The news that Teddy Ruxpin is returning to stores reminded me that when I was 10, my best friend and I (who at the time were obsessed with the movie Child's Play) made our own version of that movie using his camcorder and his Teddy Ruxpin doll (for some reason my parents refused to buy me one). His Teddy was missing an eye, which made it creepy and therefore perfect for our film. I played the killer whose soul is transported into Teddy, my friend played the detective tracking him. We taped the "Give me the power I beg of you" voodoo speech off the TV and put in into Teddy... it looked really weird, since the mouth simply opened and closed without any regard to what he was saying (although that was true even with the cassettes that came with the doll). Lots of fake blood was spilled during filming. I loved every minute of it.
As I recall, I gave an amazing performance, and the film was a masterpiece. However, for the big finale, it was my idea that Teddy gets thrown into a swimming pool and short-circuits. What we did not realize before filming was that throwing Teddy in a pool would in fact short-circuit it. We lost a fine toy that day.
My friend was less upset than his younger brother, who probably to this day has not forgiven me. If you're out there and reading this, once again I'm sorry.*
*Note: I revealed the ending of The Crying Game to that same kid... sorry for that too.