| “ | War knows no relatives. | „ |
| ~ Zevo as he prepares to kill his own son. |
Lt. General Leland Henry Zevo is the main antagonist of the 1992 comedy movie Toys. He inherited a popular toy factory from his dying brother Kenneth which he used as a covert way of forcing children into a military lifestyle and build lethal war-machines disguised as innocent toys.
He was portrayed by the late Sir Michael Gambon, who also played Jan Jarmokowski in The Beast Must Die, Albert Spica in The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Eddie Temple in Layer Cake and Bean in Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Biography[]
Leland was said to have served in Vietnam and it was this conflict that caused him to become unstable after one of his own soldiers tried to shoot him, making his disillusioned with the current military - which in part fueled his desire to rebuild the military in his own image: he saw the toy factory as his chance to do just this.
He married a woman named Dee Dee and adopted a son named Patrick who was an expert in covert operations and camouflage. Leland sent his wife on a reconnaissance mission and she never came back. Knowing that Dee Dee died, Leland lied to Patrick saying that she died of appendicitis.
Leland later inherited the Zevo toy factory from his older brother Kenneth who felt that his own son Leslie was inexperienced for the task. Instead of making cute, cuddly toys as his brother had wanted, Leland saw this as the perfect opportunity to increase his service in the military. He gradually changed the toy factory from its original utopian look (a bit like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory) into a dark dystopia and used Patrick to manage the factory's security.
He then decide to start production of war toys, but Leslie was against the idea, so Leland dropped it, but still made some high tech weapons disguised as toys in secret to use in his scheme. It is revealed that Leland's ultimate goal was to brainwash children via violent video-games into unwittingly fighting wars for him, stating that to them it would just be "another game" - making him an evil genius. The military turned down his project, but the insane general put it into operation anyway.
Patrick decided to help his family stop Leland's operations after finding out from Debbie, that his father lied about his mother's death resulting in Leland planning to kill them all with his own creations including Tommy Tanks and Hurly-Burly helicopters.
Leslie with the help of Patrick shut down the system controlling the weapons and angrily turns on Leland for all the damage he had done. Leland tries to escape but another of his own creations, known as the Sea Swine who had it's own source of power, malfunctioned and attacked him, driving him completely insane. Leland was last seen in the hospital, alongside his father and Debbie, who waved to a toy army, with Leland and his father saluting to a toy horse rider waving the American flag. After these events, the Zevo toy company, which was passed on to Leslie, who with the help of Alsatia and their friends Gwen and Owen discontinued the war-project and returned the factory to its original purpose.
Personality[]
Leland was selfish and did not care much for his nephew and niece Leslie and Alsatia whom he thought of as fools and sissies.
He seemed to see war as a pleasure as well as a duty which urged him to create war toys in the first place.
Leland was also insane - which was demonstrated several times in the film, such as when he shot himself in the foot while attempting to kill a fly and when his son turned against his plans, he mercilessly decided to kill him as well to quench his bitter thirst for war saying that "War has no relatives!".
Trivia[]
- Leland and Kenneth's father Old General Zevo was played by the late Jack Warden who played Big Ben Healy in the Problem Child film franchise.