toy company employed the latest military technology in its action figures. The microchip-driven soldiers were walking, talking vigilants who, upon coming to life, believed themselves to be in the middle of frontline combat.

Needless to say, the Commando Elite, a belligerent, trigger-happy unit of war toys, set out to attack and destroy the Gorgonites, a band of peace-loving creatures with hideous faces–and, predictably, human citizens happened to be caught in the crossfire. Here again, the boundaries of good and evil were skewed and blurred. The military (supposedly good) was bad. And the monsters (supposedly carnivorously dastardly) were harmless.

The bizarre film never quite found its niche. Rated PG-13, it wasn’t marketable to the smaller children, who presumably had yet to outgrow their army action figures. And its animated, child’s film feel didn’t strike a popular chord with adults, either.

Even so, the premise of toys coming to life and believing themselves capable of everything their cardboard packaging says they are is one that the better-received Toy Story explores with its Buzz Lightyear character.

So what, besides the obviously cooler component of complete computer animation and the infinitely hip Pixar involvement in the latter project, accounts for the Small Soldiers box office flop? And why does it live on with core collectors regardless?